Tim's Birthday, also known as the day we met Bryce Harper!

Well, I am behind by a few posts, but Tim's birthday was so exciting that I'm going to go out of chronological order (gasp!) and write about it first!  We had been planning for a  month to go to the National's game with friends to celebrate Tim's birthday.  While Tim was looking at tickets for the group the day before, he was listening to a local sports show, the Sports Junkies, and called in for a contest, winning himself one hell of a birthday!  He won two tickets to section 130, Row S, aisle seats, passes to go on the field for batting practice, and a meet and greet with Bryce Harper, the National's 19 year old Rookie Phenom!  We immediately agreed to ditch our friends and take the boys, and it was easy for me to say that he should take Timmy out on the field with him, Tyler and I would watch from the stands.

We arrived nice and early, sang happy birthday to Tim and got in our Nationals gear.  We waited for our early entrance at the Nat's store, where we picked up an official Harper jersey for Timmy to wear.

Tim and Timmy were escorted down to the field and got there in time to see the players warming up for Batting Practice.

Tyler and I were shown to the location we could watch from.  I was disappointed with our spot, we were way up high on the mezzanine level, I had thought we would at least be in the stands by the dug out, but I was told that part of the stadium wasn't open yet.

Luckily, just a moment later, the intern showing us around got a call from his boss, two more field passes had been made available and Tyler and I were invited to go on the field as well!  We ran down as fast as we could and I was so happy we were able to join Tim and Timmy!  There were only two other guys who were getting to meet Harper with us, the staff with us said that it was very, very rare to have a meet and greet, so that made it feel even more special!

Standing right in front of the National's Dug Out, we had players and reporters walking right past us the whole time, not to mention batting practice going on as well. Tim recognized and spoke with a few sports writers.  F.P. Santangelo, the National's Color Analyst was thrilled when Tim said hello to him by name and came over to talk to us.  He was very happy to pose with Timmy too!

Michael Morse smiled at us as he went into the dug out and then he waved to and smiled at Timmy and Tyler as they alternated waving at him.

Harper and Zimmerman chatted for a minute by the helmets before Harper took his batting practice and Zimmerman gave an interview in the dug out.

Finally it was time for our meet and greet with Bryce Harper.  Harper was very polite and shook each of our hands as we introduced ourselves.  We chatted for a moment and had Timmy turn around so Harper could see he was wearing his jersey.  Harper posed for a picture with all of us and then he asked us if we would like him to sign Timmy's jersey and we said absolutely!  Tim asked him to sign a ball for each boy, dedicating it to them.  I asked him if he would take a picture with Tyler so Tyler wouldn't have to be jealous of his big brother in a few years.  Harper laughed and agreed, but when he took Tyler out of my hands, it suddenly became obvious he was a 19 year old kid, he really didn't know what to do with a baby!  He got him situated quickly though and I'm so glad we asked for that picture!  Finally Tim requested one more autograph, getting his own Harper jersey signed. We all wished him luck as he headed for the dug out and we were shown off the field.  It was all just so cool!

From there, we went to the Stars and Stripes club to enjoy some air conditioning (It was 106 degrees during all this, btw!) to look at our autographs, relax, cool off, and get some food.  But mostly to stay in the air conditioning until game time!  Luckily by the time we made our way to our seats the sun was behind the stadium and it was pretty comfortable out.  We did have the four of us squished into two seats so Timmy quickly got restless.  I took him out to find a hot dog, the bathroom, and to say hello to Baba and Grandpa who had come to the game as well.  We went back to our seats to join Tim in watching the President's Race, Timmy has decided that Abe is his favorite.  :)  Then all of us headed over to my parents section because there was more space.  Timmy was exhausted by this time, so we wandered over to the Red Porch, where my parents had gone to eat dinner and sat with them for the 8th inning before heading for home.  It was a fantastic day!