Weekend Recap: Sister Time & Cardinals

I'm so bad about these weekend recaps.  But last weekend just can't not get a post.  It was one of the best I've had in a long while.  Why you ask?  Simple.
Family.

My sister and (almost/practically/pretty much) my brother-in-law came in town.  They live in Enterprise, Alabama where Kyle has been going through flight training with the Army at Ft. Rucker to fly the apache.  (yes, my sister and I are both with helicopter pilots.  Didn't you hear it was the cool thing to do? No?  Well it is.)
Anyway, they live in Alabama.  When we lived in Pensacola, it was only a two hour drive to each other.  It was great.  We saw each other often and life was great!  It made this military life and the homesickness much more manageable with my sister so close.
And it wasn't just my sister and I who benefited from this.  Nick and Kyle have quite the bromance going on.  They love when we get together because Leah and I go shopping, or craft or do our girly thing while they geek out in Call of Duty, staying up consuming Mountain Dew and Doritos until 5am.
Even the dogs benefited from the proximity.  Leah and Kyle have their own two fur babies, Zoey and Rogue.  These two happen to be Yadi and Vino's BFFFEAE (that's "best friends for f***ing ever and ever).  Yadi and Vino don't mind other dogs, but they don't buddy up, wrestle, etc with other dogs.  They're much like they're father; it takes a lot of quality time to warm up to people...or dogs in this case.  But with Rogue and Zoey?  They wrestle and play together every second they're awake.  It has been far too long since we've all been together.  I'm sure it was July.  Which is FAR too long (we humans have seen each other, but it was July that the 8 of us were together.)

But this weekend, we were all reunited.  Kyle is graduating and getting his wings in early April and then they'll be moving to Ft. Riley, Kansas (which makes me a very sad panda).  They haven't seen our house yet, or visited Jacksonville, so they decided to come visit us...one last time.

So what did we do?  Only the thing Nick and I were most excited about when we found out we were moving here....CARDINAL BASEBALL!!!
The St. Louis Cardinals spring training is in Jupiter, Florida.  And this weekend they were playing in Orlando (well, Kissimmee) in the Astros spring training stadium. So we headed down the afternoon.  And it.was.awesome!!!!!  It was packed with Cardinal fans.  I'd say 90% Cardinal fans, 10% Astro fans.

Nachos and beer just taste better at a ballpark.  

 Leah and Kyle practiced wedding poses between innings.

 Wacha Wacha Wacha!!!  Amazing pitcher!!!

I'm pretty proud of these shots below.  Not because the quality, but because that first picture is the pitch coming in and the second picture is the ball going out, after the hit....that went well over the wall for a homerun.

It was so awesome getting to see Wacha pitch.  WACHA WACHA WACHA!

That is Adron Chambers batting for the Astros.  I really loved him last year when he played for us.  We had NO idea he was no longer with us until they announced him at this game!


How freaking cool is this cane?!  Nick and I have decided if we ever need a cane when we become elder, THIS will be the one we get!!!

 And that's a winner!!!!  

Matt Adams, who hit a bomb out of the park while we were there.  He stopped by us after the game to give autographs.  I was so freaking close to him that I could have rubbed that stubble!

The rest of the weekend was normal.  You know, dying our hair...

The pups playing...

Taking Leah and Kyle on a quick tour around base...

Going out to eat (Poe's Tavern), being goofy, and video games...

And game night with friends...(we taught them our favorite, Hand and Foot)

Leah and I also did some bridesmaid dress shopping.  I don't have pictures of that because she took them all.  But we found one we love as do the other bridesmaids (we were texting pics).  I really, really wanted Leah to try on wedding gowns.  It was killing me to be in a bridal store and not have her in them. But she hasn't tried any dresses on yet.  She's waiting for her first experience to be with Mom and Grandma, rightfully so.  Sadly, this means I won't be there and it really upsets me.  These are things that make this lifestyle hard; missing out on important moments.  But at least I got this experience with her.  Gotta keep finding those positives!


And then they were gone.  Way too soon.  Hopefully we'll see them at Kyle's graduation.  Fingers crossed.  The weekend was short but sweet.  Oh so sweet.  Gosh dang, I just love family time!  Now excuse me while I go cry tears of missing my Little Leah and the rest of my family.