An Awesome (and much needed) Weekend

As I mentioned, the weekend that just past (Aug 21-23) was a lot of fun; something I really needed. Friday, we got together with Mindy, Gracie, Ellen, Preston and Eric and took in a Dodger game, my fifth of the year. They we playing the Cubs. We went with the cheapest seats available, which are way up in the top deck. I always picture everything looking so small from up there, but when we got to our seats, the view was great. We could see everything just fine.

We had a really good time hanging out and talking and eating. The Dodgers won 2-1 and the game only last about 2 1/2 hours, which was followed by fireworks, which are always really good there. Afterwards, we hung out above the seats until a security asked us to leave because they were about to close the gates. (I claim this as my first time of being kicked out of Dodger Stadium.) Once outside the gates, we continued hanging out and talking for at least half an hour. Courtney and Skyler got an aftershock of sugar rush or something like that as they were running around and playing and keeping us entertained between conversations. Eventually, we left and got home at like 11:30 if I remember correctly. And the game ended at like 9:40. The drive only took maybe 45 minutes, so you can see how loch we hung out afterwards.

Staying so late Friday may not have been the best idea since we were leaving at 8:00 the next morning to drive down to San Diego (Crown Point in Mission Bay Park) for Traci's family's annual family reunion. It's always fun and there's a ton of food. I drove and we took Don with us since Marcia was in Washington for a wedding. It was a great drive, only about an hour and 45 minutes! When we got there, I had some of my negative feelings start creeping back in. I didn't want anybody to know what I had been going through or how I was feeling. Fortunately, the feelings weren't as strong as they have been in the past. The fact that they still come around whenever really irritates me, though. The girls got to play in the water even though we didn't have their bathing suits. We rolled up their pants and told them to just get their feet wet. Of course, being 3 and 5, they eventually got soaked, led by Skyler, who is always the fearless one. But whatever, they had a good time, and we had backup outfits for them. Eventually, after the group (of about 50 or so) photo, we packed up and headed home. I think it was about 3:30 when we left. It took us about 2 hours 15 minutes to get home...not too bad. Just a couple of patches of slowing on the way home.

Sunday brought the highlight of my month to fruition. However, we started the day off at church as usual. Traci and I taught Courtney's class during the 11:10 hour. When we volunteered to do this, I didn't realize what I would have already gone through. Fortunately, I was ok to do it this morning. It worked out well as we had 4 kids and 5 teachers. The kids were good and listened and there were no problems. It was after church when I got really giddy.

Back in March I discovered that WWE was having Summerslam at the Staples Center. My friend Don and I are into wrestling and we decided to buy tickets to it. Turns out we were two rows from the top of Staples, but the view was still good. We got there plenty early to make sure we had parking (which was $20, but fortunately Don offered to pay since I drove). We walked around the area blocked off for Axxess, which was the fan festival area. We still got to see some cool stuff, like a live wrestling match from 50 feet away or so.

A little bit later we got in line to get into Staples. By the time they actually opened the doors, the lines had doubles in length (and width) behind us. So we got in, found our seats, then got food ($10.15 for a Quarter Pounder meal from McDonalds?! Are you serious?!) and headed back to out seats. What an experience this was. This is a whole different blog in itself, but it was not disappointing. I would definitely do it again. Don seemed to have a really good time too. We've chatted about how cool it would be to go to Phoenix for Wrestlemania 26 next year, but there's no way I have the money for that. And so this amazingly fun weekend has come to a close. I had no idea what the week ahead would hold, but I had high expectations after such a fun weekend.