Spring Break!!

This year for spring break we loaded up in the good old mini-van and headed to Arizona!  Our goal was to get to Surprise, Arizona to catch a couple of Royals spring training games!  So, Friday after school we picked everyone up, loaded all of our stuff, and headed out of town!  Matt is a night owl, so his plan was to drive all night and get to our first stop - the Grand Canyon - by noon Saturday.

GREAT scenery!

Much of it looked fake!  It was so gorgeous!

We did it!  Matt drove all night.  The rest of us slept most of the way, and we were at the Grand Canyon for lunch!  What a difference in weather!  So sunny and WARM!!!

Our best attempt at a family selfie.  They forgot sunglasses!

Grand Canyon

Boys' first visit to the Grand Canyon

CAUTION:  SHEER CLIFF.  Control your children and pets.  We told them to act out of control.  Why when we ask them do they not do it, but when we need them to behave...me oh my...

Matt and I at Grand Canyon

Car selfie!  Don't they look impressed?

Gorgeous!

The boys saw this and said "take a picture of us on the throne."

My oldest dudes

Dad, let me in the picture!

The next day we headed to Vegas.  We wanted to take the boys to Hoover Dam!

I took a ton of pictures of scenery.  It was just so pretty.  Bryce said "Mom, take a picture of me."

M&M World in Vegas

Welcome to Vegas!

At the arcade in New York, New York

Shooting the bad guys!

Hoover Dam

Some day we'll see the real Statue of Liberty!

We ate at In-N-Out Burger.  It was delicious!  We all felt this tired, but Bryce just couldn't stay awake!

We drove by Gold & Silver Pawn, where the show Pawn Stars is filmed.  Look at that line!

Bryce had his own personal buffet every morning!

They take their breakfast seriously!

A cactus outside of a hotel  Mason just wanted to see a cactus!

Tuesday was the first day we went to batting practice and a game.  We went in the morning to check things out.  We watched the minors for a little bit, and found out what time the majors would be there to practice.  We went early to make sure we wouldn't miss it.  We ended up being there for 3 hours waiting for them to practice!  We were not prepared...no water...no snacks...and it was HOT!  The boys whined some, but did pretty darn well for that long!  In the end, it was worth it!  We had fun watching the players practice and the boys enjoyed chasing home run balls!

Getting autographs

Worn...out!  Don't they look sweet?  They will hate me for this someday!

Signed!

Cheslor Cuthbert

Mason had on his Cardinals shirt.  Most of the players didn't mind, but one time when the boys were waiting for home run balls, a player looked at Mason and said "Not for you, Cardinals shirt!"  Haha!

The boys can make friends with anyone!  This sweet boy played catch with them for awhile!

Waiting...and waiting...and waiting...

Bryce got REALLY tired of waiting!

They're here!

Salvy!  I hollered his name, then everyone started cheering and he bowed, then just grinned.  It was adorable!

Just playing catch and chatting...

Hosmer!

Moose threw some practice pitches!

Gordo!

Tickets were sold out, so we sat on the lawn!  It was fun...but turned COLD because of the wind!

Surprise Stadium!

The lawn filled up FAST!

Day 2 of games for us.  This day was an away game, and an earlier in the day game, so we went to batting practice early.  After all, we were pros now!  Ha!  It was a much smaller crowd, which was nice, but we didn't get any closer to the players.  At one point Moose started walking away from playing catch and I called his name.  He motioned to me and threw me the ball he and Hosmer were playing catch with!  Zane was in Heaven!  The boys were seasoned this day as well...they ran right behind the fence to catch balls.  This day they actually got some!

Hosmer

Mike Sweeney.  The boys had NO idea who he was, but we told them to get his autograph anyway and then NOT mess with the ball!  They'll realize...someday...what a nice gentleman!  He stopped and made conversation with EVERY single kid he signed a ball for!

Zane admiring the ball and forgetting to look at the camera!  :)

Cotton candy!  Yum!

Coming into the stadium

Ned Yost came over to sign autographs!

And even posed for a picture!

We started chanting "Go Big Red" to Gordon.  He grinned and waved, but we couldn't get him to come over...darn it!

Gordon and Moose stretching out!

Warm-ups!

Paulo Orlando signed some autographs...he quit a few people before us...darn it again!

This day we had seats!  So close!  So fun!

Matt's attempt at a "selfie"

Esky!

Gorgeous weather!

We missed getting Salvy's autograph by about one inning!  He kept peeking his head out and getting  balls/hats from kids to sign.  As soon as we went down he left!  Darn it again!

The next day was our first "driving home" day.  I had someone tell me that if we had a chance to go to Sedona that we should.  It was worth it.  So I told Matt and we headed that way.  They were right, it was so pretty there.  I wish we would have had more time, or gotten there earlier.  They do jeep tours, but they were all full and we couldn't take one that day.  Bummer.  Maybe we need another Arizona trip!

Our lunch view!

Cool dudes...

I mean...I could look at this all the time!

This hotel was on Route 66.  Back in the day, lots of famous people stayed here.  It was the place to be!  It was a really cool place!  We ate supper here, but didn't stay.  Thankfully, because later Matt read about it being haunted...yikes!  We found a hotel across the street that was only 6 months old and had the BEST room of the whole trip!  Worth it!

Mason wanted catcti, Mason got cacti!  So weird to look out of the window and see these lining the hillsides!

Out hotel!  The boys were so impressed that it had a living room, kitchen, and separate bedroom!

The last day was a LLLLOOOONNNNGGGG day!  Matt said it wasn't any different than the trip there, only we were awake this time.  True.  It seemed to take forever!  When awake, we have to stop a lot more for bathroom, snack, etc, etc.

Not looking so excited...

They couldn't get their sleep cycles synced...

We stopped and ate here for lunch

And saw this crooked water tower!

See...Mason's turn to sleep now.

This was the inspiration for one of the buildings in the Cars movie!

We got home about 3:00 a.m. Saturday morning.  Of course at that point everyone was wired!  They didn't go to sleep until after 4:00!  Crazy!  We were super glad to be home, ready for our own beds!  It was a really fun week!  I hope the boys always have great memories of our trips!

Bryce snuggled his way into our bed...ha!