Cincinnati

Dear Abigail,

This past weekend, we ventured off, yet again. This time, to Mister Matti or for those of us who do not speak "Abby talk" that's Cincinnati! Daddy, you and I got in the car on Friday and drove north to see Daddy's two closest friends (Mr. Mike and Mr. Scott) and their families. It was a real treat for all of us. While the Daddies get together every year, we don't get to see the mommies or the kiddos often, if ever, so we were all excited to get to hang out in the same city together. You got to meet Miss Sarah and Mr. Scott for the first time and their precious daughters, Lily and Caroline. Mommy had met Lily when she was a baby, like 1, but now she was almost 7 years old!!!! Time has flown by way too quickly. Fortunately, Mr. Mike had a business trip back in the fall, so we had already met his fam (Miss Jill, Daniel and Joshua) but it was good to see them again. So we arrived Friday and immediately Daniel had to start showing off his incredible baseball skills - keep in mind he's just 5, but he is awesome! You weren't too interested other than wanting a ball to carry and you soon figured out that Joshua (who is 2 months older than you) would push you around in his little car! I told everyone it's how you roll. You always figure a way to get someone else to do the work for you, usually Clara Lee. Some may call it lazy, but not me. I call it inventive, smart, showing leadership. :)

After a little bit, Mr. Scott showed up with "The girls". You were so worried about when the girls would get there, even though you had never met any of the girls! They finally came and Caroline was an instant friend. It might have helped that she brought you a goodie box that included bubbles, but I think you would have been instant friends anyways. The parents and kiddos instantly hit it off as if we had met just last weekend for dinner. And, luckily, Mr. Scott brought his kid sister (well, she's not a kid, she's 20, but she was a LOT younger than us!!) so she babysat ALL you kids while we went to dinner. Now that was an undertaking because it included bedtime!! 5 kiddos, 3 of them in a new house, 3 of them with a new babysitter, and somehow she managed to get all of you in your jammie jams AND in bed AND asleep, and I'm pretty sure it was by 8:30, maybe 9 (which was 8 your time. I was concerned about that whole time thing but it was no issue at all...). We were VERY pleased with Miss Ali and even asked if she wanted to do it again the next night!! Just kiddin - we decided we'd hang with all the kids, and that's just what we did.

Saturday we woke up and new exactly where we wanted to go - to the pool! Mr. Mike and Miss Jill got us all fed, we got all packed up and Mr. Mike said "Okay, load 'em up! We're headed to the pool" and before he could finish "pool" we heard a loud clacking on the roof - it was RAINING!!! We knew it would pass because there was not a cloud in the sky, but we did think it was pretty funny that right when he said "load em up" that it started to rain. You kiddos had no problem finding things to do in their new fancy big ole house. You decided hiding under the dining table seemed appropriate while some of the other kiddos decided chasing each other in circles was the way to go. Honestly, I'm not sure which was worse because you knocked over pretty much every chair to the table... Anyway, it DID quit raining and we did make it to the pool. And what an awesome pool it was...

We all swam for a little bit, then ate some lunch (their pool it so fancy it has a concession stand at it with PIZZA!), but then we had to head back to the house and get some rest. You, my darling friend, decided you did NOT need to rest, but I soon realized that it was probably because we were trying to get you to rest at 12 your time, which you usually rest about 1, so we didn't try to hard, and you made up for it in the car ride. Where did we go, you ask??? Well, we all piled in 2 cars and headed to a Cincinnati Reds baseball game, your first MLB game! Now before you think your parents have gone mad (because why else would we take you, a 2 and 1/2 year old uninterested in baseball to a MLB game when it was 98 degrees???), Mr. Mike was able to score us a box all to ourselves!!! That's how he rolls. And man alive it was just what we needed. It was fully stocked with ANY beverage of our choice (even a fave of Mommy's - Diet Root Beer!!!) and tons and tons of yummy food. All of you kiddos seemed super eager and interested in the game at first, all grabbing a seat and clapping along with the crowd...

But about 10 minutes into it, you, Joshua, and Caroline were clearly changing your take on the game. So we focused on other things, like food! And of course letting you run in and out and in and out and in and out of the box! Oh the glory of the box. Also, around the 2nd inning you discovered "Rosie". Rosie is one of the Reds mascot and she was dancing on the dugout. Well, you fell in love with Rosie and when she left, you wondered (and asked) where did Rosie go. So we looked and looked and looked for Rosie. As painful as this was to ALL of us, it did entertain our time a whole lot. See Rosie left and never appeared again. I tried explaining to you that maybe she had to potty, then maybe she had to rest and then maybe she had to eat a snack. But you didn't let that fly for too long, and we'd continue to look for her. We even had our nice waitress lady calling the 'office' to see if they could locate her, but no luck. We took walks around the outside of the box and you even ran into (literally) the owner of the Reds! Of course, it didn't phase you, or me for that matter, until Miss Waitress Lady pointed it out. Had I known that I might have asked HIM where Rosie was, I mean, come on, he is the owner and all so he should know. AND, to top things off, the Dodgers, who were losing by 4 runs decided to hit a grand slam some where in the 8th inning causing the score to tie. Guess what that means - extra innings. And with a fan like Daniel, there was NO leaving until a team won! Thankfully the ice cream cart came by and that, too, entertained us all for a bit. You got 'white' ice cream with M&Ms. To say the least, it was a special special day. You normally don't get M&Ms or ice cream, so to get them BOTH - yowzers!!!!

Of course, we continued to look for Rosie and finally I decided I would just buy you a Rosie. Joshua was with us, and of course needed a ball, not a Rosie, so we got him a ball. Good thing because that ball became the distraction for extra innings...

You and Caroline and Joshua played "ball" for a good bit, while we cheered (some of us begged) for a run! Finally by the 11th, maybe 12th inning, the Dodgers got a run (or 2 or 3, we all quit counting...) and it was time to load up. The game started at 4 and did not end until after 8, so to say the least, we were all exhausted. Because we snacked all afternoon, we didn't really have 'dinner' but you recognized that we didn't and just could not accept that all that junk food was your dinner. So we sat all the kiddos down at about 9 oclock (again, Eastern) for dinner and soon after you were sound asleep in the bed.

The next morning we played a little in the yard, cleaned up the huge mess 5 kiddos can make, and headed back home. We were home by 3, which was nice, but Mommy decided next time we could just stay a little longer with our friends. It was a fun fun weekend, but definitely too short! We can't wait to do it again either!!! Maybe next time we'll find Rosie though.

Love you!