Cardinals Game

On Thursday, we had tickets to the Cardinals game.  Jeff and Jane organized the outing so that Grandma Marion Gerling could see a game at the new Busch stadium.  Ben's Aunt Debbie and Uncle Bob from Oklahoma were in town, and so was cousin Katie, so with Ben's sisters and brothers-in-law, we had a group of 14.  We had great seats in the first row of the first balcony in right field.  From right to left, this is Katie, Jeff, Jane, Amelia, Aunt Debbie (all you can see is her blue shirt and her arms), Uncle Bob, and Grandma Marion peeking her head in at the end of the photo.

It was HOT.  HOT HOT HOT.  When we entered the stadium, it was 104F, and it only cooled off to 97F by the time we left at the end of the 8th inning. 

Ben and I each drank one cold water bottle, and two huge icy souvenir cups of Diet Coke.  I nursed each of those soda cups through about three innings, because it was only by constantly drinking or sucking on ice that I could manage to stay kind of comfortable.  Amelia went through a water bottle, two icy washcloths, one ice cream sandwich (thanks, Grandpa!), and four cups of water with ice that the Cardinals organization was giving away to keep people from getting heat stroke.  She liked the ice, too.  I have no idea how pregnant Anna made it through even four innings before going home.  People from St. Louis must be more acclimated to hot weather than people from Wisconsin.  And I have no idea how people manage to live in Houston or Nashville or Phoenix in the summer.  Maybe they never go outside?

Oh, about the game, the Cardinals played the Rockies and won 6 to 2.  I saw one run get walked in, and then missed all the rest of the runs because I had to take Amelia out because she was so disturbed by the noise of all the cheering (and the heat and the late night) that she couldn't stop crying. 

She sat with Grandma Jane the entire game, and wouldn't sit with anyone else.  She says her favorite thing was eating ice cream, but her least favorite thing was all the cheering.  I think she would be happiest at a game where no runs were scored.

I had decided not to bring Megan, since it was a night game and we had been up late at the fireworks the night before.  I felt badly that she was missing out, but it was a good thing she didn't come because she would have been miserably hot.  She stayed with Kennedy, and I was worried she would give Kennedy a hard time about bedtime, getting in and out of her big girl bed.  But Kennedy reported that Megan told Kennedy she was tired about 6:45, so Kennedy got her ready for bed and read her a few stories.  Then she gave her a choice of sleeping in her big girl bed on the floor, or in the pack and play with a net over top to keep her inside.  Megan chose the big girl bed, and stayed there quietly until she fell asleep.  I told Kennedy she should come over every night to help get Megan to bed!  She was a miracle worker!