"Saturday (Sunday actually) in the park, I think it was the Fourth of July"

Late last Friday afternoon Brayden and I were sitting down reading a book when there was a knock at the door. "Hey Amy. How's it going? Listen, I don't know what you and Chris have planned for the weekend, but...are you gonna be around? We have some tickets to the Braves' 5 o'clock game on July 4th that we can't use. They were a gift from a client and I think they're pretty good seats." We really had no formal plans for the weekend. We'd wanted to hear Tim Tebow speak at a neighboring church, but had nursery duty at our own church and couldn't find coverage. We did plan to grill out with Chris' parents late on Sunday afternoon after church and go see some fireworks, but Grandma and Grandpa are ALWAYS up for watching Brayden if the opportunity arises. Plus, Chris and I have been desperate for a date and the timing just hasn't been right...either that or we haven't made it enough of a priority. Anyway, we decided YES! Of course we want the tix! So after church, we had standard American fare with Gma and Gpa Phillips and then off to Turner Field for a July 4th with our favorite Bravos. Not only did we have unbelievable seats, our parking was paid for in a lot directly across from the field (usually when we do this kind of thing we pay $10-12 to walk several blocks). Our seats were located in the Golden Moon Casino, which is the old Lexus location, and couldn't have been better. Right along the first base line, we were shaded and had access to air conditioning and an upper tier of restaurants and restrooms only available to those seated in the GMC. Nice! We'll probably never sit there again since the face value of the tickets were $50 each, but what a nice gift!! Unfortunately, the Braves did lose that particular game to the Marlins, but they won the series.

After the game there was a concert by the Yacht Rock Revue, a band touted as one of the hottest new party bands in Atlanta and the best band in the universe for light 70's rock! Literally, they looked like a remake of the Village People and straight off the racks from Goodwill. I kept waiting for them to sing YMCA but they never did. They were, however, incredibly talented and very much enjoyable singing the tunes of Elton John, Billy Joel, Phil Collins, Olivia Newton John, Chicago and others. It was a blast and I honestly think Chris was amazed I knew so many "old" songs. I reminded him it was because he chose to marry an older woman :)! Thanks Dad for listening to such great "oldies" in the car and christening my ears to good music! Seriously, you should check them out. They also performed that morning in Piedmont Park after the Peachtree Road Race, which I'm sorry to say I did not run this year, so they must've made a killing in one day!

And of course, we closed the evening with fireworks! The Braves always put on a good show (they do fireworks after every friday night home game), but for July 4th it was especially spectacular. Thanks Tom and Lorraine for an incredible evening and a great date night! and thanks Mom and Dad Phillips for babysitting Mr. B!!