Spring Training

Yesterday was the Philadelphia Phillies vs. Pittsburgh Pirates-they are in spring training, so everyday you can watch them play.  Very cool!  We were along the first baseline, but on the second row!  Everyone kept getting in front of us to get autographs.  Even into the game, when the inning would change, people would crowd right in front (I mean the players were 2-3 feet from us), and beg for autographs for their balls, gloves, bats, baseball cards, books...  It was funny watching the guys sitting right in front of us reach to give the players high-fives, and yell at all of them.  We aren't that die-hard, but there were those people! It was still fun, just watching a good game!  We had to eat lunch there since there aren't a lot of good restaurants/food places right there around the stadium.  We drove up and down the main road, but it was all car places: cars for sale, auto repair, brake repair, transmission repair, buy-here/pay-here sales-I get the idea that they sell you a junk vehicle, then charge you weekly to repair it!  Anyway, all these places closed shop just to charge you to park.  They were all waving in cars, and you could watch the parking prices climb as you got closer.  Naturally, we found the highest parking and pulled in: $8.00.  I figured since I'm pregnant, what's an extra $3 (since the cheapest was $5!)?  heehee
Then we shopped at the Bradenton Outlets, ate at Olive Garden, then saw a movie: The Green Zone.  It was pretty good.  We'd rented the Hurt Locker to watch on the plane out here, and it was very similar-what war was really like-and how they found out there were no WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction).
Today is a free day: we are headed back up to Tampa (I think) to go to one of their four Babies-R-Us!  There are a lot of things we can't shop for (clothes, sad-face), but we can shop for a double stroller.  We were planning to go to Tulsa, but why not here!?  We can always have it shipped.  We'll have to pack up what we've bought to mail it back anyway (unless we pay the $70 to add a bag/box!).  So, shopping is on the agenda, happy day!  I bought nothing for me yesterday (don't really need anything), but we got Ches three pairs of shoes (!): two dress shoes and some cleats, a belt, and Clay some baseball pants from Nike.  There's an Under Armour outlet, but it didn't seem like they had outlet prices, so we didn't get anything there!  I mean to ship it back and not really need it right now, it'd have to be a deal!
Alrighty, the kids are still good, Ethan is missing us, but everything is surviving.  We'll be back soon enough. We need the time! : )