The Joy of a Quick Visit...

Our oldest daughter, Nissa, is divorced. She has two children from this marriage. They are to visit their father every summer by court order. Our home is the drop-off and pick-up spot for this transfer of my grandmonsters. The nice part is this assures Claude and me a quick visit at the beginning and again at the end of their summer vacation. This last weekend was the Quick Visit.

Nissa, Paul and Aubrey Anne arrived Saturday afternoon around 2:30pm. So happy they made the long drive safely. We settled in for a bit of visit time. Part of that was giving Claude his Father's Day presents a day early. The Tyler household gave Claude an 'Old Guy's Rule' T-shirt and a cap that says 'All American Grampa'. I got Claude a T-shirt that says 'Bazinga' from his favorite TV program "The Big Bang Theory". Claude was one happy guy.

Claude and I were offered seats in the Whitaker Bank box at the Whitaker Ball Park where the Lexington Legends baseball team plays. Claude requested and received three tickets. The game was Saturday evening. So Claude purchased two additional tickets on the first base line. Now all five of us could go to the game. Claude, Nissa and Paul would take the Whitaker Bank box seats. Aubrey and I cheerfully took the first base line tickets.

Aubrey and I found our dinner before finding our seats. We purchased pepperoni pizza and sodas. Then found our lovely seats and settled in for a great evening.

It turns out it was 'Bark at the Park' night. The Legends have taken the tact of inviting a non-profit each night to support their cause. This was their second 'Bark at the Park' night this year. Between the two night they have had a total of over 500 dogs in attendance. I will admit the relief I felt as Aubrey and I found our seats and realized the dogs and their owners had seats in another part of the stadium. Between innings they had a man performing tricks with a pack of dogs. Basically they chased frizbees. It was still fun to watch. One dog was the bat boy during the bottom of an inning. The funniest was near the end of the game when they were acknowledging the dogs and their owners. Several owners and dogs were on the field between home plate and third base. One large dog determined that was his opportunity to do a big power dump behind home plate. Bless his heart that is what he is trained to do...see grass, take your opportunity to go. The audience was having a laugh, the owner was trying to do a poised grin, and the MC just said, 'Well, I guess that is part of live show."

Aubrey and I ate our way through the evening. I'm a huge lover of Dippin' Dots ice cream. Aubrey, love her heart, is also. We did begin our evening with something a bit more solid, that pizza I mentioned earlier. From then on it was just fun stuff.

After our dinner, I waited a bit and then asked Aubrey if she needed anything. She thought it was time for Dippin' Dots. I gave her money and she was our runner. She dutifully brought back ice cream and we enjoyed the cool on a very hot night with the sun now down yet.

We watched a little baseball and then the cotton candy guy came around. We tried to be a bit circumspect in junk food eating so shared a cotton candy. Aubrey picked the color and it was pink...of course.

We watched a bit more of the baseball game. I pulled out my crocheting which surpised Aubrey a bit. Claude is very used to this and could really care less. After another inning, the frozen lemonade vendor came plying her wares. Aubrey wanted one of those, I did not. so we purchased a strawberry flavored one for Aubrey and I crocheted and watched while Aubrey enjoyed her lemonade treat.

During this time they had several things to entertain the audience. In keeping with the 'Bark in the Park' theme, they had us all stand and howl like dogs. The winner enabled their section to get free food at McDonald's or some such nonsense. Aubrey and I tried our best but were not able to help our section get the coupons. Another time we were to dance along with the kids on the dugout roof. We tried again but were not successful. We tried to get the free t-shirt by waving our arms frantically and calling out. We tried to get the squishy footballs by waving our arms frantically and calling out.  Neither of these bits of silliness helped us win a thing. Nissa was watching from above and this was her report to Facebook.

"So while sitting in the sky box seats with my dad I was able to witness mother bark like a dog, do her own version of the Cotton Eye'd Joe, and howl for a foam ball. Truly an eye opening experience. What do you expect from the worlds greatest mom! — with Sandi Lawrence Christensen and Aubrey Thompson."

I again asked Aubrey, "Do you want anything else?"  Her response, "More Dippin' Dots please." So off our runner went for more ice cream. Now this was a good thing. the ice cream comes in Lexington Legends baseball cap cups. This would give us four cups. We could now give Hayden and Bailey each a cup and Aubrey and Paul could each have a cup. Not bad rationalizing.

I did get a picture of Claude (in his Bazinga T-shirt), Nissa and Paul in their seats high above us  with Big 'L' and Little 'L' signing autographs. 

The Legends won, thank heavens!!! And we pointed the Buick toward Sadieville.

After a welcome night's rest, we had a big breakfast together before everyone hit the road. Aubrey and Paul were off for a summer in North Carolina, Nissa was back on the road to Michigan, Claude was headed to Owingsville, Kentucky and I was headed to Georgetown, Kentucky. You can't get more spread out than that.

I was a quick visit but full of fun and memories built to carry us through until the next visit.