Hello, Fall!

After returning from our latest Kennedy Ballpark Tour, we headed straight into a new work week on that Monday. The days since then have passed by quickly. Rainy weather has caused some sports cancellations, but in general, we've followed a steady routine of work, school, and ball. Rinse and repeat. Last weekend, when one of Eli's games was cancelled, we spent our open Saturday at the Yadkin Valley Harvest Festival. Like last year, the kids enjoyed the bouncy houses, and we all enjoyed the yummy food, especially the homemade apple pies. The night before, Eli insisted on having a sleepover with his sister, and Boomer acquiesced. Emmy lasted on the floor in Eli's room until the early morning, and then she moved into her own bed around 5AM. Upon waking up about an hour later, Eli was quite upset to find that he was all alone. As you can see from the photos, how it started...

...and how it ended...

The school year has continued smoothly for the Kennedy kids. Emmy often sees Aunt Megan throughout the day, and she loves having lunch with Grammy when she volunteers on Thursdays. Emmy recently received an award from the Assistant Principal for good behavior and acting with integrity. The award came with a new book, which for Emmy is the ultimate prize right now. She loves to read, and she is sharing that love with her little brother. One morning, I spotted Emmy practicing flash cards with Eli while Boomer and I were getting ready for work. It was totally unprompted and a very sweet moment between siblings. 

Today we were back at the ballfield for another softball game. Our #12 had a big cheering section, with Grammy, Grandpa, and all four Houstons there. Emmy and her team had a come-from-behind win with a final score of 8-6. Emmy played 1st base for the whole game, and she had several great outs, including a tag play. She also batted well, getting a hit each time she came up to the plate. After the game, we celebrated Grandpa's 75th birthday with lunch at the Seafood Shack. It was a delicious meal, topped off with cheesecake for dessert. Happy birthday, Grandpa!

During September, I thought of Grandma Nancy often, especially on the 22nd, her birthday. I wore her ring for several days. 

One other big event, on Thursday, a major hurricane, Helene, swept up the Southeast and caused major flooding in western North Carolina. Our school system closed on Friday, but luckily in the Piedmont, there was no damage. In my hometown of Morganton and further west in Asheville and Boone, the flooding has caused so much devastation. It has been heartbreaking to see the images, especially this one of Freedom's football stadium completely underwater. We are praying for all our friends in Morganton that are facing weeks and months of rebuilding. 

I'm including one more photo...it's a flashback to Summer 2023. Boomer had this picture of Eli on his phone, and it popped up this past week as a 'memory.' Somehow the photo never made it to the blog, and I feel like it needs to :) As the weather gets cooler and fall begins, we will think fondly of our sunny days at the beach!

Kennedy Ballpark Tour: Cleveland (+ Indianapolis)

For those of you that thought Boomer Kennedy would talk me into another baseball trip this summer...you were right! It seems that our trip to Florida in April was much too early in the season, and in Boomer's mind, there was still time to check off one more ballpark in 2024. At first this trip came about when Boomer mentioned going to a WNBA game. You may think, "What does WNBA have to do with baseball?" Well, the original idea was an Atlanta trip to see the Dream and the Braves. But then I said, in an off-hand comment, that we might as well see a new ballpark and see the only team Emmy has been following: the Indiana Fever, with her favorite player Caitlin Clark. A few months ago, Emmy even wrote Caitlin a letter, and Daddy got her a poster to hang in her room. 

As you can see, our girl is quite the women's basketball fan. So in late July we made our plans to go to Indianapolis and combine it with a Cleveland Guardians game. We waited until last Sunday to tell the kids of our upcoming travel plans, and their reaction was everything we had hoped it would be. They could hardly wait the four days before we hit the road. 

Day 1 (Thursday, September 12th): Getting on the Road

In order to break up the long drive to Indianapolis, we decided to leave on Thursday evening after work. I can't quite believe Boomer Kennedy agreed to taking a day off work, but logistically to fit in everything on our agenda, we needed a full three days. Like with our previous baseball trip, we used a rental car, this time a bright red Mitsubishi Outlander. On Wednesday evening, we moved the kids' seats over to the rental and did as much of the packing as we could, so on Thursday we were able to leave Kernersville around 5:30PM. The goal was to drive for about 4 hours to our hotel in Gallipolis, Ohio. Not too far from our destination, we got in traffic from road construction, which delayed our arrival by almost an hour. I had hoped that we would be to our hotel by 10PM, and it ended up being closer to 11PM. We had changed the kids into their pjs at a rest stop in West Virginia, and luckily they fell asleep around 8:30PM. Boomer did the heavy lifting (quite literally!) in getting both kids and all our luggage to our room. We were glad to be off the road with the longest leg of the trip behind us. 

Day 2 (Friday, September 13th): Indiana Fever Game

On Friday, we set off around 10AM for the second half of our trip to Indianapolis. We had a little less than four hours remaining. We stopped for lunch along the way at a Big Boy, which apparently is known for putting tartar sauce on a burger. To my surprise, it was very good! Before checking into our hotel in downtown Indianapolis, we made a quick detour to see the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, aka "the Brickyard" and home of the Indy 500. The speedway is located about two miles outside of downtown, surprisingly in a residential area and next to a golf course. The museum and track tours were currently closed due to renovations, so we weren't able to get too close. We settled for our photo outside of the track in the parking lot of the golf driving range. We navigated to our hotel, which was in a perfect location for the game that evening. We stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn on E Market Street. Just outside of the hotel was the Soldiers and Sailors Monument, which pays tribute to the Hoosiers that served in various wars throughout history. We passed by the monument on our way to Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Beforehand I looked up a restaurant for dinner and found Sauce on the Side. Reviews said it was a great spot before a Fever game, and I did not realize it would be quite literally directly outside of the arena. Boomer got the Meat Me in St. Louie calzone, and I shared a plain cheese calzone with the kids. After dinner, we followed the masses of people inside Gainbridge. There was an electrifying environment in the arena between the sold-out crowd and the anticipated matchup with the Las Vegas Aces. In the concourse beforehand, we discovered a family free zone, which included balloons, face painting, and poster making. When it was time for introductions, the crowd went wild for Caitlin Clark and the other players Lexie Hull, Kelsey Mitchell, and Aliyah Boston. The Fever trailed most of the game and made a valiant effort to tie it in the 4th Quarter. Sadly the Aces won 78-74, but the final score did not dampen our spirits. Our little girl's dreams were made by getting to see Caitlin Clark and the Fever play. She is even more excited to play in the upcoming basketball season. 

Day 3 (Saturday, September 14th): Cleveland Guardians' Game

While the location of our hotel in Indianapolis could not have been better, the only downside was that it did not provide continental breakfast. However, it forced us to venture out to find breakfast in the city. Within walking distance was Lincoln Square Pancake House, a popular spot with a delicious menu of diner favorites. Boomer and I would usually get different items, but we both wanted the pumpkin pancake platter, which came with eggs, sausage, bacon, and two ah-mazing pumpkin pancakes with cinnamon butter. The kids shared an order of biscuits and gravy, along with the pancakes from Mommy and Daddy. In my research, I had also wanted to try Jack's Donuts, which was along the walk back to the hotel. We got four donuts to take on the road...or so I thought. Emmy and Eli wanted to have theirs right away, and we compromised with them splitting one and saving one for later. We left Indianapolis around 11AM for the 4.5 hour drive to Cleveland. Luckily without any delays, we arrived at 4PM. Like in Indianapolis, our hotel was within walking distance of the game, so once we got parked and checked into our room, we set off to the ballpark. The weather was very comfortable, but we opted for pants in case there was a chill after the sun went down. First pitch was at 6:10PM, and the Guardians were playing the Tampa Bay Rays. How funny we saw TWO Rays games this season?! We had dinner at the ballpark: Barrio loaded nachos, Montgomery Street BBQ, Dante's pizza, and of course a ballpark hot dog. After a few scoreless innings, the Guardians took the lead and had two back-to-back homeruns in the 8th inning for a decisive win 6-1. With this visit to Progressive Field, we now have checked off 21 ballparks, 20 teams. And it seems that the Kennedy Ballpark Tour is back on a winning streak, yay!

#21 Progressive Field - Cleveland Guardians

Day 4 (Sunday, September 15th): Traveling Home

We left Cleveland around 9:15AM this morning for the 7-hour drive back to North Carolina. Over the years, we have settled into the routine of me as the driver and Boomer riding shotgun. We can't decide which job is harder. While Boomer can have some time to work on his laptop, he also has to dole out snacks, fetch dropped items, and set up the DVD player. He is a champ at managing the passengers in the backseat. Like the Florida trip, we spent many hours in the car, but with lots of miles comes lots of memories. These trips with my three favorite people are memories I will cherish forever!