Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Mini Golf 2013 Part 2: National Building Museum!

For my second New Year's Eve Post (and my final in 2013) I wanted to take you all on a trip to the National Building Museum to see another Mini-Golf game! The FIRST GAME we played last year, and this year was even better...they had TWO courses you could choose from, which not only made it less packed with people, but there were more chances for someone to get really creative with the mini-golf courses!
These were VERY cool holes this year...kudos to the designers! The one above is actually a hologram...you had to hit your ball through a maze that was generated by holograms. There were actual walls that you had to navigate around, in addition to cityscapes that weren't really there. Awesome!
This one was cool because it not only featured a building under construction...but there were little toy trucks as well! The backhoe "Dug" me a hole to hit my ball into! Also, check out those mini orange cones. Nice touch!
I don't know if you can tell from this shot, but this next hole featured DC landmarks under glass...I believe this one is the Capitol!
The holes were fun, but pretty challenging.
I think I got my stance down pretty well, don't you?
I was pretty excited when the ball went in for this one, because you had to hit it around a corner, which was pretty tough!
Once I got the ball in, I took a moment to make some (sanctioned) graffiti on the wall that separated the two areas of the hole!
There was a schoolhouse themed hole that was REALLY tough to get through, but Mom did a great job! She's a natural!
This one had a working bell, which I, of course, had to ring!
This next one is based on the city and the Metro (with a tiny Metro station pylon)
It was kind of hard to get through because of the way the planks were set up. Certainly made it a challenge!
Undaunted, I played through and finally got the ball in!
The final hole glowed in several different colors, which was really pretty to watch, but I think they were hoping it would distract you a bit too....
That didn't matter though, because even though the final hole was tough, I managed to get a hole in one!
This was my second hole in one of the day, (I don't remember which one was my first) and the fact that it was on the last, and one of the most challenging holes, was amazing! Everyone was so excited for me, even people that didn't know me and were just playing the game at the museum at the same time that we were!
And no visit to The National Building Museum would be complete without playing with the various building blocks and toys that they leave out in the main hallway....Mom and I had a lot of fun building towers out of these little wooden planks...and I then happily destroyed them!

On that note...everyone have a safe and happy New Year that does not include any kind of destruction (Unless it's intentional, and fills you with great joy!) See you all in 2014!

Mini Golf 2013 Part 1: Father's Day!

Happy New Year's Eve, folks! I'm celebrating the New Year with Golf! Well...not really, but I'm celebrating it with two blog posts about Mini-Golf! They will be my final posts of 2013, and that should officially catch me up! (We'll see if I need to do any more catching up if I look through my photo archives, but if this is it, then that would be the first year that I am not playing catch-up deep into the new year! How cool is THAT!?)
First, I will show you some stuff from Father's Day. Dad got it into his head that he wanted to go miniature golfing for Father's Day, and we found a nice little mini-golf course out in Maryland.
I was doing pretty well (depending on the hole...some of those things are tough!)
Dad seemed to be having a great time.

I was having fun, too....except that there was a brother/sister team that kept insisting on jumping onto our hole and messing with my ball. A couple times, they even went ahead and took my ball out of the hole (or put it in, depending on their moods at the moment)


I did my best to be patient, and walk away from the situation, but it really was tough to keep my cool. Grrrr... :-( Where were the parents!?
Ugh.

We rallied after our little invasion by the other kids, and ended up having a pretty good time.

Dad did his best to show me the best way to hit the ball successfully, but I really just like hitting it how I like to hit it, ya know? We all have our own style!
Mom also showed me a little bit of her mini-golf skillz (That's right....skillz with a 'z', everyone.) and it definitely helped, too....
....but not enough for me to not face tragedy once again, as yet another one of my balls insisted on staying away from the hole I had tried to hit it into.
The roller coaster of emotion continued as I started picking up and doing well again, and Mom was just cleaning up. She did great! Try as they might to keep score, my erratic (yet endearing) style of play made it near-impossible to keep score for too long, and they gave up.
The final hole was a frog where you had to hit your ball through the base, and then up a slight incline, until it landed in a hole that gobbled your ball up for someone else to play with.
We timed it all just right, since a big picnic let out nearby, which meant that a bunch of people got in line to play, just as we were wrapping up. Score!
I tried a couple times to get the ball in, to no avail....then, I got serious....set my stance up just like Mom and Dad showed me, and I hit the ball through the base!
While it took me a few more swings to finish the hole off, I finally got my ball in, with Mom and Dad following soon after. Some snacks, and a ride on an old, squeaky, yet totally endearing train  finished off Father's Day 2013 in a lovely way...

Monday, December 30, 2013

Washington Nationals Baseball Game 2013 GAME 2

As we had hoped, we managed to get to a second game at Nationals Park this year!

Dad went straight from work, while Mom and I took the Metro over to meet him at the stadium.

Outside of the stadium, there was a rogue President just wandering around....who is this guy? Harding? Is that Harding?! I dunno! Why are you asking me!? I'm five, AND he's creeping me out! I gave him a WIDE berth while walking to the stadium...that person standing next to him is supposed to protect him from US....whereas I think she should be doing the opposite... Give me the spooky shivers just recalling this moment for the blog...

On our way in, we saw some really cool garbage cans that had giant baseball helmets on them. Cool, right? 
Green Dinosaur, who joined us for this go-around, certainly approved.
Dad was kind enough to carry it in the car with him, and that meant that once again, the foam finger made a grand re-appearance!
It was helpful, both as a tool for showing my enormously fingered support of our team, AND for having a soft place for Green Dinosaur to nuzzle into when he was tired.

At one point in the game, a pigeon ended up on the field...we're not sure if he was injured or what, but he certainly had no intention of getting out of the way of the game, that's for sure! They tried to scoot him off the field, but he wouldn't budge, so they played for awhile with him just standing off to rear of first base. He left after awhile, but only when he was good and ready, I'm sure!
The best news of all this time? THE NATIONALS WON! They CREAMED the Phillies 11-2. There were so many runs, and so many good plays, the Nats were REALLY doing a great job.

This time around, I felt a little braver, and decided that I wanted to give running the bases a try...All three of us were SO excited to be right down there on the field where the players played the game. It was such a rush, and I think it's awesome that they let the kids do this. I was very worried about the fact that I would have to run without Mom or Dad, but I was trying to be brave about that, and also enjoy the fact that we were RIGHT THERE ON THE FIELD!
At the last minute, I decided that I couldn't do the run around the bases...the Presidents were too scary, and I didn't like the idea of running without Mom or Dad....I was pretty disappointed, but both Mom and Dad did their best to make sure that I was positive that I didn't want to run, and that my decision was final, because they wouldn't let us walk back in after we left...Like I said, I was bummed out, but still happy that we got to go on the field.
Mom and I took a quick picture on the field, but I was still feeling a little upset about how the whole thing went down, so it was not my happiest moment. :-(
Luckily, after I talked it over with Mom and Dad, (who both assured me that they understood how difficult it was, not only to make the decision not to run, but to also make the decision to try going down to the field even though I was feeling anxious about it) I felt a lot better, and was perfectly content with how things went down, and I was excited about running along the corridor back to our car.
I showed off some of my fancy dance moves while I jumped from bench to bench, and also showed off my red outfit that I wore to support my hometown team!

Go Nationals! We'll see you next year!!

Sunday, December 29, 2013

Washington Nationals Baseball Game 2013 GAME 1

Continuing our end of the year wrap-up as I arrive back in Maryland after my lovely holiday week in Connecticut:

After talking about it for some time, we FINALLY made it out to a couple baseball games to see the Washington Nationals play!

Now, this wasn't my first baseball game (My first game was chronicled HERE when we were in Louisville...man, I was a cute baby!)

Dad and I both bought hats (Mom already had one from several years ago) and I finally realized my dream of getting a giant foam finger. It was the one thing I asked about as soon as we got our tickets...it took Mom a second to figure out exactly what I was asking for, but as soon as she did, they were nice enough to buy me one...I LOVED IT!
We had great seats, and could see everything that was happening on the field perfectly. It was a little hot that day, but other than that, the weather was clear and pretty.
Mom and I had some time to ourselves to enjoy the game because Dad went to get us snacks, and through a comedy of errors including all the credit card machines being down, it took him forever!
Things got pretty serious as the sun beat down on us, and I was not happy about being so sweaty...but we managed to fight through so we could see our team play the whole game.
Our team did great! I was happy to cheer on the red guys (as I came to call them)
Later on, the Presidents (who are people in costumes with giant heads dressed as Presidents Washington, Lincoln, Taft, Roosevelt and Jefferson) did their race around the bases....
...and then they got set up after the game so that kids could go down to the field and run the bases. I decided against this little event, and just watched some of the other kids run around the bases and give high fives to the Presidents and the other girls on the field. Who are those girls, anyway? Ballgirls? Helper girls? I'm confused...
I thought it was fun to watch the other kids, which was enough for me and we got to watch for awhile while people cleared out, so there wasn't as much of a crush of people as we were headed out.
The Colorado Rockies ended up beating The Nationals 7-1, but it was still a wonderful game to watch. I cheered as much as I could, and was bummed that we lost, but it was still fun!
On the walk back to the car, I got to enjoy some of the scenery around the ballpark. There was a really nice water sculpture along the route which was REALLY calling for me to jump in and cool off....Mom and I waited in the shade while Dad went on ahead to get the car for us....what a great ballgame!