Jax's first M's game

As part of my wonderful Father's Day weekend, I got to take Jax to his first Mariners game yesterday. I won the tickets on the radio, so that was a bonus to not have to pay. We made our pre-trip stop at the supermarket to buy peanuts and crackerjacks, the necessities. We hit some pretty bad traffic that slowed us down just enough to miss out on the bobblehead giveaways. We got in, got some hot dogs and found our seats. The radio station has season tickets in a pretty good spot. Right behind home plate in the 3rd level, great place to explain the game to a new fan.

After we ate our hot dogs I realized that we had forgotten the sign that Crystal made for us and the peanuts in the car. Luckily the game was 20 minutes from first pitch, and we were just parked in the Safeco garage, so we hi-tailed it back to the car. When we came back in one of the ticket takers told us to go up to guest services and show them our sign. I thought maybe they'd take note of where we were sitting so we'd get on the Jumbotron. Nope, even better. Jax got a certificate for coming to his first game and baseball cards. He lit up! He even got a baseball card of the Mariner Moose. There were so many people talking to him about his first game, and he was talking ALL of them up right back. I guess I should point out that his sign said "My First Game" on it, and that was drawing the attention. He was so happy to be at the stadium, but I still didn't know how the 9 innings would go.

We had some great people sitting around us and plenty of space for him to be a 5 year old kid. Peanuts made for a pretty good re-focus tool when he started to get too hyper. He did SO GREAT with all the cheers the crowd was doing, and I didn't even have to get him to do it. His favorite was of course I-CHI-RO, I-CHI-RO, I-CHI-RO. Between every inning he would jump on his chair and stand up and wave his sign trying to get on TV so "grandpa could see me and laugh at my funny faces." We never did get on TV, but he tried for the whole game.

About the second inning he saw the cotton candy guy about 4 sections away, and decided that he had to have some cotton candy when that guy got over to us. He never showed up, so we had to go for the alternative. Shishkaberrries. It blew his mind to see strawberries covered in chocolate..........ON A STICK! That was about the 6th inning, and we still hadn't had a single fit, or tantrum or anything. Pleasantly surprised was I. The 7th inning rolled around and I was swelling with pride as we belted out "Take me out to the ballgame" Jax had been saying the whole time that when the game was over we had to go down to the field to give the Mariners high fives. So the game ended and we headed down to the good seats to try to get some attention, to no avail. Then he decided all the Mariners were at a party celebrating their win, and we HAD to find the party.

All in all it was as perfect of a ballgame experience as I could have imagined, and a great start to a promising weekend.