Great night last night!

So last night was awesome.  I took my 4 year old to his first baseball game.  Omaha, NE has a triple A team, the Omaha Royals, and on certain Friday night home games they have fireworks after the game.   Temperature wise it was beautiful yesterday and so I thought it would be a good time to expose him to the nations pasttime.

Keeping in mind that he's only 4 I figured I should get there about around the 4th inning so it would knock 45min to an hour off the time of the game and it would be easier for him to not get bored.  So we get there about 45 minutes into the game(around 8pm) and they were at the bottom of the 2nd inning.  That should have been a warning sign that I was in for a long night.  I got tickets for us right behind homeplate under the netting so I wouldn't have to be worried about a foul ball screaming into my kids head(yeah I worry about stuff like that).  Anyway we sit down and start watching.  He's being great just hanging out and people watching with the occasional nod towards the ball field when I point something out to him.  He thought it was great that the "voice"(announcer) would call out peoples names(the players) and loved the jumbotron tv in the outfield.

4th inning rolls around and so does the cotton candy man.  Woot! We both happen to love cotton candy.  That keeps him occupied for about 30 minutes.  Then a nice stretch and walk to the bathroom to wash away that sweet cotton candy goodness still stuck to our hands.  Middle innings went relatively fast.  7th inning stretch and we are off to find a 'snack'.  We settle on Dippin' Dots - the ice cream of the future.  Side note: How long will dippin dots be the ice cream of the future?  I mean seriously aren't these things like 15 years old or something?  Anyway, they were a first for both of us, and we both liked them.  Although I was kind of disappointed to find that really they were just little balls of icecream.  I thought they were like candy or something.  Live and learn.

From the 7th to the 9th inning the home team managed to blow a 6 run lead and let the other team go into the lead by 3 runs through some truly bad play and pitching which caused the innings to be seemingly endless.  It probably wasn't that long but really we were hoping to see some fireworks ya know?  Then the home team rallies in the bottom of the 9th, managing to score 2 runs and load the bases all with 2 outs.  The opposing team had a relief pitcher on the mound during the 9th who threw like Dennis Eckersly(goofy sidearm throw that starts at the shoe tops and doesn't really get much higher than the knees.) although without the sweet hair and mustache that Ecks sported.  Anyway final out and its now 10:30pm. 

We are then treated to a dance routine on the field by children ranging from 2-10.  I must say I was a little bit bothered by the older girls and the moves they had them doing.  I'm certainly no prude but I'm in law enforcement and I work trying to keep track of sex offenders so seeing 7-10 yr old girls doing hip thrusts and chest thrusts just kind of bothers me, but I digress.

Then the fireworks began.  I must say it was really fun.  It was only about a 6 minute show but they were going non-stop and the finale had like 20 going off at the same time.  They were playing fun music and the crowd loved it.  Lots of people with kids left in the crowd and everyone was cheering.  It just felt good ya know?  Like you could be there and not worry about any of the other crap going on in your life or the world.  Everyone should get that feeling once in awhile.

Anyway we get home around 11:30pm, which I think was as long as my son had ever stayed up.   He was still bounding full of energy, which considering he was up at 6:30am that morning is a bit surprising.  Then again I think he was probably keeping himself ramped up so he didn't just fall to the floor unconscious, heh.  All in all it was a great night.