The love of the game

So, apparently I've forgotten that I have a blog!!  In all honestly, we've just been enjoying summer, and my pictures have been piling up on my camera as I occasionally think to myself "oh, this would make a great blog post!"

Several weeks ago we asked Max what he would like to do for his 5th birthday (I still can't believe he's going to be five!!!).  We were fulling expecting him to request a party with all his best buds.  After thinking about it for all of 3.5 seconds, he says "guys, I just want to go to St. Louis, watch a Cardinals game, stay in a hotel and go to a restaurant."  Music to my ears!  You mean no planning a party?!  We asked him several times over the next couple weeks if he was sure he didn't want a party and his answer was always the same.  "I REALLY REALLY want to go to a Cardinals game."  Well, judging by the pure excitement on his face every second of this past weekend, I'd say he was VERY happy with his decision!

Stephen was able to call ahead to the hotel and get a room with an AMAZING view of the stadium.  When we checked in they made a big deal of wishing Max a happy birthday which of course made him feel extra special!!  As soon as we got into the room, Max's yelled "guys look!!!!"  We had to pry him away from the window just to get over to the game :)

We all had a blast at the game.  Max sat through all 9 innings, totally loving every minute.  He seriously loves all things baseball and couldn't believe he was actually in the same stadium he had seen on tv so many times!

Not only did they wish him happy birthday when we checked in, when we got back to our room, Max had a special birthday treat waiting just for him.  There was a stuffed Cardinal, a bottle of Fitz' rootbeer (famous in STL) and two HUGE bags of gummy worms and jelly beans!

Sunday morning we surprised Max and took him to the St. Louis zoo!  Its such a great zoo.  The weather was perfect and all the animals were out.  We made sure to make a stop at the giraffes.  When we were waiting to bring Max home, we received a video of him looking at a picture book of animals.  I watched it EVERY day until we traveled!  In it, he excitedly keeps flipping back to the same page and saying "giraffe!!!!" as he pointed at it.  We brought a stuffed giraffe with us the morning we met Max for the first time (he still has it on his bed).  It was fun for us to remind Max of all this while we stood at the zoo looking at them yesterday.  Of course now, as an almost five year old boy, he patiently listened to our story and then replied "cool Mom."  Not quite the emotional response I may have dreamed up in my head, but that ok :)

 We headed to my folk's after the zoo so Max could open his gifts from them.  Such a loved kid!

I've got a little over a week left, and then I will actually be the mom of a five year old.  Its really crazy how fast time flies!  Sometimes I just hear him say something, or watch him solve a problem and I'm blown away by how grown up he is!  I'm so thankful for the young man he is growing into!!!