WORLD SERIES GAME 6

I'm in love!!! That's the best way to describe how things went down the night of October 30th, 2013.  Watching the play offs and the first 5 games of the world series had been a little rough on us.  We were up late almost every night (we needed travel days as much as the team did), and after a certain game in the World Series I couldn't sleep at all.  Well as fate would have it we were up 3 games to 2 going into game 6 when the series was coming back to Boston.  It was the day before we had to fly out to go to Washington D.C. for Hahn's Sealing, so we REALLY needed to wrap this one up that night.  

When we won in 2004 and 2007 I was out at BYU for both victories.  Though those were some of the happiest times I can remember, I was also left feeling sad that I wasn't home with "my people" to celebrate these victories!  They would pan the streets and show the crowds celebrating and I was wishing I could be there sharing in the elation.  

2013.... Here's my chance. It was a Wednesday night and I had to go to young women's that evening.  I was walking out the door as Dane was walking in, (literally - but different doors in our building so I didn't get to see him) but we had our plan. I was going to leave YW's and go pick him up and we would head down on the T to Fenway and bask in the atmosphere.  Then WHEN we won we would be in the center of it all.  The Clovers were going to join us, but Jeremy had to finish up Young Men's in the Spanish Branch he is serving in.  So we whisked Katie away with us and headed down to Kenmore Square.  

 The T was full of people doing exactly what we were doing.   Everyone just wanted to be down there by Fenway.  There was one guy on there with us that had his own liquor bottle that he kept sipping on.  At one point he dropped it and it slid down to Katie's feet.  She picked it up and handed it back to the guy.  Dane was just laughing watching this cute little Mormon girl handing alcohol back to this big burley guy.  Katie thought about it and decided that was the first time she has ever held alcohol.  It was a night of firsts.  :)

We got down to Lansdowne Street and walked around and tried to find a TV where we could watch the game.  The bars were all full and one place even put posters up on their windows so people wouldn't come up to the glass to watch the game.  One resident on Brookline was projecting it onto a sheet over their windows so we could all see.

Katie wanted to buy a Red Sox hat and I needed to use the bathroom so we headed off to go find a place to do both.  We found Katie a great looking hat and decided she better get it so she could tell her story of the night the Sox won the World Series and was there by Fenway when it wall went down.  In the mean time Dane went to check out this spot he was eyeing to see if it would be a good place to watch the game.  It was the parking lot right behind the Green Monster.  He started texting me that we needed to come to this parking lot when we were heading back.
Once we made our purchase we started walking to some of the bars to see if they would let me use their bathrooms.  They were all locked up and not letting anyone in.  If someone left, they weren't allowed back in.  The Mayor also made a statute of some sort that alcohol could not be served after 5 or 6 that evening.  That made sense considering mob mentality... more on that in a minute.  :)  So, it looked like I was going to be out of luck.  Katie and I headed over to Dane and found that he had discovered the best spot in all the surrounding area to watch the game.

The people we joined were there with gloves for any home runs that might sneak over the Green Monster. they also had a sweet set up with the game streaming on a laptop and a radio with the announcers giving a good report of what was going on.  It was a sweet set up.
At this point I asked the parking attendant if there was a restroom I could use.  He told me that I should go downstairs and ask his co-worker if I could use their facilities and if he said no, I should just go behind some cars there in the garage.  ....OK! You said it my friend.  So I headed downstairs and found this one port-a-potty that almost every cop in the area was lined up to use.  I just stepped in line and hoped for the best.  Other civilians saw that I was in line and got in line with me.  While I was in there I heard the parking attendant yelling at them, "not a public bathroom!" and telling them to go away.
Back up top we had so much fun listening to the crowd and could tell when something good or bad was going to happen.  When the crowd would scream the guys with the gloves would snap to attention to catch anything that may be heading their direction.

 Since the TV was about 15-20 seconds behind the real deal we could predict what the pitch count was, like the pitcher had thrown a ball if we hadn't heard anything for a while.  Or if we put one of their guys on base when we heard a sigh from the stadium.  Then when there was excited screaming from Fenway those that had strayed away from the TV would rush back to see what had happened.

Here's a video of the time delay between Fenway and our little monitor. Blogger won't let me embed it.

 We were up off the street level a little so it was fun to look down and see everyone milling around down on Lansdowne Street.  After a while there was a small mob of about 30 or so people that got that crazy mentality going, and got the bright idea that they were going to break into Fenway to see the game.  They tried to shake down or push in the gates of the park.  

They didn't come close and ended up getting themselves all kicked out of the area.  The cops ended up closing down the whole street and a few blocks in every direction.  There were several "check points" someone had to get through in order to get close to Fenway.  The cool part was that they left us alone.  They didn't make those that were in the parking lot leave.  There were a few people that tried to sneak up to the parking lot so they wouldn't get kicked out of the area, but the parking attendant was having none of that and made those guys leave.

 After that it was pretty quiet down on the street and the parking lot people were the only ones that were in the area outside.  The downside of this was that Jeremy hadn't gotten into town yet, but was on his way and his phone died.  He called Katie from a strangers phone and said that he would try to make it in, but with three police check points between us it didn't look good.

 Ultimately we ended up saying bye to Katie as she went to watch the last few innings with her husband.  We had fun with our little group in the parking lot

Here's a video link to our Sweet Caroline experience   

And to sum it all up......  The Last Pitch!!!!

We have a bunch of videos of the celebrations that are just so fun! It was a mad house down by Fenway once we won!  The bars cleared out - and actually kicked everyone out once the game was final.  We were walking through crowds chanting and dancing, everyone giving high fives to police officers,  giving high fives to each other.  As we were walking away from Fenway we walk over a bridge that goes over the Mass Pike.  All the truckers and cars were blowing their horns and honking as they drove past Fenway! Everyone was celebrating.

 It was one of the most memorable nights of my life.  We were THRILLED!!!! I will forever remember that night as one of the best.  It was just a blast and I'm so glad that Dane was sporting he Red Sox gear under all his layers as well.  We even ran into Jenn, Dane's classmate that sat next to him in Pre-Clin.  Walking back to the T was also fun.  People crowded the streets and the intersection in front of Burklee was a party of people dancing and cheering.  

Best. Night. Ever.

Early Fall

This fall seems to be slipping away and I am falling behind.  Here are a few snap shots of fun things we've done.  

My Grandpa came into town and we brought him to the Fair.  We even took him on the Ferris Wheel.  

 Dane went golfing with the boys.  I think this was after a particularly stressful test block.

 On a hike to a little reservoir.  

 Columbus Day!!! We went up to the cabin and took a last spin on the lake.  Here's Dane joining the elite status of "October Club" member.

Which is a way of saying Dane went water skiing in the month of October.  It was brisk! See all the leaves behind him changing.  What a man!

Recap of our fun summer

Since I've been terrible at keeping this up to date this past summer, here is a splash of what we did.  

Impromptu date at the Boston Public Gardens.  

Saving some money by doing our own break job... thanks to a lot of assistance from my dad.

We went to some Sox games this summer... Never can get enough.

Ahhh.  Mecca.

Fun hike with our friends.

At the top of "Mount Misery" which in reality was just a big hill.

A walk to the ice cream shop with the gang from the complex.

Terrible picture, but this is Dane and I at the horse track.  We made bets with "back rub minutes."  I ended up with 15 and Dane ended up with 20.

I golfed my first ever round of golf!!!!! Good thing we didn't keep score, and it's too bad that there was so many water traps on this course... I think we came out about even.  We spotted a bunch of balls on the 8th hole.

Bon fire of love.

Our friends... at the bon fire of love... getting some love.

We went to a free concert at the Esplanade on the Charles River.  It was Gavin Degraw and The Backstreet Boys.  They didn't let anyone on that side of the street for hours before hand.  It was a struggle to find a place that the cops didn't keep moving us from, but finally they gave up and closed the street because there were just so many spectators.  You can see part of the stage through the trees by Dane's left ear.

We spent most of our summer at the cabin.  Every weekend and more from July through August we were at the cabin.  Dane got amazingly good at slaloming.

James and Tracy came to visit!!!!! Yes!

Dane found a siamese banana.  I just hope he didn't ingest any radio active stuff that cause this anomaly in the first place.  

I don't have a picture on my computer yet, but we also went to a Maroon 5 concert and Kelly Clarkson opened for them.  It was so much fun.  That was my birthday present.  It was best case scenario.  

We had a blast and are sad that summer is long over and Dane's back in the swing of school.  He's been busy with patients and making dentures and trying to study. This is only the tip of the iceberg of our summer, but we had so much fun it's hard to post everything.  

Youth Conference - Palmyra NY

So I have been neglecting the blog... Catch up time.  Here are some pictures from our youth conference in June.  Dane and I went and were counselors.  We had so much fun with our group and had the great opportunity to go to the church sites in Palmyra, NY.

 On the long bus ride down... Yeah.

 Our little devotional on the top of the Hill Camorah. You can tell we were all very focused.

 Inside the Smith family home.  This is the Smith family Bible... The one that Joseph read James 1:5 out of.

 Walking from the old Smith home to the new one you catch a glimpse of the temple over looking the Smith property and Sacred Grove.

 Inside the "new" Smith family home. One time a mob was trying to come steal the plates from Joseph and he pulled up a few bricks, dug a hole, and hid the plates under this fire place.

 This is the kitchen.

 And onto the Sacred Grove. It's the only picture we have from this trip.

 This is the printing shop where the first Book of Mormon was published.

 And right upstairs was the printing press area.

 On our way out I saw this on the step... I just had to.  In honor of my only niece.

 This is the Whitmer farm.  Some of the translation happened here.

 This is the main room in the Whitmer home where the church was organized.

 Our stellar group.

 The Palmyra Temple.  Dane was able to take part of our group up to the temple grounds for a discussion about the temple and what it means.  It was very beneficial to the youth in that discussion.  I heard about that discussion during the testimony meeting from our youth.  I was with a few others from our group in the grove.

 It was a rainy day, so after all our nightly activities we decided to go sliding down a hill on our bellies.  It was awesome.  I went head to head with one of our guys, unfortunately I didn't slide as far as he did.  He got bragging rights, and I mangled the bracelet I was wearing.

See how soaked Dane is!  :) Dane did most of his sliding down in the puddles.  He didn't go down the hill side as much as we did.  Other leaders saw our shirts and just said, "nice..." or "that's a good looking shirt."  It was pretty funny.  

The next day we dominated the Palmyra Temple and did tons of baptisms.  Shortly after that we packed up and started heading home.  Other than a lack of sleep, it was a great experience.  

Wedding fun in California

Dane and I went out to our cousin's wedding last month in California.  What an amazing weekend.  We booked our tickets for the trip a long time ago.  We bought them based on who is the cheapest, and we just have to accept that there is probably a reason why that air line is the most affordable.  Recently, we've been riding United quite frequently and because of this trip we know why United is consistently the cheapest.

We flew out of Boston just fine on June 7th.  We were scheduled to have a layover in Denver for a few hours.  When we arrived in Denver we found that our flight had been delayed.  We were bummed about that, but we figured we'd still be ok, and could get there by the family party that night.  They kept pushing back our flight, and we kept calculating what time our arrival would be.  When all was said and done, I think they pushed it back 4 times... The last time they said they didn't know what time the plane would be ready.  We were just sitting there waiting for our plane and we both had headphones in.  They started to make an announcement, and we looked up in time to see tons of people turn simultaneously and start running.  We were thinking that they changed gates or something, but that didn't quite make sense... Why would they run to our next gate.  I had to ask someone and he told me they had cancelled our flight.  WHAT!!! Who cancels flights when everyone is there waiting for the plane!?! Well, United does I guess.  We were late to the party at customer service, so there was about 100-150 people in front of us. Considering that and if there was a later flight, there was no way that we were ever going to get a seat with everyone in front of us taking up those seats.  So, as a pilots daughter, I figured there was probably another customer service desk somewhere in the terminal.  I left Dane in line there, and I went on the hunt.  I found another customer service desk, but there wasn't anyone there.  I did, however, spot the tell tale bank of phones that I have unfortunately grown accustom to due to flying standby on Delta.  I walked over, picked up the phone.  And was getting our flights rebooked in no time.  The customer service lady (out of the Philippines) let me know there was no flight to San Jose for the rest of the day and was trying to talk me into getting a flight tomorrow morning.  I called Dane on my cell and had a phone on each ear, found out that we could go to a couple other airports, and got booked on a San Francisco flight that was leaving two hours later.  It was a miracle.  I printed out our boarding passes and walked back to Dane, who hadn't moved up much in line.   A couple hours later we were on our flight to San Francisco and I couldn't help but notice the standby list and feel bad for those 34+ people.

We got to San Fan and had a fun evening at the family party.  We loved seeing family and everyone, including ourselves were surprised by how quickly we had gotten there.  Everyone had heard the saga of our trip to that point.  We loved seeing the Bride and Groom and the rest of our family.  We chatted it up with everyone and eventually headed back to the Hodgman's house to chat it up for another hour or so.  Chatting with family is one of Dane's all time favorite things, so after we had been awake for 22 hours straight we called it a night.

The next morning Dane went on a hike... for the record, I would have gone if I had brought the right footwear. :) At least that's what I like to tell myself. Here are a few photo's from the hike that Dane snapped.

Story telling is the best.

Redwoods are so cool!


We had a leisurely morning and enjoyed the continental breakfast.  We headed up to the temple and met up with Adam and Christina! We were so happy to see them.  We hadn't seen them in a couple years.

The sealing ceremony was so great.  Stephanie was sealed in the same dress that her mother and aunts all wore at their weddings.  It was amazing watching another couple be sealed and start their married life. They were so happy.

We had an amazing time at the reception.  The wind had fun with the decorations. We had fun with the flip book station, food and dancing.  We also got to meet not just one, but two new nephews.  Once again we're so glad Adam and Christina made it! I also ran into my friend Amber from BYU.  It was fun catching up with her.  It made me wish they had taken a job offer back here in Boston!  After dancing, chatting, sparklers, and clean up we all sat down and do what we do best.... Chatted it up- and before we knew it the night was ending.  Not to worry though.  We had more fun the next day where we had two baby blessings in church.

Dane and I could only stay for a short time after church since we had to catch our flight out.  We ate and ran out the door. Only to get delayed in Denver again.  Our flight, which was already getting in late, got pushed back another couple hours.  We got to bed that night at about 4 am... Dane needed to be on a 6:45 am bus that morning to get to a test at school.  He didn't hear his alarm or slept right through it, and at 7:15 woke up (by some miracle) and I drove him to the T station.

It was a fast weekend, but it was a highlight of our summer! Congrats Steph and Jon!