Play Parks and Ball Parks

The cousins hanging out

This morning we got up to a home cooked breakfast.  Pierre was able to take the day off work and spend it with us which was great.  After breakfast David and I went out and washed the 10,000+ dead bugs that were on the front of the van and the roof rack.  Once the bucket of water and hose was put away the rest of them came out to play in the front yard.  The big excitement was the big garbage trucks coming by and emptying the different bins into them.  All the boys were standing with big smiles watching the action.

Future mountain climbers??

We then loaded up and headed to a park in Walnut Creek which had lots of play structures, swings and a climbing wall.  All the kids enjoyed it.  The little ones enjoyed playing in the sand and the freedom of exploring the different climbing structures.  The older ones spent a lot of time climbing the different components of the climbing wall.  It was certainly a very good workout for them.

Paige and Tanya

After lunch Tanya and Paige headed out shopping for a bit while the kids and I played cards, soccer and bocce ball in the backyard.  We had supper and then Pierre and I took the three PEI Caron kids into Oakland for a Major League Baseball Game.  It was the Oakland A's versus the Los Angeles Angels.

Just hanging around in California

Jim Ward, Pierre's father-in-law, has seasons tickets right behind third base so Pierre took each of the kids down to those seats for a few innings while I sat out in the bleachers with the other two.  There was lots of neat things going on during the game which kept the kids asking lots of questions and entertained.  It the third inning an A's player launched a home run that landed about 10 feet directly over my head.  The kids were pretty excited that a ball was hit that close to us.

Natalie next to third base

There was also a lot of things the kids heard and saw at the game that they probably could have done without, but I guess that is what you get with the cheap seats.  Natalie said that she heard a man say the F-word five times in only one or two sentences.  Andrea asked why that guy was giving the middle finger to the players and David was wondering why they kept telling #53 that he was fat.  Other notable questions/comments included:


1. Why do some people need to kiss each other on the lips right in front of us all night
2. Why do some people take off their shirts when it is freezing cold out (it was quite a cool night)
3. Why do the keep yelling unsportsmanlike stuff at that man in the field

In the Bleacher Section

The game was a decent game but very slow and because traffic can be insane after a game and it was already 10:00 pm and it was only the bottom of the seventh (A's were ahead 4 to 3) we left before it was over.  The kids had lots of fun and were very thankful to uncle Pierre (and Jim) for the chance to see the game so close.


Francois