Take me out to the ballgame.

This past weekend was my last reserve duty weekend at Great Lakes, Illinois. Since we will soon be moving back to California, Michael thought this would be a good opportunity to visit Jason, Ruth and Leah in Milwaukee. So all of us piled into the car and hit the road for Chicago.

Amelia, as most of you know, is a great little traveler. She can sit patiently in the car for hours. Now that she's a bit older, she amuses herself by singing the ABC's, counting, singing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and her newest favorite song, "Go to sleep, Teletubbies, go to sleep."

Once she does get restless, putting one of her favorite DVD's in the portable player settles her down again. You couldn't ask for a better traveler, especially in a toddler.

On Saturday I drove to Great Lakes to have lunch with Mike and Amelia. I wanted to use the opportunity to have my picture taken with Amelia on base while still in my maternity uniform. Amelia was so happy to be out walking, it was pretty difficult to get her to stand still for a picture, but we did manage a couple of shots.

Saturday night we drove up to Miller Park to meet Jason at the Brewers game. I wasn't sure how Amelia would do at a baseball game (though she did go to a Padres game when she was three months old). She was excited from the start. Once she realized we were going to a "park" (Miller Park) she couldn't wait to go. She cheered for both teams and helped pig clap whenever the crowd clapped. She really liked the fireworks inside the stadium, in fact she found a dozen things to occupy her and loved looking around and pointing at this and that around the stadium.

I was thrilled that I got to visit a new ball park. More than that, I got to see the famous sausage race at the Park live and in person.

The game was going long, so we left after the seventh inning stretch (uncommon for Michael and I who almost always stay for the entire game). We got back to Great Lakes at around eleven o'clock. There was a light rain falling, but I knew where there was an old jet (maybe an F-11) parked on base and knowing how much Amelia loves planes I thought she might like to see it. She got so excited she really wanted to get out of the car and began pointing saying, "Let's go!" A little further down the road we saw a couple of does and a skunk. A very eventful night, indeed. It took us forever to get Amelia to go to bed that night.

Amelia was great on the road home, just as she had been on the way up. She applauded when we finally pulled up to our apartment and Mike and I felt like cheering, too.

So though I didn't get anywhere near enough sleep this past weekend, I was really glad Mike and Amelia came with me to Great Lakes (and beyond). There are things we will miss about the Midwest, but of course we can't wait to get back home to California.

Lisa