peanuts and crackerjacks. ...and chili cheese fries.

We were "Kansas City or bust" this weekend with Aaron's parents, his sister Melody and her boyfriend, Brian. It was a little weekend getaway for the birthday girl, Melody, turning 19 on Monday. Going to a baseball game is probably one of Aaron's favorite things to do over pretty much anything else. It's a family thing, as his brother's the same way. Aaron's mom was recounting the family vacations over the years, and only recently discovered that trips to say... Chicago, Denver, Boston, L.A....were all planned in accordance with (or at least with some consideration) to a major league baseball game.

We caught the KC Royals [...a Chaloner favorite] with their in-state rival the St. Louis Cardinals while we were there. The plan had been to catch the Saturday night game... so, we spent the day visiting with Aaron's grandparents & spending some time at the outdoor Kansas City plaza. If you've been there [and have two X chromosomes], your heart probably skipped a beat...and maybe a little drool collected in the corner of your mouth. If you haven't, well... what are you waiting for? Even Dallas, a shopper's haven, doesn't have a paradise like this. Gosh, I'm such a woman... eh, who needs excuses, I'm a woman who delights in the things that make her oh-so happy. Like these two awesome stores - 1154lill and papersource - put those two together and you'd have the workings of the store I'd love to open one day.

[the plaza at christmas time]

Again, we were to be cheering for the Royals by 6 pm...but, on the way to the game that night, the birthday girl herself was looking at the tickets and said 'But, wait, these tickets say Sunday, June 29th at 1 o'clock!" We all thought she was kidding around...but, no we were indeed headed to a sold-out game with tickets for tomorrow. The biggest hiccup in that being that we're a 5 hour drive from home... but, it ended up giving us what felt like a whole extra eventful day in KC. We went back to the Plaza for a little while and then caught the late show of Wall-e. After a few rousing rounds of tabletop ping pong back at the hotel, we still had a whole afternoon of baseball ahead of us the next day! The game was a blast, of course... even though we lost. Our seats were so close! They have this amazing new ginormous HD scoreboard, the 'Crown Vision'...with more stats & information displayed than I even understand. We actually made it on there once! We all watched, sang, root-root-rooted for the home team, and stuffed our faces with Kauffman Stadium's classic game-day treats. A good time was had by all, I'll say.

But for now, I'm going to slap on some rubber gloves & get this place sparkling... well, acceptable, at least. We're expecting guests, lovely friends Hannah & Jonathan are coming to stay for about 4-5 days. I'm so thrilled that they're coming! We've got lots of plans for you guys. Everyone have a safe & happy fourth!