The Olson's go to Target Field

Destination Unknown 2013 Revealed

We packed up on a Saturday morning and headed for Minneapolis. With just a quick stop in Virginia for snacks and a Twins hat for Parker we continued on to our destination. The boys continued to ask where we were going. Barrett would just tell them "we're goin' on a bear hunt." Which of course drove them nuts! Emmitt just groans and says, "dad stop teasin'." Parker actually at one point said, "I think we are going to a Twins game." We quickly realized we may not be able to get away with this so smoothly in the years to come. But for this year, it was a success. Considering we all had Twins shirts on and they didn't pick up on it.

We got a little closer to downtown and Parker noticed the MN Twins flags on the light poles. We just kept lying to them, telling them that Minneapolis people are big Twins fans just like we are Bronco fans. They seem to be satisfied with all our answers. And of course, we were on a bear hunt after all. Barrett said he would give a dollar to the first kid who spotted the bear.

When we parked and started walking towards the stadium, Parker finally said..."I guessed a Twins game and you guys said no." He was actually a little bit bugged by the fact that we didn't fully tell him he guessed it. But we told him he still had to find a bear. And that we didn't want to ruin the surprise for Emmitt.
When we walked into the stadium Barrett leaned over and told Parker that the field was going to be just a little bit bigger than he is used to. When the boys finally saw the size of the field they were in awe.

I was in awe myself. We had just finished making the rounds of the stadium shops and food. Grabbed us each a souvenir from one of shops and started to make our way back to our seats. Right out side our section is Tony Oliva! He's just hanging out, taking pictures with his adoring fans. Now my Tony Oliva story is one of the best. Here's our history.

Back in 2001, I completed my internship at Lifetime Fitness in Bloomington. Every morning I had this older gentleman ask me to walk his laps with him. The guys all around me griped quite a bit, because they were working for an income and when somebody asked you to workout with them, you got paid. I didn't care either way, I was donating my time as part of my internship and sort of liked being picked over them. Finally after about a week of this guy picking me, one of the guys I worked with asked me if I even knew who he was. I simply said, his name is Tony. He laughed and told me to go home and ask my boyfriend who Tony Oliva was. Well Barrett was more than surprised to hear that I had been walking laps and shooting the breeze with Tony Oliva for quite some time. We quickly came to the conclusion that the man was well aware that I had no idea who he was and was frankly probably sick of talking baseball with a bunch of boys who would have annoyed him during his workout. Fast forward 12 years and he's standing outside of our section. I quickly ditched my family in their seats and bolted back up to the group of fans. When it was my turn I had to remind Tony that we had a brief history and he simply said, "where are you working out now?" I sadly had to tell him that I moved all the way up to Int'l Falls, but that I would walk with him again if he made his way North.

Emmitt did find a bear after all. An overpriced stuffed animal is exactly what he needed. But he loves it and he was on the lookout for TC the entire game! Sadly, the real TC never came close enough for a photo, but momma took a couple of shots from far away for him to see whenever he wants.

Parker picked out a necklace. It was made from a baseball and wove into a super cool piece of boy jewelry!

Guess who is SEVEN! That's right, my boys!

And how about THIRTY-THREE. Oh yeah, ME!

Barrett questioned my seat selection motives right off the bat. I told him the seats were worth the money and the net behind the plate would protect the children from flying balls. (tee, hee, hee)

There was plenty of snacks, funs races, and the jumbo-tron dance parties to go around to keep the kids interested in the game. We started off with 5 runs in the first inning and then n.o.t.h.i.n.g the rest of the game. Bah!