Darin is 30! 30!!! We celebrated with some friends the night before his birthday since we were leaving the next day for his surprise weekend getaway. It was the last day of summer which made it okay that I made this cake with blueberries and lemons in it. Totally screamed summer, and baby shower or bridal party, but he didn't mind. He loved it (thank goodness).
Love that Belén is licking the frosting off her fingers in the below picture. It is clear where she tampered with the cake.
I went ahead and let Darin open his birthday present the night before as well since I was dying to talk to him about our trip and I wanted him to be able to pack appropriately. He told me that he thought we were going to Pittsburgh, New York City, Williamsburg, or the DC area for the football game. Clearly the last one was what he was hoping for, but I think I did a pretty good job of convincing him it wasn't that.
But it was! And he was SO happy and we all lived happily ever after.
We dropped Belén off at my parents on Thursday night because the last thing I wanted to do after going to the baseball game in Toronto with her was go to another sporting event. Sorry girl, maybe next time.
Darin knew there was one more surprise Friday morning but didn't know what it was. As we were driving he was like, "Are you taking me to Gettysburg? That doesn't seem like an exciting surprise..." He had no idea what it was and I couldn't help but smile just about the entire way there, I was so excited. A few minutes before our stop I told him to close his eyes. We pulled in to Penn Station and Amelia walked over to the car. He opened his eyes, looked out the window and there she was! It was an epic surprise. I loved Shae's surprise too, since I clearly hadn't told him. "Aunt Amelia is HERE!" Having her come out for his birthday/football game really was THE best surprise.
We quickly made room for her in the car and then we were off to Camden Yards for our tour.
Loved teaching this guy about my favorite baseball player of all time. He learned quickly that number 8 is sacred.
I LOVED being at Camden Yards again. That place is like home to me.
Shae couldn't get over the fact that the trash cans wore helmets.
The Iron Man himself on the Oriole Hall of Fame wall.
Along with one of my major baseball crushes, and favorite pitchers (still love him even though he left us for the Yankees) of all time: Mike Mussina, aka Moose!
We went in to one of the suites and the tour guide had us yell, "Let's Go O's!" and we got to hear it echo off the warehouse. The way Shae's face lit up. After she was done with her explanation we asked if we could yell one more time for him and everyone obliged.
Hard to hold myself back from taking a picture of every single thing Cal Ripken.
Love when she explained the Sports Illustrated covers..."Chris Davis was the first Oriole we've had on the magazine in years, then there is this player, then Cal Ripken, Cal Ripken, Ripken, Ripken..."
So cool to get a peek in to all that goes in to broadcasting and announcing a game.
Where all the journalists watch the game (aka: my dream job of my high school years...after playing ball for the Orioles that is).
They have a pretty sweet view.
I was suuuuuper bummed that we didn't get to go in the Clubhouse, but loved being in the dugout and right next to the field.
Pretty sure I am sitting where Cal Ripken once sat....I mean, he must have, at some point or another, right?
After going on the tour Darin and I clearly wanted to go to the ball game that night as well. It just so happened to be student night so we got 4 tickets for $28! Woo! It was also free t-shirt night and firework night! So yes, I was a little bit excited. It's been 3 years since we've gone to a game at Camden Yards and we should really make sure to never go that long between visits again.
I loved seeing Shae's enchantment with the Oriole bird...especially because I was right there with him as a kid. Watching him totally brought me back to my first O's games (granted I was a little older, but we were the same in that we watched the bird more than the ball game). Here the bird is throwing out some pitches:
Holding up his Hyun Soo Kim free t-shirt .
Shae wanted to get on the jumbroton so badly. He would dance around between innings and look for himself and then sulk and say "they didn't show me." I realized a little too late that they would show instagram pictures with the hashtag #birdland, so we snapped a quick pic to see if we could get up there. No luck. I guess waiting till the 7th inning and taking a semi-boring selfie wasn't jumbotron worthy.
Have I ever mentioned that we always seem to go to games that go in to extra innings? Happened again Friday night. The 9th and 10th innings were so exciting. Packed with action and highs and lows. It felt good to be SO in to a ball game. After the 11th, we decided we should probably head out (poor Shae was just done by this point...but he was so good during the game!) You just never know if there will be 1 more inning or 7 in an extra inning game so we left. Kicking myself hard on that decision now because Mark Trumbo hit a walk off home run in the bottom of the 12th to finish it off. I was SUPER bummed we missed that, but still had such a wonderful evening enjoying my favorite team (and location) in the world.
More birthday celebration to come...
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