Padres Mormon Night

For those of you who know us well, you know we Bunkers don't need a big reason to get dressed up. Chinese Night, Princess Night, Cinco de Mayo, Zorro night...you name it, even the slightest hint of a wanna-be holiday or themed date night and out comes our costume boxes.

Last week though, we actually had a legitimate reason to dress up. We were asked to be a part of the pre-game Padres ceremony on Mormon Night at Petco Park. We were asked to represent the Mormon Battalion. Jared was the Captain Lieutenant and was actually in charge of the marching and color guard's carry orders for the National Anthem. He had quite a few orders to memorize and he was tempted to cheat and just write them on his hands but he did just great on his own. Maybe he missed his calling in high school to be in marching band afterall.

Before the game we got to go through the VIP gate (oooohh) and hang out here in the "Green Room" (aahhhh).
Then we were escorted onto the field in front of the Padres' dugout where we met some of the players and explained why in the world we were dressed up the way we were.

This is also where we were prepped about the importance of NOT stepping on the white chalk lines or it would be bad luck for the Padres. This is a bit easier said than done, especially for poor Jared when they had strict instructions to look straight ahead and NOT get out of step. He did great though so they can't pin their loss that night can't on the Battalion Bunkers.

Though the Battalion was comprised of 500 men, many women and even children accompanied them on one of the longest military marches in history. In case you're wondering, the Padres would only allow 6 of us on the field so poor Austin wasn't invited. We didn't lose him along the the trek from dysentery or consumption. He was in good hands up in the stands with his Gramma and Aunt Cass.

It really was an awesome, once-in-a-lifetime experience and by the end I was happy we were invited to be a part of it. I hope Avery remembers it because it's not likely we'll be invited back onto that field any time soon, unless Jared moonlights as a field manager and gets to mow the lawn sometime.

After we changed and went back to our seats, the rest of the game was equally as fun. Jared showed off his baseball skills by catching a ball out of no where from the "Pad Squad."

Austin was just a little bit excited.

It took Austin awhile to get his bearings but once he figured out where all the action was he was back in the game.

The Padres had some extra cute, extra loud cheerleaders that night.

Half way through Avery got together with her little girlfriends and then the cheering really stepped it up a notch. Pretty sure they didn't even watch a single play on the field but that sure didn't stop them from having the time of their life that night.

I love free give-away nights, we all got Padres beach towels that night. Yay! Now if they would only have free dinners, oil changes and grocery giveaways, we'd be totally set.Uncle Mike and Christina even went with us which made the night that much more fun. But if they thought they could win over our children by buying them Padres hat dipping dots ice cream at the snack bar....

The were TOTALLY RIGHT! The kids LOVED it. Pretty sure Mike & Christina are their new best friends.Speaking of best friends, I had a pretty good time with mine that night too.Oh and remember that VIP gate we got to go in? Well, once we changed out of our 1840 clothes and went back out through that gate that's obviously where the VIP treatment ended. Not that they didn't put us up in the best seats of the stadium afterwards to show their gratitude. Check out these sweet seats we scored. If you squint you can almost make out the players from these seats. But that's okay, to be honest I'm like my kids and didn't watch a whole lot of the game either. I was a bit distracted with this handsome little guy. I love him!!