This weekend we celebrated Celia birthday in style by attending the French Open! It was pretty awesome! Our lady turned two on Friday, the 28th of May. We had a really nice day and then lots of chocolate and presents in the evening. Celia doesn't really understand the whole un-wrapping of presents but does understand that they are her new toys! "MINE" she screams as Elise tries to take her brand new Elmo video! Elmo is a huge hit in Celia's life and the new video and book made her day!
The next day we were off to Roland Garros! We bought open court tickets and got to enjoy multiple matches throughout the day. We saw the Men's Doubles Bopanna/Qureshi defeat Fognin/Russell, Shvedova defeat Kleybanova, and the first couple sets of Almagro playing
Dolgopolov. No big names on our court number seven but we had a great area of the stadium reserved for us and our friends and it was a lot of fun to watch what happens behind the scenes. First of all, the adjacent courts number nine and 11 were reserved as practice courts so we got to see some big names warming up, at a nice close distance. Venus Williams and Maria Sharapova both took some practice serving and reseving practice there and we all took turns getting a good close look. Both Venus and Maria are so tall but not nearly as "beefy" as I thought they would be. Maria was very graceful as she played and a lot more smooth on the court than Venus. It was pretty amazing to see them so close and watch them warm-up. It felt a little strange standing there watching them, like watching animals at a zoo, since it was such a close and intimate setting. As an athlete myself, I felt bad staring at them as they tried to prepare for some of the biggest matches of their lives. However, I quickly got over my awkwardness and snapped away with my camera and enjoyed this once in a lifetime experience. They have to be used to it, right? :)
Secondly, we got to see some hard core ball boy action. Seeing the professional players up close and personal was a close second to watching these intense ball boys in action. They are rolling balls and working hard throughout the entire match. They wouldn't flinch between sets and one was even squirted with water as the maintenance crew hosed down the court with water. You could tell he was upset however he didn't move from his position or dispute the spray. He played his part. It was also quite fun to watch them practice and warm up as well. They took their jobs very seriously and perfected the ball roll to one another. I was really impressed!
It was a great weekend and awesome to get out and experience more of Paris. The ladies were fabulous at the Roland Garros even though they freaked out as we left. I think Celia left quiet an impression on the Spaniard as we left his court by departing with a "friendly" squeal. Oh well, it is her birthday weekend. I was kind of hoping we could have made the bloopers scenes of SportsCenter, you know those crazy fans that get kicked out of events because they can't control their kids, however we escaped quickly and somewhat quietly and made no TV...(at least none that I'm aware of...)
Sunday we gave Celia a proper party with cake and friends. Linnea, Ella, and Johna came
over to celebrate the lady properly. It was great fun to relax and see our friends. And honor a great little two year old lady!
No comments:
Post a Comment