Arizona

We left for Arizona just 18 hours after returning home from Mexico. Garrett had a baseball tournament in the Gilbert area. After another day of long travels we met up with my parents at their hotel. They had gone down the day before to see some of their friends and scout out the area. They had found the easiest route to the baseball fields and since Garrett had to be at the park by 7:00 am, we decided to stay with them the first night. It was a little crowded, but we did just fine.

The next morning we got up at the crack of dawn to get ready. Papa took Garrett over to the fields for warm up, then the little kids, my mom, and I drove over a little later. They played at the Big League Dreams Sports Park. It was amazing. The fields were built to replicate the major league stadiums. For instance, Garrett played at Wrigley stadium, Fenway Park, Yankees stadium, and Angels stadium. They had stadium seats for the fans, a play area in the middle of all the fields for younger kids, indoor concessions/restaurants where you could still watch the games, etc. It really was classy. I've included some random pictures of the different stadiums.

The boys played well during the tournament. They played teams from Denver, CO., Kaysville, UT., Seattle, WA., West Covina, CA., etc. It was fun to see how we compared to kids from different states. We won a few and lost a few. Three of the games that we lost were within two points. I was pleased with how well they did.

Garrett had a tremendous fan base there. The Ellsworths (Brent, Kami, Gavin, and Savanna) were able to come along. Brent's entire family lives in that area, so they had another incentive for making the drive. They were able to come to a few of the games in between family activities. They even brought some of his family members along, Jolynn, Connor, and Brilynn.

And of course his biggest fans, Nana and Papa were there to support him.

But, one of the greatest highlights of our trip was having the Carters with us.

Russ' sister, Lisa, and her family live in Maricopa. It was just 30 minutes from where Garrett was playing. After the first night we stayed with them. It was so fun to be able to spend so much time with them. Lisa let her kids miss school to come to the games and play with us. Grant and Gracie were so happy to have Preston and Ava to hang with. They were such good sports to put up with so much baseball in one weekend. Gracie and Ava were absolutely inseparable for 4 days. We wish that we lived closer to the Carters!

After Garrett's game on Friday, we were able to attend one of the major league Spring Training games. It was the Oakland A's vs. the Texas Rangers. We were sitting RIGHT NEXT to the A's team. The kids thought it was fun to jaw with the players and try and get their autographs. You can see from some of the pictures how close we were.

I think MacKenzie was becoming a baseball fan after seeing a few of the players! Again, the Carters were such troopers to come with us to ANOTHER baseball game. It made it so much more fun for me and the little kids to have them with us. Thanks Carters... we love and miss you so much already.

After the game, the boys got some autographs from a few of the players on each team, and the coach of the Rangers. They didn't get as many as they would have liked, but it was still exciting for them.

Anyway, Garrett played great the first two days.

Then on Friday night, he began to not feel well. I gave him some Motrin and didn't think too much of it. He had been out in the sun all day, plus we had been traveling so much in a short period of time. I figured it was all just catching up to him. When he woke up on Saturday, things did not look good. Garrett was very sick. He played in his first game and fielded really well. I swear every ball got hit right to him in that game. But even though he played well, he looked miserable.

By his second game he could hardly move. He spent the entire game curled up in the dugout, in and out of sleep.For those of you that know Garrett, you know how ABNORMAL this is! I kept trying to get him to go to Urgent Care, but he wouldn't leave. He stayed and even batted in the third game (not well, but he gave it all he had at that point). They lost the third game on Saturday by two points which knocked them out of the tournament. I don't think Garrett cared too much at that point. We went to Urgent Care after the game to be told Garrett "has a cold". Well, he ended up having the flu. He was basically in a semi-coma for 5 days, flat on his back, high fever, not able to eat or move. Then Grant got it as well starting Sunday on the drive home... it's been a fun week!

Other Highlights of the Trip...

After Garrett's first game on Saturday, the Carters took Grant and Gracie with them to the fishing derby. That was by far Grant's favorite part of the trip. He caught 3 fish! Can you tell who he is the son of? I had to stay with Garrett, so I didn't get any pictures. So sad! After the fishing derby they went to Preston's football game. Garrett and I missed that as well. Again, so sad. But, it was fun for Grant and Gracie to be there and Grant gave me the play by play re-cap of Preston's game on our drive home the next day. Apparently, Preston played about every position possible. And according to Grant, he is the greatest football player on the team by far! Way to go Preston.

We also were able to meet some of Brent's family. It was fun to get to know Jolynn and her kids a little better. They were very sweet to come to some of Garrett's games, and we were able to go to breakfast with them on Friday morning. We know they must really love Brent to want to come and hang out with him at a (almost) stranger's baseball game. Anyway, the Ellsworth's invited us to a BBQ on Saturday. We were sad that we weren't able to go and hang out with the entire Ellsworth clan. I would have liked to get to know all of them a little more.

All in all it was a great vacation. Arizona is beautiful. The weather was perfect, 80 degrees. The company couldn't have been any better. The fields were amazing. The competition was good. The tournament was very organized and impressive. other than the flu, we had another fabulous trip! Thanks again to the Carters for being great hosts, giving up beds for us, and providing great entertainment!