Minneapolis

On Saturday morning, we dropped the girls off at Grandma Char's (thanks!)

and drove up to Minneapolis to watch cousin Matt pitch for the Tampa Bay Rays.

We met some other Van Grouw family there and happened

to get right behind each other and park right next to each other!

Quite a feat since we didn't plan to meet up until we all got there

for the 3:00 game.

Target Field. . . with a threat of rain!

Matt in the bull pen warming up

ready for the game, rain or shine!

first pitch!

selfies with Camryn 

#35 (backwards on our attempt)

a little meeting on the mound 

we met Josh and Kyle, Camryn and Gavin and sat together

(Curt was with 2 friends, and Mom and Dad had "preferred seating")

RAIN DELAY! (right at 5:00)

Quite a sight to see the crew working with the tarp

RIGHT as it was starting to rain, 

Mom let us know that she worked her magic

and got us all seats by them on the lower level 

behind home plate, under the overhang.

We were nice and dry for the 70 min rain delay.

passing the time with Gavin

Mom and Camryn

Yay, the rain stopped! 

Matt pitched the first 5 innings, but due to the long delay,

he was not put back in.

Down on the field after a RAYS WIN 7-4

It was drawn out and we were glad Matt got the WIN!

We waited around to talk to cousin Matt after the game (now 7:45)

and with some miscommunication, we left the stadium and went outside!

They had these statues out there...remind you  of Avery Leigh?!

Once again Mom worked her magic and got us BACK into the stadium

and claimed "we are on the list"!

They took us down to the lower level where they said

"Are you with Curt? Van Grouw? Yup, follow me!"

Ok :)

They had a nice sitting room for us to wait

with bottled water, couches and a bathroom.

YAY, we finally got to see Matt!

(by now 8:30)

Matt with Mom and Dad

Matt with the two littles who made it

see ya next time, Target Field

in the parking garage before we all parted ways again

Our plan was to drive home that night and get home LATE, around 1:45.

UNFORTUNATELY, we got a flat tire in the middle of nowhere on I-35 at midnight.

We called Roadside Assistance for help, but they were helpless at that time.

Steve decided to change the donut on the side of the road

(we got to an exit) and was very calm about it!

We then drove to Ames on our donut (about 15 miles away).

Since we shouldn't drive another 2 hours plus on the donut

(going slower and taking closer to 2 1/2 hours)

we decided to find a hotel in Ames and call it a night.

It took us awhile to get to Ames and then find a hotel that

wasn't outrageously priced.

(thanks to our smartphone)

We spent the short night there, took a shower,

ate a nice breakfast and found a place to fix our tire.

Walmart was our only option on a Sunday.

We got there at 8:45 and had a new tire on by 9:15.

FINALLY back home around 11:00.

Only a 24 hour trip ;)