The Field of Dreams

One of the things on our summer list was to visit the Field of Dreams.  I had been there as a kid, but Aaron never had.  We decided to plan a surprise overnight trip to visit the movie site and then spend the night in Dubuque, where neither of us had been before.

The movie site is located on a farm outside of Dyersville.  We went there on a Wednesday afternoon, which was a great day to go.  There were people there, but not too many. 

It isn't fancy.  It is literally a baseball field that was in a movie with corn in the outfield.  The house is there, but you can't go in it. 

There's something special about the place though.  It's a place where families come together.  To play catch and take some batting practice. They actually leave a bat and some baseballs out for people to use. 

You know that line in the movie where Ray says to his dad, "Wanna have a catch?"  Yep, it makes me tear up every single time.  Sidenote:  who says wanna "have" a catch?  Shouldn't it be wanna "play" catch?  Anyway...

After some catch in the outfield, home plate opened up and we hustled up there to take some swings.

So while we had the kids hit, a dad and his two kids helped us shag balls.  It turns out that him and his family were on their way back from a 9,000 mile cross country trip in an RV heading back to their home in Pennsylvania.  The dad kept saying, "This is so cool.  This is just so neat."

The dad wanted to hit and his son was struggling to pitch, so I told Aaron to go pitch to him.  Then, the guy thought Aaron should take some swings too.

Of course if you go to the Field of Dreams, you have to get a photo coming out of the corn.  It would be wrong not too. 

Nothing's ever easy with these characters, is it?! ;)

A pre-anniversary, we're playing a sport we both love, pic in the corn.  Pretty perfect each of us is different-handed wouldn't you say?!

Seriously...my heart melts at this photo.  My five favorites. 

Also cool was that one of the ghost players in the movie was hanging out talking to folks that day.  He was so incredibly nice!  He is very humble and told us the movie allowed the ghost players to travel around the world and he likes to give back whenever he has the chance by spending time at the field talking to visitors. 

Isn't it crazy that they get between 65-70,000 visitors a year?  I mean there's only so many months in Iowa that are doable and that there's corn in the outfield. 

Love this quote...

It was a really good day filled with lots of memories!  If I'm ambitious I'll post some photos from the Dubuque portion of our trip, but no promises. :)

BLAKE UPDATE: On a different note, Blake's labs today were stable enough that we don't have to go to Iowa City until next Thursday, the 21st!  His potassium did go up a slight bit, but that was it.  Praising the Lord for that good news today!

Also, I forgot to mention in case any of you read yesterday's post and wondered how Blake's urine is getting outside his body.  He pees.  Like a normal kiddo!  He wasn't supposed to be able to do that.  The doctors said no way.  But, as we all know, Blake never follows the rules and is always breaking the mold, isn't he?  Proving people wrong again, that's our boy!!