June 10th - Bad Smithies

June 10th
Today was crappy, weather wise. We woke to a brisk 52 degrees and a less than promising weather report. Rainy and in the 50’s….damp and rainy.
So it was a good day to head to Foxboro. Fanatical fan that I am….I’ve never been to Foxboro…never been to a home game. I drove down (poor Gin), it was a quick drive and totally worth it.
The stadium is amazing. I’ve never seen anything like it – Hunter was soooo excited. It’s enormous. We walked up the main gate by the”lighthouse” and we were able see onto the field. The nose bleed seats were seriously high. I wouldn’t go up there. Anyway….there was a medical center, a mall, a hotel, and many, many restaurants and bars. We hit the pro shop, which was Patriots Mecca. I spent so much money, that they gave me free tickets to the Patriots Hall.
Patriots Hall held the team’s Hall of Fame, as well as tons of memorabilia….most importantly the Super Bowl Trophies (probably replicas?)! There were tons of other things….including a whole display devoted to the snowy Patriots/Raiders play-off game, with a video of the “tuck play”….Rich would not have been pleased! My boy Drew Bledsoe’s uniform was featured in a display for the 1990’s teams. Other than that there was only a (HOT) picture of him swinging a golf club. God, he’s hot. Poor Drew. We also got to see a movie featuring all the highs and lows of Pats history. I cried, again, watching the Pats win their first Super Bowl in 2002. There were two other girls in the theater (thank God, only 2, because my kids were running around like crazy) and we were screaming and cheering like it was happening live, for real, right in front of us.
Then we headed to Uncle Louie’s for lunch and a visit. I was very excited to see him and Mary…it had been 10 years. I put the fear of God into the children (or so I thought) warning them that they’d better not embarrass me…or else! So you can guess what happened…
Louie and Mary looked great, they really did. Their house was just as I’d remembered which is always comforting. The kids stormed their house and headed to the basement with Louie on their trail. Bear found a computer (he’d been denied access for ten days…so he was like a junkie looking for a hit.). Poor Louie was trying to boot it up for him and Bear was freakin’, cause it wasn’t fast enough. He made all sorts of lovely Barrett sounds. Meanwhile, Hunter and Camden discovered the piano & Audrey was frantically trying to manipulate the remote. I was breaking out in a sweat.
Once he hooked Barrett up, Louie went out for pizza and I went upstairs to chat with Mary & Ginny. That lasted approximately 2 minutes before all hell broke loose downstairs. I went down to find Louie’s computer screen glowing a bright magenta and Barrett moaning like a sick dog. The computer was so slow and Bear was so frustrated…God knows what he did. Quick call to daddy and I fixed it before Louie got back. Then I disabled the mouse and hid it so no one could use the computer.
We tried to sit down to lunch, but nothing, and I mean nothing was to Audrey’s liking. She said no to everything they offered and eventually dissolved into tears. I sent her to the basement. Bear apparently didn’t like the pizza, either. Cammy told me that Bear had thrown a piece in the sink (on top of clean dishes that were in a rack) and I later found a piece in the bathroom hamper. Nice. This food revolt eventually ended with Bear reenacting a scene from Barney in which Baby Bop dropped his ice cream cone on the floor….yes Bear purposefully dropped his cone on their floor.
At some point during all this, Cammy tumbled down the stairs and cut hit cheek open…close to his eye, which is now black. Then I discovered Hunter in the kitchen, drinking coke from a 2 liter bottle. When he saw me, he spit all the coke back into the bottle. Nice.
Ginny had a nice time catching up (I was too busy putting out fires) and we got some nice pictures. After another fight in the basement, I announced our departure. As a parting gift, when we were leaving…Bear made a beeline across the street into the neighbor’s back yard. I was like, “shit”. I asked the woman who’s house it was (she was out front with her kids) to please tell me she didn’t have a pool…but the attraction was only a play set. Phew.
Back at the hotel I took the boys for a very cold swim in the hopes of burning off energy. Aud stayed behind because of her obnoxiousness. Then we ate dinner at Fridays and herded everyone to an early bed. Tomorrow Cape Cod!
BTW…I’ve quizzed Ginny extensively over the last couple days about family history. LOTS of dirt. Very interesting. Also, I’m feeling really bad for my dad. I don’t think he ever had a chance. God willing I don’t make the same mistakes….I hate the saying “history repeats itself’” mostly because it usually turns out to be true….

Silly Band Award – Hunter
Quote of the day: Hunter, “It’s ‘no fair’ that I have to be 21 to drink wine.” – The kids were playing “no fair” and this is what he came up with??!?!