An Evening with the "Saints"

All summer I wanted to take the kids to a St. Paul Saint's game and was hoping to go to their last game, which ended with fireworks. Well I was able to get my hands on some tickets and couldn't wait to tell Hailey and Ezzie. When I was able to tell them, they were excited and yet unsure what to expect. They were in for an exciting evening.

I was worried that parking would be a bear, but it was smooth and close to the field. YEAH! Sometimes my two little munchkins can act like their little legs can only walk about 100 feet. However, they were a bit distracted by all the people and excitement around us!
When we arrived to the stadium, all the seas of people was a bit overwhelming for all 3 of us. I gripped both of their little hands as we started to weave through the many, many groups of people milling around the concession stands, picnic areas, raffle contest tables, and walkways to our seats. We decided to all get a cheap shirt to remember our night and you would think that would have been easy. It really wasn't easy because they have an awful selection for toddlers or the sizes of 2T-5T. If you don't already know this, Hailey is a fashionista and Ezzie has a style all his own. At the beginning, they were both less than thrilled to be walking away with matching shirts. I, on the other hand, was thinking of all the picture opportunities!! As the evening went on, they were more and more proud of their new shirts and became instant fans of the St. Paul Saints. By the way, if you were wondering, I did buy myself a shirt. After standing in a long line, watching the clerk search furiously for toddler t-shirts, and the countless impatient customers behind us, I basically pointed to a shirt, yelled out the size, paid the bill, and was on my way. Thank goodness when I pulled it out of the bag, it was pretty cute and fit well.

We stopped to get some good old fashioned baseball stadium food and headed to our seats. I have been a single mom long enough now, that I don't think that much about not having an extra pair of hands to help me out. However, it would have been great to have for the game today. There were so many people, so much food to carry, two little hands to hold while walking through the sea of people, bathroom lines as long as the Mississippi River (they even had to convert a men's bathroom to a women' to try to cut down on the lines), and two very excited little munchkins that wanted to see and hear everything they could all around them.

They were excited to watch the game, honestly I think Hailey was excited to see the pig dragged out after every 3 outs and Ezzie was praying to catch a foul ball.

The weather was beautiful, the sunset was amazing, the people watching was incredible, and the atmosphere of it all was awesome!

The kids did get ancy at some points of the game, so we took pictures, went to jump in the "jumpy." Of course, anytime we left our seats a foul ball would come right close to where our seats were. Ezzie was so bummed and begged to ask the person who caught the foul ball if he could have it. He sat through almost the whole game with glove in hand ready to catch the ball.

Hailey and Ezzie were thrilled to meet "Mudonna" the pink Saints Pig. The entertainment and games they have at the Saints Game is so great and keeps everyone laughing. This one guy was the "Super Fan" and he really kept the crowd in the game by getting us all to do the wave, pretend we were on a roller coaster, or sing a crazy song.

It seems that everywhere Hailey and Ezzie go they make friends. Of course, this very nice group of people who went to the game as a group sat all around us. They simply fell in love with Hailey and Ezzie and they were very entertained. One specific couple just loved visiting with Hailey and Ezzie. This one gal, Kathyryn, a former first grade teacher, kept Hailey and Ezzie very entertained by playing Rock, Paper, Scissors. It was so wonderful to have some help, especially when they got a bit bored and needed to have more than me to laugh and play with. 

The game was a good one and it was pretty close even up to the end, when we went into extra innings to beat a tie! Hailey and Ezzie were really excited to see the fireworks and got a little impatient that the game was so long. But when the game ended (the Saints lost), the fireworks were well worth the wait. They were awesome!! Ezzie was so excited and amazed. A picture could not even capture how great they really were!

All in all, we had a fabulous time! The three of us decided that our new tradition will be to attend the last Saints game of every season, so then we can enjoy the fireworks after the game. What a great night and so many wonderful memories were created!!