Watch out Jaime Farr...Here Comes the Homeschoolers!!!

Who remembers M.A.S.H.??  And Klinger???  Oh and Tony Packos and how much he loved the Toledo Mud Hens?  Well we live near where Klinger called his Hometown.  And we got to visit the Toledo Mud Hens Stadium.....this was the Super Fun tour of the year!!  Even though Jaime Farr will be in town soon for the Owens Classic Golf Tournament....we homeschoolers got a chance to check out a favorite of Toledo.

All homeschool moms out there know that in most cases, we moms are the ones that take the kids on the majority of the field trips.  Since they are generally during the week, that's when Dad is at work.  But every once in a while, one of those field trips happen where we have a large number of dads.  Last year, for our group it was the Wind Turbine Field trip.  This year....it was a Behind the Scenes tour of the Mud Hens Minor League Baseball Stadium.  It was just one of those fun field trips.

It was a good thing that it was so fun...and so much anticipated, because it was at about 105 degree heat index!  Good thing the locker rooms and basement were air conditioned!

Welcome to Fifth Third Field....Home of the Toledo Mud Hens.  They are a farm team for the Detroit Tigers.  Now that was info that my brother and his family provided for me.  The kids were soooo excited (as were Joe and I) that their cousins and Uncle and Aunt got to go on a field trip with us!  If you are not familiar with a farm team.  They basically train and groom the minor league players for specific teams, in this case the Tigers.  They also provide a place for injured Tiger players to recover and not lose out on practice.

 We even got Brayden to go that day.  He watched the clock and was very nervous.  But he said he enjoyed it.

 I had to set up two separate tours.  Here's our family waiting for the second group to arrive.  There was a half hour between the tours, so the kids sat in the gift shop and played catch.  The people were super nice and didn't care at all.  That's my nephew in the blue hat, and my niece in the pink hat.

 Our tour guide talking with my niece and her mom (my SIL) Lisa.  Joe (my hubby) is listening in to the conversation.

 The Visitor Dug out....We couldn't visit the Mud Hens dug out due to construction between home games.

 The view....pretty bad.

 That's why the benches are tore up.  The guys sit on the back of the benches and their cleats tear apart the wooden seats.  (That is info from my Sporty Brother...lol)

 They were super excited to see a pop machine in the Visitors Lounge.

 Hanging out in front of the Visitor Lockers

 Batting cages....for practice

 Then we got to visit the Mud Hens Locker Room....how cool.  These are broken bats that they sign and use for donations.

 Check out the uniforms.  This was very cool!!!

 My brother Bob, and niece Bryce.

 The Mud Hens lounging area...a lot nicer than the Visitors Lounge

 Lounging.....

 My niece, Bryce

 The Media area for during games.

 The original Stadium...Ned Skelton

 How Caty spent most of the trip...trying to find a drinking fountain....she is always thirsty.

 Lisa took our picture in front of the field!

This was really a fun field trip.  So neat to see all the behind the scenes areas.  Looking forward to more "Outside of the Box" field trips.

What are some places that your groups have visited?  We are always looking for ideas.