Arizona getaway (Home Run Derby)

A couple weeks ago, David and I got to spend a few days down in Arizona - not the best place to visit in July, but still a lot of fun.  Through State Farm, he qualified for tickets to the All-Star Home Run Derby and a night in the Westin Kierland Resort in Scottsdale.  We went down a couple days early so he could show me around Tempe, which is where he stayed all the times he was in Arizona for training before he became an agent.

We actually stayed in the same hotel he used to stay in, the Fiesta Inn in Tempe, and for some reason he'd remembered it a lot nicer than it really is. :)  It wasn't awful, but it wouldn't have been my first pick.  Still, it was close to all the places he wanted to show me, so it worked for those first couple nights.  We arrived Saturday afternoon, and after checking into the hotel we went to a nearby outlet mall.  I'd never seen so many people at a mall in my life!  It was 110 degrees outside, so I guess that's about all there is to do in Arizona in the summer...  It made for an interesting mall experience.  After shopping for a while we drove over to some movie theaters and caught a movie.  Afterwards we walked around an outdoor mall for a while - thank goodness for mist sprayers everywhere - and then we went to downtown Tempe to walk around there and get some dinner.  It was fun to see all the places he used to go with his State Farm friends.

Sunday we went to church in Mesa and visited the temple there.

It was another really hot day, so we spent most of the day relaxing at the hotel.  We did go to an amazing Italian restaurant that night - an authentic family-owned place complete with an acordion player and delicious food!  We loved it.

Monday we spent some time at the fancy mall in Scottsdale before checking in at the Westin resort.  It was so beautiful - I wished we would have splurged to stay there the whole time. :)  The pool was amazing!

We met up with all the other State Farm people a little while later and took a bus to the baseball stadium in Phoenix.  It was so exciting to be there with so many baseball fans!  David and I wore New York Yankee shirts, and David had fun staring down Red Sox fans. :)

The Home Run Derby itself was SO much fun!  It was one home run after another, and one of David's favorite Yankee players was competing, which made it that much more exciting.  We had great seats, so we were really close to the players.

For David, it was just as exciting to be up close to some of the big State Farm executives, like the two vice presidents who sat in front of us for a while.  He couldn't resist sneaking a pic. :)

The Yankee player, Robinson Cano, ended up winning the whole thing, which was a perfect way to end the night.  It was neat because Cano's dad, who'd also been a professional ball player, pitched to him during the competition.  When he won, they both cried.  I loved it.

The next morning, we got to meet Cal Ripkin Jr. - a former Orioles player who holds the records for playing the most consecutive games (2,632).  He was a 19-time All Star and was inducted into the Hall of Fame a few years ago.  We got a picture with him and a signed ball, and then he gave a motivational presentation to all the State Farm people there.   He's a super nice guy and an incredible speaker, so it was a huge privilege to meet him and hear him speak.

Shortly after Cal's presentation, we had to hurry to the airport to catch our flight back home.  Thankfully, Mom was able to stay with the kids while we were gone.  They had a lot of fun and hardly missed us, I'm sure.  We sure enjoyed our chance to get away for a few days and do so many fun things, even if it was in Arizona in July!

State Farm Summer Bash 2011

David wanted to do something fun for his clients this summer, so he planned a "Summer Bash" with his friend, Will, who's also an agent in Utah.  They had it at North Park in Provo, and there were hot dogs, chips, drinks, games, prizes, music, and a pinata for the kids.  A bunch of his clients showed up, as did several of our friends and our family, of course.  There were lots of people that just stopped by from off the streets, and he ended up getting some new clients out of it, which just made it that much better.  All in all, the night was a big success!

They did a game with water balloons at the beginning of the night, but before long it turned into one big water balloon fight.  David, of course, was everyone's main target!

Throughout the night, they cooked over 400 hot dogs!

Javi did an awesome job as the dj.  He even got people dancing, although Tara didn't need much persuasion! :)

There was a watermelon contest towards the end, and we persuaded Nathan to compete.  He didn't win, but it was fun to watch him anyway.

The best part of it all was just hanging out with family and friends. :)

(I know it's blurry, but still cute.)

Jana with old friends Carrie and Lori Ann

Bryan and his ladies :)

Matthew and Michael in a zone - they were running around non-stop most of the night!

Tara and D.J.

Ari hiding from a pic with Grandma

Love this face!

Seven Peaks with Aunt Bree

This summer Bree got the "pass of all passes" to Seven Peaks and has invited both the boys to go with her on different occasions.  She invited Bryan to go with her back on 4th of July weekend.  He was thrilled!  We've never taken the kids before (a shame, I know), so he'd only ever heard about it from friends and neighbors.  It was perfect because it was just him and Bree, and she was willing to do whatever it was he wanted to do!  They did everything he was big enough to do, and he loved it all!  Here are a couple pictures Bree took of their "date."  Bryan told her it was the best day of his life. :)

Not the most flattering picture of Bree, but Bryan was sure excited he got to eat churros! :)

A few weeks later, Bree invited Matty to go with her.  He was a little more hesitant about it - he said he only wanted to go on the baby slides - but he ended up having a really fun time and liked the big wave pool more than anything!

(I love his sweet serious smile here)

The boys are so lucky to have such awesome aunts and uncles!  They look forward to these "dates" so much, so thanks Bree, and everyone else for treating these little guys so well!

Happy 4th of July!

(Ari in her little "Miss Independent" shirt, which is very fitting for her these days.)

This year we decided to take advantage of all the things they have going on in the area and really make the most of our 4th of July celebration!  So Mom and I woke up early to take Bryan to see the hot air balloons - something I've always wanted to do but never have since it's so early!  I opted to let Matthew and Ariana sleep in, and it was a good thing, since it was too windy for the balloons to ever leave the ground!  We ended up not seeing anything, which was disappointing, but we did get to see Bree run along the parade route in the Freedom Run 5k.  Here she is whizzing past us and giving some quick high fives. :)

It was actually pretty fun to watch the runners and the other people waiting for the parade.  We found a small spot that we staked out for a while, until David called to let us know that Javi and Annalece had a bigger spot for us along University.  We met up with him and the other kids there about 15 minutes before the start of the parade.  It was our first time going to the parade in years so it was especially exciting!

The kids were in awe a lot of the time of the floats and different vehicles.  Our favorites were the Star Wars characters, the police motorcycles, fire trucks, and missionaries. :)  I love this picture of Matt watching with Javi...

Ari loved waving at the people going by, especially the pageant girls, who she referred to as "princesses." :)

At one point a girl standing behind us entertained the boys with her bubble gun.  It helped pass the time in between floats and things.  I love Matt's big smiles!

 Thankfully, the sun was behind the clouds for most of the morning, but eventually it broke through and it got hot fast!  Bryan had had just about enough at this point...

And you can see Ari's cheeks were getting pretty pink from sitting in the sun!  We left shortly before it ended, in time to beat the traffic and avoid heat stroke!

That evening we had yet another family picnic, this time at Grandma Willes' house.  We had tons of delicious food, and like always, we enjoyed hanging out and visiting.

Aunt Chris and her family came, and it was cute to watch the little girls together.  Shay is only a year or two older than Ari and Cami.

After dinner the kids got to play some croquet while the adults visited.

And I don't know why we always feel the need to take a ton of family pictures when we're together, but we always do. :)  (My camera's broken and doesn't focus right these days, so Nate really stands out in the background here!)

 Cute little family!

 Nothing shows how much fun it is to get together better than these pictures right here. :)  Happy day indeed!