My parents have been getting tickets to the Outback Bowl for over 20 years. Each year the ticket number increases because our family is forever growing! Being a "supporter" of the Outback Bowl for so many years, my parents receive tickets to different promotional events. This past week they had a dinner inside Raymond James Stadium on the fifty yard line...hence "Feast on the Fifty". My parents gave us a couple of tickets and offered to watch Adam so Paul and I could take Rosie and John Paul. The Munoz and Meros family joined us as well.
We were under the impression (so were the kids) that there was going to be food/drink, a bounce house, face painting, access to the pirate ship, football-type games, fireworks, etc. Well, they had food, drink and fireworks (everything is hurting in this economy I suppose because last year they had all these things). I know this sounds like a complaint but it's not. We all had a blast after Rosie realized she wasn't going to get a unicorn painted on her face, and John Paul let go of the fact that the pirate ship was not his to sail. The lack of things to do actually turned into a comical evening, in retrospect!
We successfully got yelled at by every event person there. Let me give you a recap:
There is a huge pirate ship at Raymond James that was supposed to be open for everyone to enjoy but of course was closed. Our kids faces were pathetic-staring at the huge ship dreaming of swash buckling and walking the plank-but not allowed to partake in such activities. And then who would have guessed? Paul, the wonderful dad he is, snuck Rosie, John Paul, Andres and Pete onto the pirate ship for a quick thrill! They were loving it until the security guard quickly asked them to exit. Then I took them to "look" at a gigantic blow up kola bear (weird) on the field. Before I could ask them where they thought kola's lived, my two kids decided it would be a good idea to have tackling practice with it and yes we were asked to leave the area. There was a small stage set up for presentations and the kids were having a great time jumping "ninja-like" off the platform and you guessed it, "Please stop that." My absolute favorite was during the speech that was given thanking all the sponsors and supporters Rosie and John Paul went WWF on me directly in front of the stage. I pulled them apart on my own, I didn't have to wait for someone to suggest it-I have some standards. Just when I thought I was at the end of my rope, the lights went out and the fireworks went up. Alleluia! I think God knew my exact breaking point and scheduled fireworks seconds before I hit it. They were awesome and well worth the 2 hours of craziness before.
