Making memories with baseball, family time and travel

This post is in partnership with the Toronto Marriott City Centre who hosted us during our weekend stay in Toronto. All opinions are my own.

You may have noticed a couple of weeks ago my family took off for an extra long weekend to celebrate opening weekend of baseball in Toronto as the Blue Jays took on the Detroit Tigers.

Full disclosure: The Tigers are the team for our family, influenced by Andy who has been a lifelong fan. The Jays are a close second though so when the two teams get together it’s always a great event for us.

It’s likely no surprise that we were excited. We had ballgame tickets, we were going to see my brother, and we were being hosted by the amazing Toronto Marriott City Centre, a favourite baseball hotel for us!

For years, since having the kids, we have built many memories around baseball. I knew from the beginning that Andy was a fan so it was no surprise that he was keen to share this love for the game with our kids.

From the early days when we dressed our first child in wee little baseball outfits and bought his first glove, to our daughter getting a tee-ball bat for Easter, or to the number of times we have spent throwing balls back and forth, baseball is in our family’s DNA.

This of course makes Andy very happy. He truly loves the game. And while I enjoy it, and appreciate it, I don’t have the same excitement for it – but as with any partnership, I can support his love for baseball and I really enjoy the time we spend together as a family at games.

Our recent weekend trip to see the Blue Jays play wasn’t the first time we’ve done that. The very first time we went to see an MLB game with the kids was when our daughter was just under 2 months old, and our son was about 2 and a half.

We booked the Toronto Marriott City Centre to stay in (at the time it was called the Renaissance) because we wanted proximity to the game and our room. We knew we wouldn’t be able to stay the entire game.

While we made it through quite a few innings, we went back to the room and watched the rest there. Our 2 year old loved every moment of it. Our daughter slept the entire game.

As years went by, we returned to see more games and stayed at the hotel again. In some years, it was in partnership with the blog again, but in other years, we booked just because we love it.

The Toronto Marriott City Centre is an easy walk from the train station, right beside the stadium and located in downtown Toronto where it’s easy to explore, eat and play.

There are spacious and comfortable rooms to stay in with double beds for families, suites with a separate bedroom, and field view rooms giving you access to the game right from your window.

We’ve stayed in the field view room before, and again this trip had the chance to spend a night there. This is definitely one of the benefits of this hotel when you consider that you don’t need to buy game tickets by staying in the field view room.

Years ago, I left the game with a few innings left to take the kids back to the room to watch. The field view room meant we could open the windows and see and hear everything, plus, as I was babywearing my youngest and walking with the preschooler, it was easy to get from the stadium to the hotel (I even managed to stop and grab a delicious shaved beef sandwich on my way back!).

It was that game, that we watched from the stadium room (while Andy and my brother were in their seats) that we saw a Justin Verlander no-hitter. It was a pretty big deal.

We’ve been parents for over 12 years, and in that time there have been many batting practices (this year , we watched from the window seats of Sportsnet Grill which is an amazing experience), and spring training games, and special event days we’ve attended as a family.

I can’t tell you who won all the games, or who was pitching, but I can tell you the stories we talked about as a family afterward, or how happy I was to see the smiles on the kids faces as they experienced it all.

We definitely can tell you about the stadium food snacks we’ve enjoyed over the years too.

The kids enjoy the baseball experience but I know it’s the time together that matters to them as well. My daughter is like me and enjoys the atmosphere but doesn’t live for baseball the way her dad and brother do, so it was nice on this trip for her and I go to go swimming while the boys watched the Friday night game.

On Saturday, we stayed for most of it, then her and I went back to watch the end in our field view room. It’s the best of all worlds!

I supposed these memories could happen with any sport – maybe your family is into hockey, or football, but baseball for us is steeped in family tradition.

Our multiple trips to see games in Toronto are always memorable, this year no different.

There’s already talk about a summer trip. We’ve been looking at the schedules in Toronto and Detroit to see if there are games we can plan to attend.

Spring baseball begins for my son soon (when the fields in Ottawa dry out), which means we’ll be immersed in baseball many times a week.

These are memories I’ll hold onto because they bring us together, because I can see how happy they make everyone (especially Andy and our eldest) and because in these moments, it’s our thing. It matters to us to experience it together.

Team Stanisic.

Team Us.

Go team!

Is your family a baseball family? Even if you aren’t, do you like going to sporting events together?