Redsfest Extravaganza!

Two days of too much fun all thanks to wonderful Aunt Joanie! One of the perks of working for the Reds is that she is able to get us 2-day passes into Redsfest, which we wholeheartedly enjoyed! Friday night we headed down with Grandma & Grandpa R. and met up with Aunt Erin, Uncle Joe, Uncle Hog, and Aunt Mary. Walking in the door we each received a "backpack" bag filled with fun stuff like coupons for free chips and guac from Chipotle (woo-hoo!) and a Reds winter hat.

We watched a really cute "Kids Press Conference" where a line of youngsters stood patiently to ask a question to the panel of players. Most were things like, "What do you eat before a game?" and "What position did you play in T-ball?" The players were really cute with the kids, and as always, The Cowboy was a show all by himself. One thing Kevin remarked on was how many of the kid reporters were "Banana Phone Callers In Training." (If you don't know what I'm talking about, I'm not sure I can explain it to you.)


The Louisville Slugger Museum had a really nice booth, complete with coloring, tattoo, and batting stations, along with these over-sized bat and glove. Charlie just hates when he can't do what his brothers are doing.

Because of extra tickets from Aunt Joanie and tickets given to us by Aunt Jill (her company is a big sponsor), we were able to invite some of our friends! This is Louie with Katie and Bryce waiting in line for hitting. Katie is Louie's classmate.

Benny's putting a hurting on the ball.

Lou goes up to show them how it's done.

Rosie Red, Mr. Redlegs, and Gapper (shown above) were walking around the convention center and were more than happy to pose for pictures and sign autographs. Here Katie gets him to sign her bat. (Thank goodness they decided to bench Mr. Red, whose freaky alien head scared kids and adults alike.)

On Saturday we headed back downtown and Mommy and Daddy thought that the sheer joy of being surrounded by baseball in December would make up for a bad night of sleep and no naps. No surprise--we were sadly mistaken.

On Saturday we were able to invite even more of our friends! Amanda, Owen and Eli came with their Grandma and Grandpa (for some cute pics, check out her blog). Another friend from Louie's class, Max came with his mom, dad, and sister, Carly. The boys were out of their element and barely spoke to each other! Lou was excited to see Owen and Max was excited to see a friend of his that happened to be down there. Oh well!

They had an awesome area set up for kids that had a jumpy house with slide, pitching into a "catcher" with a hole cut into it, and basepaths for running. Eli and Charlie had a blast just pitching and hitting back to each other.

This is a picture of the boys during one of their hundreds of waits in line for the jumpy house. Isn't it great how much fun they have together?

We decided it was high time we had a picture of ourselves on the blog! (That's Amanda, if you didn't figure it out.)

You can't tell, but this about the time that things began to unravel. I was pretty worn out and ready to go. We were actually heading toward the exit when we came across this John Deere exhibit. The boys wanted to check them out and each climbed on their own.

For whatever reason, they weren't happy with their own and wanted to get on their brother's. In particular, Ben. He started flipping out and I tried to subdue him but to no avail. Major meltdown. The likes of which I'm not sure we've ever had out in public. Kevin grabbed Ben and took him out into the hall while Jay and I put coats on the other two. (Did I mention Uncle Jay drove down on Saturday to go with us? Well, he did!)

Overall, we had a really great time. This experience just reiterates the IMPORTANCE of sleep in a young child's life! We can't wait until April 6th: Opening Day for a really great season!!