Spring Baseball in Arizona

As a family, we had the opportunity to travel with Garrett's baseball team to Arizona.  We love traveling to Arizona for one reason... The Carter Family!  We were able to stay with Russ' sister, Lisa, and her family.  We have so much fun being with them.  The kids and I left Thursday morning at 3:00 am.  We arrived in Phoenix at 9:00 and took Garrett to Diablo Stadium where he met up with his baseball team to watch an Angel's spring training baseball practice and game.  The kids and I then drove to my parent's hotel and got ready for the day.  Then we met up with Lisa, Preston, and Ava for a fun filled day.  We took the kids to Amazing Jake's, a food and games/rides center.  They had a blast!  It was so much fun to see them play together, laugh, and just enjoy being together.

We then picked up Garrett from the Angel's baseball game and went to a mall near the baseball field Garrett was playing on later that night.  That night we went to Garrett's game.  They played a team from Colorado, and lost.  Russ flew in that night, just as Garrett's game ended.  We then went back to Lisa's for the night.
On Friday, Garrett and I got up early and drove into town.  We met up with his baseball team for breakfast and then went over to the Diamondback's spring training practice.  The boys love watching the players field balls and bat.  They especially love collecting foul balls and getting autographs from the players.  We spent the afternoon with the Carter's at Pei Wei.  Then we all went to Garrett's games.  On Friday they played a team from Seattle, WA and San Diego, CA.  We lost both of those games.  However, the team from California was coached by two ex-Major League baseball players.  The boys on those teams had biceps bigger than both of Garrett's thighs put together.  They all looked like they had been shaving for 4 years.  They had beat other teams 26-2 and 20 something to 5.  We only lost each game by 6 and 8 runs.  I felt okay about those losses.

On Saturday, Garrett had 2 games.  They played a team from Arizona and finally won a game.  Then they played a team from Florida, coached by Dante Bichette (another ex-Major League player).  We lost to them by 6 runs.  That night we were able to go to Preston's round robin for football.  Unfortunately, he had missed 2 practices to hang out with us and didn't get to play too much in his games.  When he did play, he was awesome.

Although the baseball tournament wasn't that successful, it was good experience for our boys to play against such good teams.  Garrett played really well.  He hit the ball well, pitched good and fielded awesome.  I think it built his confidence playing well against such good teams.
The best part of the tournament was hanging out with the Carter's.  They are a great family and the kids get along so well.  We were also lucky to have Nana and Papa with us on our trip.  We mostly just saw them at the games.  They did a lot of shopping while they were in Arizona.  We are always grateful to have them with us and we appreciate their support and love.