Hanging out around Mesa

We enjoyed our time in Arizona with a variety of activities outside of watching baseball.  The highlight for the kids was the night that they had charge of the house while we, the parents, went out to a nice dinner at Roy's.  The kids played games together and then watched a show--the Kid's Baking Championship.  We spent an hour or so at the Contemporary Art Museum when there was rain delaying the start of one of our baseball games.

Luke, Caleb, Bryce, Anna, Grace, Garrett, and Griffin relaxing together.

Counseling and lava cake at Roy's...

Grace and Garrett do battle with Boggle.

Griffin reads to Luke, Anna and Garrett.

Look where we ended up for dinner after our long day of driving...Cracker Barrell.

Bryce's Minecraft Superfight game was a hit.

Spinning chairs outside the art institute in Mesa.

Griffin spins upside down?

Garrett relaxes in the lopsided pottery style seats.

Garrett's favorite art piece:  fine knife cut out of a single piece of paper, honoring God.

Griffin's favorite artwork, a skeleton made out of little tiny men made of rolled cloth.

Ketchup and mustard, half and half monsters from Asia.

Can you suck on a straw so hard that your eyes move together?

Giants vs D'Backs

The best thing about the Giants home park this year for us was the free parking on the streets AND the numerous batting practice home run balls we caught and collected--9 in all among the two families.  When it came to autographs, it was a big flunk with Steve Kline, the Giants AA pitching coach and former bullpen stalwart, being the only one to sign.  Did they get the Coronavirus memo before everyone else.  We had front row seats in the right field corner which was great for viewing Trayce Thompson and Travis Snider the D'Backs RFers.  However, the view of homeplate was sadly obstructed by the new netting designed to protect the fans.  We could not pick up the ball off the bat, which in theory made it more dangerous for us.  The Giants won the game with a big inning in which we communicated our empathy for Travis Snider manning RF for almost an hour while the Giants rallied and he acknowledged that he agreed with us.  After the game, the kids got to run the bases.

Dads and kids photo op after the kids ran the bases.

Glasses on or off?

Reminiscing about our first time here when Joy was pregnant with Garrett and was on the national broadcast of ESPN.

Front row for the seven kids, second row for the four adults.

Steve Kline, our one Giants autograph of the spring.

Buster Posey warms up Drew Smyley before the game.

Garrett prepares to keep up his good scorekeeping record.

Klay's brother, Trayce spent time very close to our seats.

Griffin hustles back for a ball hit over our heads.

The balls get smaller every year...or our kids get bigger.

The whole crew as we wait in line to get in to the stadium.

Double date?  Tonight?  After the game?

Kid power.

Stacy, Adrian, Brandon visit

On Brett's birthday, we discovered that Stacy and Adrian were going to be at Spring Training the same weekend we were, so we invited them over for a BBQ dinner.  We had some steak, chicken, and grilled veggies which were quite satisfying to the pallet.  The boys were super excited to challenge Adrian and Brett to an X-Wing battle, so we all packed some ships and took over the billiard table for a two hour battle.  This will go down as a great moment and spurring more desirable battles with Adrian in the future.

BBQ party night group picture!

The parents unite with Brandon.

Joy spends some time entertaining Brandon.

Brett and Adrian discuss strategy in their game.

Exciting battle, never quite had an official ending.

Keeping a one-year-old busy at the party took a group effort.  Great to see Adrian, Stacy, and Brandon.

A's vs Giants

We arrived a little later than hoped for to the A's game on Sunday due to having a great church experience and picking out some fabulous lunch food at Jason's Deli.  As Franklin Barreto and Tony Kemp stopped signing just as we were rounding a corner, we feared we had missed the boat, BUT then Mark Canha came up from behind us making his way back from the batting cages to the clubhouse.  He signed balls for all the kids and then Brett noticed another player walking from the clubhouse to the batting cages and motioned for the kids to go ask the two-time Platinum Glove winner and 6th place in the AL MVP balloting last year for his autograph.  After Brett and the kids had received autographs from Matt Chapman, Brett declared this to be a huge victory!  The Giants won the game, but we knew we would walk out a winner.  On the way back to the car Brett got to talk to Giant's broadcaster Jon Miller!

Griffin attacks the ball on the tee.

The kids get Sean Murphy's autograph, rookie catcher for the A's.

Brett gets Jamie Westbrook to sign his scorebook.

Eric are you photo bombing the cute couple's picture?

Brett's birthday present from Eric, a great tribute to our fantasy camp!

Got all those spring training changes down, son?

Matt Chapman, Matt Olson, and Marcus Semien--cornerstones of the A's.

Matt Chapman up to bat.

Bryce was on the leader board for speed pitch at 50.1 mph.

I'm gonna get some autographs.

The golden Matt's play catch.

A's vs Cubs

We endured getting up at 3:30am in order to make our flight out of Sacramento to make it to Arizona in time to be at Sloan Park to play whiffleball on their field when the gates open.  However, rain delayed the game from 1pm to 6pm which changed the whole day.  We got access to our AirBnB a little earlier than usual to drop off our stuff and rest for an hour before meeting up at the ballpark with the Jungingers for our annual whiffleball game.  Being that the field was a little smaller, we hit a lot of homeruns, but that was pretty fun for the kids as we took over the field for about 30 minutes before other kids started to trickle in.  Then we realized the challenge of autographs in the new world of full field netting restrictions.

Zach Lee signs for the kids.

I've got quite a few autographs from the A's!

Sun setting and dark clouds above, but the rain was done and we got the whole game in.

Bob Melvin signs for our kids.

Have ball, can we get some autographs?

The whiffleball crew.