Take Me Out to the Ball Game

So I guess a perk to knowing a MLB player is getting free tickets to a game. Jeremy Guthrie had told us at the fireside when we were ready to go watch a game, to let him know. So we did. He reserved tickets for us to go watch a game.

I love that the stadium is right here in our town . . . a quick 10 minute drive from our house.

Grabbed some food and headed down to our seats.

It was fun watching the game. It was Kansas City Royals against our home Diamond Backs team.

The kids were getting tired toward the end. Here we are at the 7th inning. I was surprised that I knew a fair amount about how to play the game. I was trying to teach Micah how it all works.

In the end, the KCR ended up beating the DBacks. Yay!! 

After the game, we headed over to Chipotle to grab some free burritos. Jeremy Gurthrie had invited us over there for some promotional thing he was doing over there. Did you know that Chipotle is his favorite restaurant, and that during his stay here in Surprise, he ate there about 30 times in the two months he was here. LOL! That's a lot of beans. 

While we were there, he signed a baseball for each of my boys. I love that he put CTR on them.

Thank you Jeremy Guthrie for a fun afternoon.

YW Hike Prep for Camp

This morning Kara and I got up early and headed out to Piestewa Peak for some hiking with the Stake. This is Kara's first year for YW Camp so she was excited. I was happy to join them. I think a lot of the girls underestimated the weather. As you can tell, a lot of them were cold. 

Everyone was anxious to get started, so that they could warm up.

Our fun leaders from our ward behind us during the start of our hike. 

This was our view looking up.

Still going. Almost there.

We finally reached the top. We took a break to enjoy the scenery and company and have a snack.

We finally reached the top. We took a break to enjoy the scenery and company and have a snack.

Kara with some of the 1st years.

It was a great view.

On the way back.

After coming back down, we returned to the site of the new Phoenix temple. It's 20 minutes from our house. We are so excited about that because the Mesa temple is the closest right now, which is about an hour drive. 

 We took a little tour they give to visitors of the site. I thought this map was really cool. All the red pins are functioning temples. All the blue pins are temple sites that are

being built. This map was actually of the whole world, but I just zoomed in on the USA.

It was so nice to start and end at the temple site. 
What a wonderful blessing we have all been given.

YW 10 Hour Project - Divine Nature

Leigh completed one of her 10hr projects for her Personal Progress. She's getting closer! We got this idea from a friend of ours. Leigh put on a recipe exchange with all the girls in YW. 

Each of the girls made a favorite dish and brought it along with the recipe. Leigh made recipe boxes for each girl and provided index cards for each of the girls to copy the recipe on. 

The value that this project was for was Divine Nature. The point of the project was to help the girls with their cooking skills, helping them become better homemakers.

Can I just say, they are off to a great start because all the food that was brought was delicious!!!

He's Still Climbing Trees

 It's not coconut trees but they will do. Tyler is 13, almost 14, but he's still kind of a kid at heart.

He's good at being a big brother, which helps me out A LOT!

Winning!

He doesn't take very many pictures nowadays, so I have to post what I have.Another reminder that they are growing up so fast.

Twilight Photoshoots

 I think I've mentioned that my oldest does photography. I think I've also mentioned that her younger sister, my youngest girl, loves to model for her. 

It's a win-win.

I was looking at these pictures and thinking how fast time has flown.

She's only 12 in these pictures.  I remember when she was just a little baby.

Look at their faces! LOL!

Love that they don't take themselves seriously.

I LOVE that they are great friends. I LOVE that I get to be their mother. 

They are growing up to be great young women. 

I think I'll keep them!

Aloha Festival

Ever since the first year that we've ever lived in AZ, we have always gone to the Aloha Festival. Since we've moved back, we made sure to mark it down on our calendar. 

They've moved the venue since we were last here to Tempe Town Lake at ASU. I like it better. It's more open and more room to walk around.  

 It was colder than years before. We were dressed for the weather, but as the day wore on, it just felt colder.

 The kids enjoyed themselves seeing all the familiar things from home.

 There weren't too many places to sit and eat our food. It didn't help that a lot of places were wet.

The food of course was the best part of the day.

Fireside with MLB Player Jeremie Guthrie

Randy has been running his website LatterDaySports.com for a couple of years. In those couple of years, he's developed relationships with a lot of people in the business of sports. One of the people he's gotten to know via Twitter is Jeremy Guthrie, who is the starting pitcher for the Kansas City Royals. The KSC have their spring training here in Surprise, AZ.

Because Randy knew that Jeremy would be here for a couple months for training, he invited Jeremy to do a fireside for the youth of our stake. Jeremy was more than happy to do it. 

Tonight was the fireside. He did an awesome job. We heard a lot of great comments of how great a fireside it was. It was cool to see him interacting with the kids afterwards and to also see how starstruck some of the kids were. 

It was very cool. 

I won't lie, it also felt cool to be the ones responsible for organizing it. 

We got to talk with Jeremy afterwards and the kids got to meet him. He reminded me of a grown up version of Micah. In fact, while we were talking to him, he pointed at Micah and said, "I used to look just like you when I was a kid." 

It was a great evening. If you ever get a chance to hear Jeremy Guthrie speak, make sure you don't miss it.