The Donner Boys

Old School Football

noreply@blogger.com (Donner Dad) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 21:23:00 +0000

Nathan, Seth and Solomon having some fun at the park on Monday.

Snow day number 3

noreply@blogger.com (Donner Dad) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:08:00 +0000

Day number three of the snowpacalypse. We've put together every puzzle, read every book, and we're bored of lightsaber fights to the star wars main theme. What next?

Snowpacalypse

noreply@blogger.com (Donner Dad) — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 14:49:00 +0000

Sledding

noreply@blogger.com (Donner Dad) — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 04:20:00 +0000

May the merchandise be with you

noreply@blogger.com (Donner Dad) — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 21:12:00 +0000

Today, Nate and Dad:

Played Lego Star Wars on the Wii
Built Darth Vader's ship out of Legos
Watched the first part of Empire Strikes Back (When the snow beast was eating the Tauntaun, Nate observed: "What a messy eater")
Slept in our Tauntaun sleeping bag

At the Flyers game with granny

noreply@blogger.com (Donner Dad) — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 19:00:00 +0000

Granny said I should put more pictures up on the web page. Here's one.

noreply@blogger.com (Donner Dad) — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 23:51:00 +0000

Jeddi in training

noreply@blogger.com (Donner Dad) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 18:37:00 +0000

Pillow day.

noreply@blogger.com (Donner Dad) — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 11:52:00 +0000

First day of school (last week)

noreply@blogger.com (Donner Dad) — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 11:25:00 +0000

Baseball trip photos

noreply@blogger.com (Donner Dad) — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 01:22:00 +0000

Narrowed down to the essential 70.

Game 4: Mets v. Cardinals

noreply@blogger.com (Donner Dad) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 22:46:00 +0000

Whew, it's a scorcher! The weather report says 82 but in the direct sun and all that walking, it was really something. Mets win 9-0. Not much to say about the game.

Highlights:

Seats were 3 throws from left field wall, which gave us a good view of Matt Holliday (Cardinals) and Gary Sheffield (Mets). During a break in the 2nd, a kid in our row yelled "hey Gary!" and he turned and waved. Very nice.
Bottom 1st: David Wright home run, up comes the apple!
Bottom 2nd: Cardinals center fielder Ankiel drops two in a row. crowd goes nuts!
Between innings trivia question on the jumbtron was to guess the longest mets game in history. Just yesterday, Poppy told the story of how he took Granny to a game once that went 22 innings! Turns out it was 25.
Top 4th through middle of 6th: can't handle the sun anymore, went for a nice long stroll around the stadium. Citi Field is nice. Still has that new park smell.
Mid 8th: Sing-a-long to "Meet the Mets." Nate made a funny face at Granny when she sang it this morning. After the song, he turned to me and said "That was a really weird song."
Bottom 8th: Mets Pitcher Bobby Parnells gets a very solid hit on his first career at-bat. They gave him the ball - very nice.
Fans were eerily polite. Not what I expected.
I think I will always remember the feeling of the stale air at the top of the ramp at Willets Station thinking I wasn't sure if i had any moisture left to sweat while trying to be patient while the guy in front of us keept running his fare card through the slot too slowly to be read.

Game 3: Phills v Rockies

noreply@blogger.com (Donner Dad) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 02:29:00 +0000

oy. Lousy game. Phils lose 8-3. Hot, humid, stale night. Got a ball during batting practice, that was good. And of course going with granny! On to NYC for the mets game tomorrow.

Game 2: Baltimore v. Boston

noreply@blogger.com (Donner Dad) — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 13:19:00 +0000

Red Sox shut out Baltimore 4-0.

Game highlights:

Going to game early to catch the end of batting practice, which was a cool experience. We started on the concourse behind the right field wall, where we realized very quickly when everyone started yelling "woooaahhhhh!" that it was not safe to have nate on my shoulders. Soon after that, we went down the first baseline against the wall where nate could see - and move out of the way - on his own feet.
A full stadium, which we don't get often. Remarkably, it was 60-70% Red Sox fans. Apparently this is pretty common, as tickets in Boston are so hard to get. Fans were enthusiastic, with Sox chants starting in the first inning and going through the game. Right around the Youkilis home run in the 5th, a red and white beach ball shows up in the section next to us.
Seeing Jason Bay play again. He left early with a minor injury, hopefully he'll be back thursday in new york where I think we have seats in left field.
Yelling "Yooouuuuuuukkkkkkk"
V-mart Victor Martinez makes his Sox debut. He got a nice welcome from the fans, which was nice.
Josh Beckett - amazing!
As I complain about hot, humid, stale air, Nate suggests mantra "I am an ice cube."
Nice stadium, overall experience. Doesn't quite have the comfort or amenities of PNC, but noticeably more subdued between-innings entertainment.After all, it's about the baseball.

Off for a stroll around the inner harbor and to ESPN SportsZone for lunch and to watch the Buccos beat the Nationals!

On our way to Baltimore

noreply@blogger.com (Donner Dad) — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 19:56:00 +0000

We stopped in Breezewood for lunch and gas. Pizza Hut! While we waited for our pizza, we came up with some rules for the trip.

Rule 1: Pick your nose every day at least once.
Rule 2: No salads.
Rule 3: Must start a chant at every game.
~~Rule 4: Must call each other by our trip nickname "Slugger."~~ (Seemed like a good idea, but Nate got tired of this after 5 minutes and wants to just use our regular names.)
Rule 5: Take mints from every restaurant we go to, if they have them.

As we were leaving, we realized we missed Solomon and Mommy. We decided to put our leftover pizza in the car seat. It didn't really help.

We are now checked in to the hotel. There are a LOT of Boston fans here! With three hours until game time, time to go for a walk around the harbor.

Pirates Recap

noreply@blogger.com (Donner Dad) — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 03:55:00 +0000

Wow, what a great game! Pirates win 5-4.

Seth came along to use the third seat. We sat in our usual section and row (113, Row U), but at the other end (seats 14-16 instead of 1-3.) Both facts will come into play later...

Game Highlights:

Top 3rd: Doumit almost hit a three run homer. So close! Oh well.
Middle 3rd: Everyone goes nuts when the pirate parrot starts shooting hot dogs into the stands. As I'm sitting there thinking how it's particularly crazy on $1 hot dog night, the guy sitting in our usual seats catches one.
Bottom 3rd: 2 on with no outs, Ohlendorf strikes one batter than gets the next to hit into a 5-4-3 double play. whew!
Bottom 4th: Two new guys show their stuff: Steve Pearce hits first home run as a Pirate, Cedeno follows with his first hit as a Pirate! The future is here.
Bottom 5th: Delwyn Young hits foul ball into luxury box RIGHT over our heads.
End 5th: Pierogi Race taken to the next level. Relay race, pierogi teams against Nationals Presidents mascots. Botched handoff puts a pierogi team in the lead. Just to play it safe, Oliver Onion (I think it was) decks Teddy Roosevelt out cold. Crowd goes nuts. First Sports Center Top 10 play of the game. Will have to look for it on youtube.
Top 6: Cedeno makes Freddy-like diving catch. Crowd likes!
Top 7: While Zimmerman hits solo HR, Beer man taunts man with cut off sleeves and camouflage hat with Larry the Cable Guy references. Later in inning, LaRoche makes amazing backhanded catch at the dugout fence. Sports Center top 10 play #2.7
Mid 7: 7th inning stretch: Nate refuses to try to be cute to get on jumbotron. Seth willing to try. Cuter, smaller kid few rows ahead distracted camera mans eye. oh well.
Bottom 8th: LaRoche fouls the ball, guy two rows behind me catches it and gives it to Seth! Nate is disappointed that he doesn't get it, but took it well. Seth picks up on Nate's feelings, and starts yelling to the next batter "Hey, hit it up here. My friend needs a ball too!" What a mensch!
Top 9th: Exciting finish. Can't remember the last time I saw so many people at a Pirates game, up and cheering!

Game 1 Preview: Pirates v. Nationals

noreply@blogger.com (Donner Dad) — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 21:00:00 +0000

First game of our trip tonight. Pirates at home against the Nationals.

This is exactly what the Pirates need right now - a long home stand starting with the worst team in the league. Hopefully they can put together a few wins to build some confidence and fan support.

While we will certainly miss Freddy Sanchez and Jack Wilson, and the team is going to look worse before it gets better, it's a pretty exciting time to be a Pirate fan. Lots of good prospects now across the farm system. It's fun to think that in two years, a lot of these guys could be up making the Bucs a pretty respectable team.

Unfortunately because of the long home stand we won't be seeing the Bucs on the road. So while it won't feel much like vacation to sit in our usual seats, it'll be great to really be rooting for our team. Let's go Bucs!

Baseball!

noreply@blogger.com (Donner Dad) — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 11:49:00 +0000

Tonight, Nathan and Dad begin their 8 day, 5 game, 4 city baseball trip!

We are really excited. We've been planning this for months. We have all our tickets (except Philadelphia, which Granny has.) We are starting in Pittsburgh, then going to Baltimore. From there, we go to Philadelphia where we will stay with Granny and Gramps. After that, we go to New York. We see two games there. We are staying with Rafe and Stevie. After the trip, we are going to Ligonier with Grandma and Grandpa and all the cousins from Cleveland.

Stay tuned to your computer for more messages from the trip!

Chestertown

noreply@blogger.com (Donner Dad) — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 01:32:00 +0000

Last Day of School

noreply@blogger.com (Donner Dad) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 12:36:00 +0000

Remember that kid on the left...?

No dad, I can see fine, I don't really need a haircut...

noreply@blogger.com (Donner Dad) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 03:08:00 +0000

Kindergarten Moving Up

noreply@blogger.com (Donner Dad) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 16:10:00 +0000

Update: Corrected link to slideshow (I hope)

Some original shots from Nathan's Kindergarten Moving Up (Graduation) Ceremony yesterday. The last shot is the aftermath of some roughhousing at the end of the day involving a tooth brush, clenched teeth, and a somewhat loose tooth. :)

Will add more shots from teachers, others shortly.

Editorial note to the three people who look at this blog: I promise to get back to posting here!

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Chametz Free

noreply@blogger.com (Donner Dad) — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 20:11:00 +0000

Chametz free shots from Passover visit to Granny & Gramps...

Sol's First Haircut

noreply@blogger.com (Donner Dad) — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 04:17:00 +0000

G and G got a digital camera

noreply@blogger.com (Donner Dad) — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 04:12:00 +0000

and took some good shots!