Back to school

 I kind of like that my son looks so annoyed in this photo. He was not thrilled about getting his photo taken in front of the "ELEMENTARY" sign...after all he IS a middle schooler now! Too bad so sad, this photo is so I can see how much you have grown! Oh, and by the way we will be taking your wedding photos here too! The annoyed look is part of the year I think.

 hahaha! You can laugh out loud at this one. Everyone else is happy but my son.

 I guess he could smile for the jump shot

This was him coming out to the car on the first day of school. I was careful to stay in stealth mode as not to horrify him. 

On a side note, I have to say that dropping him off at Middle school seemed harder than kindergarten for me. I'm not sure if it was the fact that we had such a great summer, or that Mike was leaving too, or if it was just seeing him go off on his own...but it was hard. 

Sneaking in a pre Atlanta event

Some of you think I crawled up in a corner and just come out for food I am sure. Some of you probably think I have not been doing anything as my posting has been so slim this summer...and some of you probably don't care! Ha! 

But the truth is I am alive and well. I can't believe how much work it is to go on vacation, before and after! I have had so much to do since I have returned and on top of that I have been exhausted. Okay, getting up at 6:30 again does not help. I am however very much hanging in there. I spent the whole day today editing photos and it was very enjoyable. I will have to share a few soon,

Right now though I want to take a moment to post these photos from the day before we left for Atlanta.

Our trout peeps at Hiawatha host an annual Fly Fishing event for veterans and Mike and I very much wanted to be a part of it. Naturally it was of course the one day we had zero time. Mike had gotten into Rochester at 11 p.m. the night before and we flew out the next day pretty early. We both knew despite not having time we had to do this event. 

 Ray offered Matthew a few flies that he had tied. Mike and Matthew carefully picked them out together. 

 The turnout was pretty amazing

 This cute kid was a little younger than Matt. He was there with his dad who was a veteran. Mike worked with the both of them. 

 of course there was information about bugs! 

 This is the dad I was talking about. I hope they enjoyed it. We had to leave early so I never got a chance to ask them. I hope Mike helped start a life long love like he and Matthew have. 

 There is Ray. Clair would have loved him. 

 fly lines everywhere

 And of course Marlene was there. She always makes me smile. Next week I will be working really close with her for a weekend fly fishing campout called the Driftless Rendezvous. I promise lots of pictures. 

 This was one of the two WWII vets that attended. He was the sweetest man. He knew so much about the history of the area. A true treasure. 

 This was the other one and he was actually learning how to fly fish! Now that is a wonderful thing. 

 By the way...in the midst of the event Matthew who was fishing about where I was standing in this bottom picture managed to catch a duck! This was much to the horror of the other people at the event. I guess he thought the fly was popcorn?? Mike helped him free the duck as onlookers gasped. Mike assured them that it was just because Matthew was so good he could catch anything. 

Our first full day in Atlanta...or Mike's Disney

Our first full day in Atlanta started out with a nice Georgia morning...It was wonderful waking up and relaxing with Ty. 

There was only one thing I wanted to do in Atlanta...eat crawfish! I had dreamed of a real crawfish boil and I figured Atlanta was as close as I would get to that. I found a place and I told Mike and Matthew that we were going. It turned out to be way out of our way and my husband was incredibly worried about not getting the the stadium early enough. However, I knew it was now or never! It was worth it though! 

 Yum!!!

 Yep! This is all I asked for in our entire vacation. I am a simple girl:-)

 look at all that carnage!!! Do you know how many critters had to die for this one meal? Lots!

 Goodbye to Monica's dreams and on to Mike's

 Lucky for me the seafood shack was not far from the Ted!

 The last moment Mike could say he had never stepped inside the Ted.

 We started by watching the Padres' warm up.

 how beautiful are these seats? I love them.

 Here is the enemy warming up

 Still seemed pretty cool to be this close to them! Plus these stretches were killing me just from watching them. 

 okay, funny story... I saw this airplane pulling a banner and I was so excited for Matthew to see it! I pointed it out really quick before Mike started laughing out loud. Yeah, good one mom... Point out the advertisement for the strip club. Yep... good one!

 Then the rain fell...and so did my husband's heart. He was horrified at the idea of a rain out at his first ever Braves game at home. 

So was Matt...only he had not waited 38 years to see it.

 The rain stopped though and the sky opened up. Then our usher for the week, Franklin, showed us to our seats. He was one of the friendly faces at the Ted. 

Oh Mike, will you ever forget this moment? Sitting in your seats at the Ted...waiting?

 That folks...is what my husband came to see. That right there was enough. Dawn, I bet you get it!

 And then the game started.

 The first tomahawk chop in the Ted!

 Forgot to tell you that Matt won a ball in a hustle contest earlier from the Padres practice

 Dawn, Mike read this book cover to cover. I can't even begin to tell you how much he loved it. Thank you.

 My hip shot national anthem shot

 Then Homer came by

 And this was enough...Mike could have left a happy man. But there was so much more!

 This cute couple sat in front of us. I thought they were so adorable. They were clearly on a hot date. 

 and we had boiled peanuts! We loved them but I am sure some of you are thinking yuck. 

 My husband doing the tomahawk chop!

 See those numbers up there... you might see retired numbers but I see Walter. I will explain in a later post. 

 If my husband could freeze time he would consider this moment. It would for sure make his top 5 moments in life. However, I know that he would inevitably pick between the day we introduced Matthew to his grandparents, one more day at the pond with his grandfather, or one of our date nights we had with them. This would for sure be in his list though. It was one of the few times in life when reality exceeded your dreams. 

 Then we said goodbye to the Ted, and all it's treasures.

 This was the baseball players parking lot. I lost my wallet in this lot later in the week. Lucky for me a security guard named Charlie(of course) found it...or I would have had to stay in Atlanta...thanks Charlie...I think

Our first full day in Atlanta was an unbelievable success...and there was still so much more to come. 

By the way the Braves lost this game. My husband woke me up early the next morning to tell me that he forgot that they never win on a Monday. This for some reason made him feel better. He was worried about them. Turns out the Braves are not good at functioning on Monday's...I get that.