After spending the week working in Anaheim, California, it was great to get back home. I flew into Dulles on Friday afternoon and Ali was right there with the kids to pick me up. And by "right there" I mean National airport. A good marriage is all about communication. So, I took a taxi and we met up at the house: same end result.
Anyway, it sounds like everyone had a great time down at the lake with Gram and Poppy. Jake practiced his swimming, tricycle pedaling, golf cart driving, and apparently also decided he was too big for his converted crib/toddler bed. Gram and Poppy (and Mimi and Grandpa) have a twin bed for him when he stays over, and I think after a week of that he decided he was ready for the next step. Friday night he said he wanted to sleep on the floor next to his bed. After doing the same thing Saturday night, we headed out Sunday morning for Ikea, land of inexpensive furniture and cheap breakfasts. Here's a picture of the finished product, with Sadie modeling. Jake was definitely excited about his big boy bed, but Sadie is still going bonkers about it. She squeals and jumps up on it whenever she goes in his room.
On Sunday afternoon we went to go see the Nationals take on the Cubs at their new ballpark. The seats were great (thanks Mom and Dad) - down low and right along the third baseline. We were enjoying our hot dogs and chili from
Ben's Chili Bowl and between the two kids, we weren't really paying too much attention to the game, to be honest. Here we are before the "incident":
Then, all of a sudden, I hear our section let out a collective "whoa!". In slow motion, I see a low ball coming our way. At that instant, it looked like it was several yards away. Before I could turn my head to see where it landed, I saw it bounce down below the seat in front of me. I reached down and picked it up, and let a confused Jake hold it. About two seconds later, an EMT was in our row attending to the guy sitting RIGHT NEXT to Ali and Sadie, who had "caught" the ball with his face. He was bleeding quite a bit, so as they took him off I gave him the ball, since he'd clearly earned it. Several innings later, he came back, and we got this picture:
Yesterday Ali took the kids out to Frying Pan Farm Park to see all the spring baby animals. We were telling Jake the night before about the trip and he asked "will there be mud?". We said, "yes, there will be mud, since it's rained for the past three days". "And will there be pigs?". "Yep, there will be pigs, and lots of baby piglets." "And can we roll around in the mud with the pigs?" "Absolutely," I said, knowing I would be at work. I do need to be more careful about saying things like that because Jake is starting to get a pretty good memory - "Daddy, last night you said we could have chocolate cake for breakfast!" 
