Trip to Phoenix!

Over summer break, we drove to Phoenix for a baseball tournament with Griffin's 11 yr. old baseball team. Grif has played with this team for 3 years now and we absolutely LOVE the coaches, players and parents! We always have such a great time with all of them and this trip was no exception. We drove to Albuquerque and stayed the night with my sister Jessi and her cute family. It was a good "half-way point" and we were so excited to spend some time with them. My boys had a great time letting my nieces, Oaklee (18 months) and Sydney (4 1/2) dress them up, play house and have tea parties!



Here is Paden holding Oaklee's doll and Grif is Dr. Sydney's patient! They were such good sports!



After a short stay at the Allen's, we drove the last half of the trip to Phoenix. Grif's team, "HitStreak" had two games on Friday morning. In game #1, they beat a Utah team by 3. Game two, they got beat pretty good by a team from California. That night, we drove to Scottsdale to the Rockies' new Spring Training facility. Grif and a few of his teammates got there early enough to watch the Rockies' batting practice. Afterwards, they took their baseballs and had the players autograph them. Grif was soooo excited to get Todd Helton's signature on his ball! Then, we were able to watch the Rockies beat the Rangers. It was so fun to be so close to the players. After warming up at the start of each inning, the right fielder, Seth Smith, would throw his warm-up ball up to the boys in the crowd! Way cool!






Here is Grif with "Salt River Fields" in the background and of course, a FABULOUS shot of the right fielder, Seth Smith, my fave!! He's #7 just like Grif!!




Saturday morning, we played a team from Flagstaff. We beat them by a few runs and played again that afternoon. This game was the best game of all! It was so fun to watch~ the boys played amazing defense and each one of them hit the ball well. We were turning double plays and picking kids off bases trying to steal. It was so awesome! However, in the bottom of the 6th inning, we were up by 2 runs and the other team got last ups. They got a couple kids on base and the next batter hit a bomb over everyone's head. The long throw in from center field wasn't in time and the other team won by one run. As sad as it was to lose, I was so proud of how our boys played. It really was the best game I've watched them play in all the seasons of baseball. This little team is really starting to mesh well together and they're becoming GREAT little ball players! Here are some cool pix!

Grif pitching....


Grif and Davis...


Grif at bat.....


Between games.... Notice Boston~ he's just "one of the guys"!!


Some of our loyal fans....


Coach Dan doing his job......


Some close calls.... Go Carson!


And of course, Grandma Betty's cookies! Nate, one of the players on the team, has some very supportive grandparents that come to almost EVERY game! Grandma Betty, Nate's grandma, brings homemade chocolate chip cookies for the boys after every single game.... they are to die for! Grandma Betty even brought them to Phoenix! The boys LOVE them... & the cookies are awesome too!! ;)




We had a GREAT trip and watched some awesome baseball.... it was a good way to start the season and now we're ready for league games once a week and plenty of weekend tourneys! Go HITSTREAK!!