Take me out to the ball game...

It's that time of year again... you know, when our DVR is completely full because we don't have time to watch any of "our shows" because we spend every day watching baseball.  We are all ok with that, though.  Yesterday, we FINALLY made it to our first RAYS game of the season.  It's late for us, we usually get to opening day or pretty close to it.  Apparently, LIFE got in the way of that this year.  We had a Fun Family Night at the Trop, even though the RAYS lost.  

When Ryan got our tickets earlier in the week, he picked up this shirt for Debbie.  Although, chemo is finished, and her hair is starting to grow back:)  She should be honored.  None of us got new RAYS shirts this year!

Well, actually, we DID get new shirts when we got to the Trop.  Friday nights they give away T shirts if you get there early, which of course, we did.  This week the shirts commemorated the last game of the last years regular season, 162.  Quick apology to all my peeps who are Red Sox fans, feel free to skip over this part of the post.  So, game 162 was a pretty Big Unbelievable Turn of Events Deal in Rays Land.  Ryan was at the game, texting me the whole time.  I stayed up to watch it, as it was most likely going to be the last game of the season.  Ryan almost left (um, it was late and he had school the next morning) but decided to stay since he figured he owed the Rays that much of his loyalty.  Good thing he stuck around...

For right now at the Trop, they have a little hallway they've put together commemorating the game with time frames and the same for the Red Sox game from that night, too. (hence the apology)  It's pretty cool, you know, if you are a Rays fan.

Good times.

Ok, so after we checked all that out, we settled down to eat our dinner that we had brought in (remember, got there early to get the free shirt) and I had just said to Ryan that I needed to go talk to the Group Sales person about getting the tickets to bring all the kids from camp to a, wait for it, Red Sox game this summer.  Well, you know, Rays game, and that happens to be who they are playing on the day we need to go.  (I'd like to take this time to point out that originally, our camp schedule said, "baseball game Rays vs. Red Socks", which made me laugh for a long time until I got Diane to fix it).  ANYWAYS, not two seconds later this guy comes up to us from Group Sales and asks us if we want to change our tickets.  I, of course, asked him if he heard me saying I needed to talk to him.  Blank look.  "Ummmm, no, I just wanted to know if you wanted to upgrade your seats to down on the field?"  So, I was able to get the whole camp thing settled AND we swapped our tickets with him to go and sit right behind the opposing teams bull pen down on the field.  VERY FUN.  

Of course, we have never had THAT vantage point before (they don't usually sell those seats, I guess) and in the end they aren't the BEST seats to watch the game, but they are GREAT for feeling like you are hanging out with pitchers and stuff.  Seeing how they were sitting right in front of us.  The Rays were playing the Minnesota Twins who we don't play very often, so we aren't all that familiar with their players... but it was fun anyways.

Carly watching batting practice...

McGregor boys...

The starting pitcher for the Twins.  Carly said, "Hey Dad... is that Jimi Hendrix?" Oh boy.  In her defense, she does play an awful lot of Guitar Hero, but we've got some serious work to do...

The main "problem" with these seats would be how completely DISTRACTED we were during the game!  Lots going on all around us... including the empty area behind us where they film various "in between innings" crowd entertainment.  

plus, the pitchers right in front of us was somewhat entertaining... commentary on the game and just odd things they do, like this guy has a whole pink and purple caboodle (remember those?!?!) filled with little items he might need during the game, all perfectly organized... bandaids, tooth picks, sunflower seeds, oh yes, I looked when he had it open.

Around the 5th inning, during commercial breaks the pitchers suddenly jumped up and started stretching.  Like nuts.

We even got to witness the Call to the Bull pen and watched the pitching coach tell who was up next... just another side of the game we hadn't paid much attention to.  It's probably a very good thing that we didn't really "know" these guys,  can't imagine if we'd been on the Rays side, Ryan would have been a mess!  HA!

Anyways, Rays lost.  WHAT??!?!?!  But we all agreed it was still a REALLY great game and such a neat experience!  And the pitchers gave Carly a ball at the end of the game, which she immediately gave to her brother, you know, since she got one from the home plate umpire before.  Oh boy.  Oh, did I mention Carlos Pena is back?  :)

GCYC Savannah Tour

 Carly had been looking forward to the Choir Tour to Savannah for Gulf Coast Youth Choirs all year!  It was the first time the Children's choir got to go out of state for their spring tour.  I got to go along with her, and we had a fun weekend together.  We sure missed The Boys, but they had plenty of fun at home without us.  Carly really had fun with all her friends...

We rode in a very comfy Tour bus (similar to the Fun Bus Ryan and I rode in for our WOLBI tours, only CLEANER)... our first stop in Savannah was at Uncle Bubba's restaurant.  Bubba is Paula Deen's brother.  My sisters and I and my mom ate here when we visited Savannah a few years ago.  Yummy food.  Not a bit healthy.

Carly and Makayla.  Buds.

Most of the group...

We checked into our hotel, the kids went swimming in the heavily chlorinated pool, then we got a good nights rest before heading out to meet up with the Savannah Children's Choir.

Part of the "fun" of tour, was to work with another children's choir (um, Savannah's) and put on a concert with them.  The kids from Savannah were really sweet and had a breakfast for our kids before their first rehearsal.  They kind of went out of their way to mingle with the other choir and make some new friends.

While the kids were rehearsing, some of the parents went for a walk to Forsythe Park, which is a really pretty park in Savannah... the one with the famous fountain.  And some pretty flowers...

It gave us something to do while the kids were working.

After their rehearsal, we went on a Trolley Tour of the historic district.  It was educational and interesting.  After going on the full circuit, we had the option to get off and visit various places on our own.  Several of us stopped at this little sandwich shop for lunch, and there was about a 45 minute wait for a table... And Carly had plans to tour a Haunted House and was worried about having enough time.  So I reminded her that We Are McGregor's and We Make Our Own Adventure.  So, we ducked out of the sandwich shop (in the rain) and ran across a couple of streets to a fun looking coffee shop and decided that drinking coffee and eating danish was a perfectly acceptable lunch when you are on "vacation"!!  

We were pleasantly surprised to find they served hummus with pita's, so it was actually healthier than we planned:)  The coffee (hot chocolate for The Girl) was DELICIOUS, and we didn't have to wait in line!

 After our fun lunch, we checked out the Haunted House Carly had picked out.

My Girl was trying very hard to be scared, and well, she was just funny instead.  The Guide really played up the "stories" because she was so into it.

The haunted window... sadly, we saw no ghosts.

At one point (probably the same time my mother-in-law was texting me about tornado's) The tornado siren actually went off (you are welcome for not telling you this at the time, mom!) and our guide said he was just going to ignore it because "We never get tornado's in Savannah"... just curious, WHY DO YOU HAVE A SIREN THEN?  anyways, I asked him what we were supposed to do, if say, there WAS a tornado... he said, "We'd go in the basement.... but the basement is REALLY haunted..."  Carly immediately said, "Let's go!"  I guess they have scary ghost tours at night in this house and particularly in the basement.  He was showing us all the equipment and cameras they use to try to see ghosts and Carly tried her hardest to summon a Ghost.  No luck.  Imagine that.

Here's one of the Creepy Basement Rooms.

After our tour, we jumped back on the Trolley to go to the Riverwalk so I could show Carly the Candy Store.  It really helped that I had been to Savannah before...   Watching them make pecan pralines...

A quick photo for Grandma.  

That evening, we ate dinner at Sticky Fingers, which sounds funner than it was...

Next day, the first stop was to for the kids to sing at Calvary Baptist Temple.  They sang several songs during the service and it was televised, so they were all excited to be on TV:)

Mrs. Smith, the director, giving a little pep talk...

After the morning services, we headed to St. Paul's Episcopal Church, which is were the kids were singing with the Savannah Children's Choir.  It was a really pretty church that's over a 100 years old.

Beautiful stained glass windows (about 15 of them!!), and we all know how I love stained glass windows!

Loved this one of King David

There's the combined choirs... Ironically enough, their choir costumes matched!

 And a picture for the food bank that they raised money for during this concert (hence the holding of the food).  Amazingly enough, the concert (which I think was mostly attended by choir parents!!) raised over $900 in donations!

The directors took turns directing the kids...

Carly thought she was the star of the show, apparently.

With Mrs. Smith

And Carly and the director from Savannah... we got her picture because she reminded us so much of Aunt Randee.  With brown hair.  Looked and acted like her.  Only she doesn't have any cute Parker.

Our try at a self portrait...

 That night, we ate dinner at the Sisters of the New South and it was so delicious!  The kids sang for the other people in the restaurant afterwards, and it was actually pretty cute.

The Sisters (The Aunties) came out to hear them, which was great because we got to tell them how delicious their food was!  Seriously, if you are even in Savannah, YOU MUST GO HERE.

Heading home to Tampa the next morning, watching their big TV debut!

We had a fun weekend...