If you live in the St. Louis Area...

....you NEED to be heading out to the Rams Training Camp!!!

I'll admit it, I am not a huge sports fan. I enjoy it when I watch it, but I certainly don't schedule my life around when the games are on tv. Jacob, on the other hand, lives and breathes sports. Part of that living and breathing sports means that he stays on ESPN radio 24/7 (101.1 FM here in the metro area) and they have been broadcasting live from training camp ever since it opened and he has been dying to go.

It's absolutely, completely FREE and open to the public!!!

I wasn't too sure if I wanted to go. I figured it would be crowded and boring and let's face it, neither of those things works real well when you have an energetic 2 year old. I could not have been more wrong. We had the best time!!! First of all, look at this....

Do you see how up close and personal you can be with what's happening? I wasn't this close to the action at Jacob's Jr. High track meets last year!?!?

The way this practice field is set up is that there are 3 fields that have this little hill on two sides. There are bleachers down right at the sidelines, but you can set up lawn chairs and spread out blankets (which is what we did) at the top of the hills (and then you are also in the shade of the trees.)

We absolutely had a birds-eye view and could see every little thing that was happening. These photos were taken with my camera that doesn't have any kind of zoom lens. Jacob got some amazing shots on my old Olympus that does have a zoom (I'll get those downloaded soon since the Mac isn't set up to handle that camera.)

The best part, it was completely fun and relaxed...like having a picnic in the park, but wait...Yes, that is a professional football team just steps away from us.

I would estimate that there was only about 100 people out there watching. So intimate, but yet a little sad. I can only guess that St. Louis doesn't realize what an amazing day out that have here...and did I mention that it is completely FREE?!?!?

She didn't even get bored. She thought it all was a great adventure!

You can see here, how few people are out there. That glimpse of a white tent down on the left is where ESPN was broadcasting from. Their afternoon show is called the Fast Lane and the hosts are... Randy Karraker, Bob Ramsey and D'Marco Farr.

And you can literally sit there and watch while the three of them are broadcasting and discussing all the day's sports talk.

Then after the practice (and remember that this was their second workout of the day), several of the players came out and chatted and signed autographs. They could not have been more friendly or open. It was amazing! They didn't act like they were in a hurry to get out of there at all.

This is Kyle Boller (QB) signing autographs. That's Jacob in the blue shirt and gold hat...

******

I think that this is Jonathan Wade. He ran over right after practice ended and was so unbelievable friendly and outgoing. Do you see this look that he has with this little girl? That's the way he was with absolutely everyone! He just seemed genuinely happy to be there and having fun with the fans.

*****

This is James Laurinaitis who I think was the Rams second round pick this year and that's Jacob standing right there by him to get an autograph.

*******

I cannot say enough good things about our afternoon out at training camp. Everyone, from the girl handing out flyers to the guys parking us, was incredibly friendly and incredibly gracious about the fact that we were even there. EVERYONE continued to thank us for coming out and supporting the team. I just think that it's sad that more aren't going out there. It was so fun and so worth the trip. You will not regret it if you do. There are still about 2 weeks of practices...you can find the details HERE.

I know that the Rams have definitely earned some new fans in this family...no matter what kind of season they have had or will have!

...oh, and we plan to go out there again next week when Jacob's not working out at his own football practices which start next Wednesday!