Our Annual May Cleveland Trip

We try to make it up to Cleveland in May to visit Aunt Cassie and Uncle Paul before summer's craziness starts. We've been fortunate that both last year and this year we went up when the Reds were in town to play the Indians.

We thought it was only the weekend we were up there, but it turns out that every weekend they have "Kids Fest" where the lawn outside the stadium has great activities for all the kids. They had to sign a "contract" (waiver) first, then they could do speed pitch, hit in the batting cage and run the bases.

Charlie is our little Southpaw. He threw the lowest speeds that day, but he has great form and you better keep your eye on him--he's going places that only left-handed pitchers can.


I was surprised at how well the boys hit in the cage--all three of them. I don't think they've ever hit a ball pitched from a machine like that and they made contact with almost every pitch.

They had to of changed up the speeds depending on what age the kid was because the two boys that went in before them weren't hitting anything. And it cracked me up that the one right before was "waiting for the right pitch" even though it was a machine getting the ball across the plate each time. Louie, Benny, and Charlie get in there and start whacking the ball. You can see Uncle Paul and Grandpa looking on while Louie hits.

They even had little sets where the kids could get their picture taken. I thought Benny looked pretty believable here.

It was a hot, hot day and what brought out smiles in these sweaty babies? Well, besides shade and a cool breeze, Grandma bought waffle cones filled with soft-serve! Because the Reds certainly weren't bringing any smiles to their faces that day.

The Good Guys went home losers that day, but we enjoyed the rest of the weekend. After the game we went back to their house for a seafood dinner and once again Benny cleaned house with the beloved mussels. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of that--Benny, Grandpa and Uncle Paul with a big bowl of empty shells.

We look forward to our next trip up North, and if I can get the pictures off my phone, I'll post some of the boys fishing at Lake Erie before we left to go home.