Cook, Create, Do & Love: Last Opening Day at The Ted

"I can see the Braves game. I can see the Braves game....." This is what Stella repeated over and over as we pulled up to the stadium and parking lot. She was so excited she was rocking in her car seat.

This year's Opening Day is bittersweet. It's the very last one at Turner Field. I'll admit I got a bit misty. I've had a lot of good memories at The Ted and in those parking lots.

Aside from the usual shenanigans and memories that are made before, during and after a game, we have other not-so-typical memories from the stadium. We took engagement photos here.

It was in the upper level October of 2012 that I realized I'd be pretty pregnant for Opening Day 2013. We hadn't really told anyone yet we were expecting as we'd only just found out ourselves a few days/week prior. I told Donald we should paint my belly like a baseball. We agreed it would be awesome and in April we did. I took pictures with dozens of random people, tried to get on TV purposefully and ended up getting on accidentally and appearing totally pissed off.

Stella's first tailgate was when she was exactly 1 week old. We were celebrating JP's birthday.

Her first game was Chipper Jones night at 3 weeks old.

Her first Opening Day (outside the belly) was when she was 10 months. I couldn't find an actual picture from the parking lot (I know someone took one, possibly JP/Justin, but I don't have it), but this was from the day at least.

So this one had to be a good last year. We tailgated....

...got balloon tomahawks, hung out with Tripp....

Stella took this one.

...and waited in line for over 45 minutes.

Since the lines were ridiculous I kept her entertained with the statues and stuff

Some guy offered to take our picture. This is what he got. Stella in full cooperation.

Stella said he was going poopy so she wanted to catch it with her hat.

It was hot and naptime so she wanted Daddy.

But we finally made it in and to our awesome seats. Kim and Ally from work joined us.

Donald took Stella to find a Braves shirt, but when that failed, she picked out this hat instead.

As soon as we walked in we walked by the lower level funnel cake window. There was no one in line. No one. I wasn't even hungry really, but because I'd been talking about eating a damn funnel cake here for years and this was my last year to do so, I got one. It was sooooo good. They left me while I grabbed my fried dough topped with sugar and I met them down at our seats.

I'd told her she could have a certain section of my funnel cake but she was getting greedy.

Me to Stella: "You can't just lick the sugar off [the funnel cake].

Donald "Yeah you have to eat the healthy part."

Me: "I meant I don't want her licking all the sugar off of my funnel cake, smartass."

This won't do. So in comes King of Pops! Woo Hoo. Always good on a hot day.

We went up top to run the bases and see B-Rush, Hammer, Bucket and Two-Bit, but they didn't come up. But she had fun looking down onto the field and running around.

I found the sign where we took engagement pictures and threw her up there. She almost fell and this is what I got.

Waiting in line to run the bases....

Then I realized I had the back of the sign above and this is actually where we sat to have some pictures done. D found this and said, "Oh this is perfect for our engagement session." The one of us here is framed and in our room.

I love this whole scene of pictures, but this one is my favorite.

"I just want to eat a pretzel on the picnic table!!!" I should have CapsLocked this because she screamed it at me over and over again. She didn't eat it on the picnic table, but she did get one and it shut her up.