Popdaddy Outing!

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We were not going to be home on Popdaddy's actual birthday so we chose the Tuesday night before his birthday to celebrate with him. That worked because all four of us would actually have our schedule free that evening! Bill wanted to take him out to dinner in a restaurant but Popdaddy seemed a little nervous about it. However, he mentioned to me that he would really like to see Eric and Tara's home. So we loaded him into his wheelchair, switched him to an oxygen tank and wheeled him, his oxygen (plus an extra tank just in case) out to our Suburban. It was a little tricky getting him up in the front seat but he's surprisingly still pretty strong and with a little help from Bill and Shawn made it up. We drove to Eric and Tara's and pulled up their drive to find the whole family in the front yard waiting to welcome Popdaddy. Bill got out and let Eric drive the Suburban across their front yard to get close to the chicken coop. The boys all gathered a chicken and brought them so that Popdaddy could see them up close and personal. He enjoyed see all the chickens and the boys were very entertaining, showing us all how they calm the chickens by holding them upside-down by the legs (Mason's trick) or just walking around with them. Then Eric drove him over to see the bee hives and they sat and chatted about bees and honey for a while. By the time we left Popdaddy seemed excited about going to a restaurant. We think once he got out it didn't seem so scary. Eric suggested a restaurant near their house. It was a small restaurant called Ballpark Restaurant. Apparently, there once was a ballpark behind where the restaurant sits and Cal Ripkin, Sr. played there. It was very busy so we opted to have him walk in rather than travel via wheelchair. We sat at a big round table with old baseball cards laminated into the surface. Covering the walls were old pictures of ballplayers. The people in the restaurant and the waitresses were friendly and he enjoyed joking with ours. He enjoyed the food and the fellowship and it really seemed to perk him up. We were surprised at how little it tired him out. We did transport him outside to the car in his wheelchair but he walked into the house with his walker, with just a small amount of difficulty getting up the back steps. He didn't even seem that out of breath when he got back to his chair. He just made it on one tank of oxygen but was completely out by the time we got back. The next day he thanked us for taking him out and said it was a wonderful evening. It was a memorable evening for all of us.