Sarah and Rachel spent Memorial Day weekend in Atlanta with Bubby and Sissy (aka Eric and Tracy). It was Eric's idea and desire to share one of his most cherished childhood memories with his little sisters. The highlight of the weekend, aside from being together, was going to an Atlanta Braves baseball game. (Sarah and Rachel have never even played T-ball, but they still had a ball!!!)
The hard part was putting my babies on an airplane --- alone. Fortunately, it was a direct flight and I was on call so I couldn't go to the airport. Plus, I was so busy that weekend that I didn't have too much time to dwell on the fact that my girls are growing up and will be on their own before I know it.
Here is Eric's recap of their weekend:
First off, I cannot express my gratitude enough for letting the girls come down to Atlanta for the Memorial Day weekend to hang out with Tracy and I. I miss them terribly throughout the year, and it is hard when I see them once every four or five months when they are growing up so fast. This past weekend really meant a lot for me.
Okay, enough of the mushy junk . . . on to the good stuff.
We had an AWESOME weekend. Tracy and I picked them up from the airport on Saturday morning. Unlike their return trip out of Atlanta, it took me about 1 ½ hours to get through security.
So, when I showed up to their gate, I was pretty darn sweaty. The only thing I could think of while running through the terminal was how bad Erin was going to kill me if I let the girls sit in a strange airport for an hour --- but I showed up just in time. When I saw them --- Yes Sarah is tall, but Rachel is a dang weed, the way she is growing.
We walked through the terminal and came up the big escalator. It was kinda cool because as we got closer to the top you could hear the constant clapping and cheering from the crowd waiting for loved ones as servicemen randomly came over the top and appearedÂ…talk about goose bumps. Anyways, we immediately saw Tracy as she had a bunch of baseball balloons for the girls.
Okay, so we got Sarah's luggage and went out to the car. As we were leaving the airport, I started talking to Rachel. I told her that my birthday present to Sarah was the weekend down here in Atlanta and the Braves' Game. So, I said I had her "early birthday present" and I reached into the console and took out a pink iPod mini. I handed it back to Rachel in such a manner as to make sure Bear saw it very clearly.
Bear's face went ghost white.
Rae was pretty excited. I totally ignored Sarah. However, she was such a trooper. She went very quiet, and had this fake half smile on for like 10 mins as Rae tore through the box and started messing with the iPod.
I couldn't take it anymore and gave Bear hers. She was pretty darn excited --- pretty wild.
So anyways, we dropped Tracy off at work, and we went up to Alpharetta to grab breakfast and go to Jason's parents' house to meet up with them. Jason and his girlfriend, Jenn, met us there and we headed to the ballpark. Jason had a secret parking lot right across from the field - only $10! It is usually like $30 to park so close.
Well we got into the park and the girls were amazed how big it was. Pretty wild. We walked around, bought tomahawks and ballpark food --- basically killed about and hour and a half. Got to our seats and enjoyed the game. Tracy took a cab to the field and was only 30 mins late. GOOD TIMING!
Well after $80 in pizza, hotdogs, and nachos and in the 5th inning, Rae wanted to go hang out in the nose-bleeder seats. Those seats are seriously the coolest in the park. Not crowded, see everything, high up, skyline in the background - pretty cool.
Okay, so in the 8th inning it was pretty obvious the game was going bad for the home team. We headed down to our section, which had emptied out quite considerably. We decided to try and help the Braves to a 9th inning comeback --- a RALLY!!!! Yee-HAW! We stood for like 30 minutes doing the tomahawk chop . . .
. . . and rooting the Braves to a . . . . . loss.
However, I am pretty jealous of Sarah. You see I have been going to Braves game for the good part of the last 20 years. I have been to about 40 games. I have never been on the big screen. Sarah was in Atlanta for about 5 hours, and while she was standing, looking pretty in her Braves shirt, cowboy hat, doing the tomahawk chop, the powers that be decided they needed to put her on the largest HDTV screen in the world for about 7 seconds! THAT WAS AWESOME! I think her rubberbands on her braces were about 10 feet tall on the big screen. We all (all 50,000 people or so) saw it, including Bear and Rae.
Andruw Jones and Chipper Jones acknowledged our rallying cries and pointed to us while coming off the field at the end of the game. Wild! We took our time leaving the field.
It was seriously the coolest Braves game I have ever been to. The only thing it would have made it better would have been a win.
Well, we went swimming late afternoon, and then went to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner.
After dinner we walked around the city, then came home. Rae and Bear stayed at Tracy's and I heard they passed out pretty hard that night.
On Sunday, Bear and Rae cooked us breakfast and we went to the Renaissance Festival. We stared at all the strange people that come out of the woodwork for things like this, and ate a lot of "carni" food. Then we went on a lot of rides, and ate more food. On the ride home, the food didn't agree with Sarah. She started crying (because apparently her stomach was doing flips) and politely asked Sissy to pull over at the next gas station. Sarah bolted into the bathroom and came out 45 minutes later with Pepto-Bismol stained lips. Poor baby.
Went home, took a nap and then went to Bahama Breeze for Dinner with Nate. (Tracy's boyfriend. Sorry no one took your picture, Nate!) Ate a light dinner, then went to see Madagascar -- pretty funny. Went home, passed out. Said bye to the girls. (Don't tell them this, but I actually cried when I got in my car to go back to Mississippi.) I guess the girls went to DSW in Buckhead to buy shoes or something . . and there you have it, the weekend.
Again, thanks a lot. It was a super weekend.
Thank YOU, Bubby (and Sissy). NO matter how tall (or short) you are, Sarah and Rachel will always look up to you!
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