Father's Day Surprise

Stacy's father has been talking about the family going to a Portland Sea Dogs game for years, but we never seem to get around to it. So, we all decided to surprise Joe for Father's Day and take him to a game. It turned out to be a perfect evening for baseball, sunny with a cool breeze.

With good weather and good company, it should have been a great evening, however, there was one not-so-quiet hiccup. The moment the National Anthem started to play, we discovered that we were sitting in front of the most obnoxious fans in the entire ballpark! While we all can appreciate zealous fans, these guys were way over the top! The highlight of the evening? When at the bottom of the 8th inning, in response to the them yelling, "Take him out! Leave him in! Take him out! Leave him in!" about the opposing pitcher, Joe yelled, "Take THEM out!" and pointed to our new "friends," earning cheers from those around us!

If you look closely at the photo below, you can see one of the fans directly behind Stacy making a fitting face!

What was Sue laughing about? You'll have to ask her... ; )

All in all, it was another memorable evening to add into the Alexander Hall of Fame. Happy Father's Day Papa Joe!

Double Nickels' Club

Stacy's mom had never had a birthday party. Given the difficult year she had, Stacy's dad thought it would be the perfect time to throw her a surprise bash to mark her 55th birthday. Stacy and her brothers (and sister-in-law) spent several weeks working out all the details. They settled on a luau theme and as luck would have it, Stacy happened upon some pretty sweet decorations in storage at her office including two inflatable glowing tiki arches.

Welcome to the luau!!!

Sue was completely surprised, even though Joe slipped a few times in the hours leading up to the party. Here she's enjoying her favorite "adult" beverage, a Bahama Mama.

Melissa and her mom, Connie, had the tough task of grilling hamburgers, hot dogs and chicken for 50 guests, but they did it with a smile.

The Alexanders kids baked and decorated three cakes for the birthday girl. The one below was the "show" cake, which was pretty standard, but they had some fun with the other two cakes. Their favorite was the one with a giant wave and the text, "Tsu-Mami," -- it works whether you call her Sue or Mommy. Cheesy, but when you're decorating at 11 p.m., it's a lot funnier!

The Alexanders needed to make sure they had a family portrait with the inflatable as background. But before they did, they had to make sure Joe looked presentable. As you can see, it took all four of them to do it!

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

Yosemite National Park

During our recent visit to California, we took a three-day trip north to Yosemite National Park, which none of us had ever been to. In the higher elevation, there were pockets of snow, something the Russell boys were not used to! This was a "snow play area" but to Mainers it was just a light dusting.

Our first hike, which was supposed to be a short one, turned out to be nearly six miles since the road was closed to vehicles. We weren't about to let a closed road stop us from seeing the giant Sequoias!

Stacy is quite the tree-hugger!

This is the Grizzly Giant, which is believed to be the oldest tree in the park and one of the oldest on Earth. It's also one of the biggest, as you can see!

Another famous tree in the Mariposa Grove at Yosemite was this tunnel tree. At one time, a car could drive through it.

Our second day of the park started with this "inspirational" view. On the left is El Capitan and in the middle, way in the background, is Half Dome. The waterfall at the left is Bridalveil Fall.

Once down on the valley floor, we took a short "hike" to get a closer look at Bridalveil Fall.

The boys, Colton (3.5) and Grady (20 months), were able to do this hike on their own, which was a nice relief for their parents!

In order to really see Yosemite, though, you have to do a real hike. We settled on the John Muir Trail, which took us a few thousand feet up to see waterfalls that weren't visible from the valley floor. We were captivated by this view of Vernal Falls.

On the descent, we broke the rules and came down the Mist Trail, which was technically closed due to the threat of ice and falling rocks. We encountered neither ...

... And if we went another way, we never would have captured this vista looking back up toward Vernal Falls.

Even though they weren't expert hikers, our adorable nephews were the best company we could ask for.

On our final day at Yosemite, we drove back down to the valley floor and did a short hike to the base of Yosemite Falls - a nice backdrop for a family portrait of the "California" Russells ...

... and the "Maine" Russells.

Yosemite exceeded all of our expectations. It was nice to cross another national park off our list!