A Weekend Worth Celebrating

We had a whirlwind weekend. It really started for us on Thursday night since we had tickets to the Bees game.

My grandpa woke up Thursday morning having some heart trouble and ended up being admitted to the hospital. It was a little scary for a while, but things stabilized and by the afternoon he was doing well. They decided to keep him overnight to monitor things. My grandma thought about still coming to the game, but late in the afternoon they decided it would be better to give up their tickets.

So, with a couple of unexpected tickets available, we invited Alison’s parents to come with us.

Blake and Debbie decided to join us, and we walked over to the ballpark. It was a blisteringly hot day, well into the high 90s, so it was a sweaty walk. Still, being able to walk from our house to the Bees stadium is one of our favorite things about living here, whether it is 75 degrees or pushing 100.

As soon as we got into the stadium, we spotted Honey. We pulled Madeline out of her stroller and she immediately ran toward her, absolutely brimming with excitement and clutching her Honey stuffy. She ran right up and gave Honey a huge hug. It was the cutest. We have reached the point where Madeline knows the Bees mascots well enough that seeing one of them feels like running into an old friend.

We found Blake and Debbie at our seats and settled in for the game. Tonight the Bees were playing the Oklahoma City Comets, the Dodgers’ Triple-A affiliate. The Dodgers are really good and have a deep farm system. The Angels are, well, not really good and don’t have nearly as deep a system, so the Bees haven’t exactly been a powerhouse this year.

Despite those odds, the Bees didn’t look too overmatched tonight. In fact, they took a 3-1 lead into the fifth inning. It wouldn’t last. We weren’t there to see the end, but Oklahoma City eventually came back and won 6-3.

Madeline was a little tired and fussy before we even left the house. It had been water day at school, and apparently splashing around had worn her out. Between that and the heat, she had a pretty short rope. Even so, she was mostly delightful and happy to be at the ballpark. She was thrilled that Nana had brought fruit snacks, and at one point she made it very clear that she also needed me to buy her some popcorn. I happily obliged.

Alison took her for a walk around the concourse, where they spotted Jensen roaming the stadium. They also took a ride on the little train, another ballpark activity Madeline loves.

The baseball itself was, as Bees games often are, a bit of a slog. There were runners all over the bases, long innings, and by the time we reached the fourth inning the game had already been going for around two hours.

Eventually I put Madeline in her jammies at our seats. We made it through a couple more innings before deciding it was time to call it and head home. Amazingly, Mads stayed awake and happy for the entire walk back. Once we got home she went down easily, which felt like a minor miracle.

On Friday, we were right back at the stadium.

Tonight we had Alison’s Cox tickets in the Terrace Club. Normally we have two, but her work had an extra ticket and asked if we knew anyone who could use it. Of course we did. We invited my grandma to come with us. She loves those seats, and after the unexpected change of plans the night before, I was glad she was able to make it out.

It was somehow even hotter on Friday than it had been Thursday. We braved the triple-digit heat and walked over, then met my grandma outside the stadium before heading upstairs to the Terrace Club.

They had a pretty good dinner spread that night, and we also had some friends at the game. Alison’s coworker and our good friend Amy was there with her husband, Eric. They joined us at our table, and we all ate, chatted, and casually watched the game from inside the club. We ended up hanging out there through the first couple of innings.

Eventually Madeline decided we had been inside long enough and demanded that we head out to our actual seats. We grabbed some ice cream and popcorn for the journey and headed outside.

It was not a good night for the Bees.

By the middle of the third inning, they were down 11-0.

Oof.

Fortunately, if you are going to watch your baseball team get absolutely pummeled, the Terrace Club is a pretty comfortable place to do it. It was still a beautiful summer night for baseball, and from our seats we had a great view of the entire stadium.

Madeline soon spotted some of Bumble’s friends wandering around the concourse and, naturally, needed to go find them. Alison and Amy took her on a mascot hunt and were very successful. I stayed behind with my grandma and watched the game.

Eventually they came back, and Madeline settled into a seat with my grandma and me while Alison and Amy chatted in the row behind us. We started teaching Madeline some of the finer nuances of baseball.

Every once in a while she would announce that she wanted water or a treat, and I would tell her we were going to wait until the end of the inning. My grandma and I would then explain what was happening during each at-bat so she could understand when the inning might actually end. I am not sure how much baseball strategy she absorbed, but she was remarkably interested in the process.

There was something pretty special about sitting there with my grandma on one side and Madeline on my lap, watching a baseball game together. My grandparents have been such a big part of my life, and now Madeline gets to have these experiences with them too. I found myself feeling a little sentimental sitting there watching the two of them together.

At some point Madeline decided she wanted peanuts, so I grabbed some. They turned out to be a fantastic baseball snack for her. She couldn’t quite crack the shells herself, so I would get each one started and then hand it to her so she could pry it apart and dig out the peanuts. It kept her happily occupied for several innings.

She was especially excited when we reached the seventh-inning stretch and everyone stood up to sing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.” She bounced up and down in my arms through basically the entire song. Somehow, after a full day of school, triple-digit heat, and several hours at the ballpark, she still had plenty of energy.

The Bees actually mounted a respectable late comeback attempt. They even managed to load the bases, giving us a little hope that things might get interesting, but they couldn’t quite pull it off. They lost to Oklahoma City 11-5.

We stuck around afterward for the fireworks. This was our last weekend game of the season and, barring some unexpected change of plans, our last Bees fireworks night of the year. The fireworks were great, although they made Madeline a little nervous. Alison took her back inside the Terrace Club, where they could still watch through the windows without quite so much noise.

Afterward, my grandma walked back to our house with us and I drove her home. By the time I got back and we got Madeline into bed, it was nearly midnight.

It was a very late night for a toddler, but boy was it a fun one.

Saturday was an even bigger day.

My grandpa is turning 85 this week, and to celebrate we were hosting a surprise birthday party for him. We had been working on it with my grandma for months, and somehow we had managed to keep the whole thing a secret. Now the day had finally arrived.

Alison and I had a long list of things that needed to happen before everyone showed up. It was a little daunting when we started the morning, but we worked our way through it and slowly everything started coming together.

One of the biggest items on our list was balloons. We needed 25 smaller balloons that we planned to attach photos to, with pictures spanning different parts of my grandpa’s life. We also needed giant number balloons for an 8 and a 5.

There was absolutely no way all of those balloons were going to fit in our car, so we borrowed Blake and Debbie’s Rivian.

When we got over there, Goldie was hanging out with them, so we decided to leave Madeline behind to play with her cousin and grandparents while Alison and I ran our errands. This turned out to be a very wise decision. Madeline would have lost her mind inside Zurchers and probably tried to convince us that half the store needed to come home with her.

We loaded up the Rivian with an absurd number of balloons and eventually got everything back to the house.

After we had done a bunch of the setup, I went back to pick up Madeline. She had clearly had a great time. As I pulled into our garage with her, she announced from the back seat, “I so happy.”

It was about as good an endorsement of a morning with your grandparents as you can get.

Madeline went down for her nap while Alison and I put the finishing touches on everything. The house looked pretty good, if I say so myself. We had the pictures hanging from the balloons, decorations throughout the main floor, tables ready, and everything positioned for the surprise.

At about 3:45, I left to pick up my grandparents.

I had told my grandpa there was a bunch of road construction around our neighborhood and that it would be easier if I just drove them to our house. It gave me a plausible reason to insist on picking them up without making him too suspicious.

My grandparents were ready right when I arrived. I texted Alison to let her know we were on our way, and she told me to drive slowly because everyone was still getting into position.

So I took a slightly circuitous route home.

My grandpa was not impressed.

He spent much of the drive backseat driving and pointing out shortcuts I could take. He could not understand why I was ignoring perfectly good directions and taking what he considered a clearly inferior route to my own house. I just kept driving and tried not to seem suspicious.

Meanwhile, back at the house, Alison was getting everyone stationed for the surprise, and my aunt Ardis and uncle Greg had picked up the food from Catering by Bryce and were getting dinner set up.

We finally pulled into the garage and I told my grandpa to go inside first.

He walked through the door and was greeted by a house full of family and friends yelling surprise.

He was genuinely shocked. Then surprised. Then absolutely elated.

It worked.

We had around 40 people at the party. Four of his five children were able to be there, along with lots of other family and friends. We ate dinner, kids ran around playing, adults caught up with each other, and the house was full of conversation. I think everyone had a really good time, especially my grandpa.

Eventually it was time for cake.

We gathered everyone around and I lit the candles on my grandpa’s cake.

All 85 of them.

I am a big believer that your birthday cake should have the actual number of candles for your age, especially once you start getting into the higher numbers. If anything, reaching 85 seems like an accomplishment worthy of the full candle treatment.

Alison was slightly concerned we might need a fire extinguisher.

We all sang “Happy Birthday.” Then my grandpa leaned over and, very coolly and very confidently, blew out all 85 candles in a single breath.

It was legitimately impressive.

Alison had made three cakes for the party, and people kept telling her how amazing they were. Multiple people said they looked professionally made. She made a chocolate peanut butter cake, a chocolate malt cake with chocolate malt and vanilla malt buttercream, and a funfetti cake.

They were all really good, but the chocolate peanut butter was definitely the consensus favorite. That peanut butter buttercream is just so good.

Eventually the party started to wind down. As things quieted, we took some pictures of my grandparents together and then got some pictures of my grandpa with his kids who were there.

Slowly everyone headed home until it was just us, my grandparents, my aunt Ardis and uncle Greg, and my uncles Lee and Jason.

We all gathered in the living room and ended up sitting there for another couple of hours, talking and sharing old memories. I mostly got to be a fly on the wall as they told stories and reminisced about different people and moments from years ago. Those conversations ended up being one of my favorite parts of the whole party. There is something fun about hearing stories you have heard before mixed in with ones you have never heard at all.

We talked well past 10 p.m.

Somehow, despite this being the third night in a row that we had kept Madeline up hours past her bedtime, she could not have been more delightful. She bounced between everyone, played with my aunt and uncles, and seemed perfectly content to be part of the late-night gathering.

Eventually even that smaller group started to break up, and the party officially came to an end. I drove my grandparents home and then came back to a very quiet house after a very full weekend.

I am really glad we were able to throw such a big celebration for my grandpa. After the scare with his heart on Thursday morning, I think I appreciated the party even more. At 85, we know these birthdays and gatherings are not something to take for granted, which is part of why it felt important to make a big deal out of this one. I loved seeing him walk into a house packed with people who wanted to celebrate him, watching him blow out all 85 candles, and then sitting around long after the official party was over listening to everyone tell stories.

Hopefully we get to do something like this again when he turns 90. And knowing my grandpa, I probably shouldn’t rule out having to find room for 100 candles someday.