Weekend with Dad

Rob and I had a fantastic time when Dad was out here this past weekend...and we think he did too :) His plane landed on Friday afternoon and we stopped at In-N-Out Burger for lunch and Fresh and Easy for groceries on our way back to the apartment. (burgers for Rob and Dad and an egg sandwich at home for me :) We spent Saturday in Goodyear at the Indians spring training site, in Glendale at Margaritaville and in Tempe at ASU. Saturday was some sort of fan fest at the ballpark and we watched batting practice, wandered throughout the stadium and even walked across the field! Here are a few pictures...

Rob and Dad on the hill behind the outfield/berm seating... I think was the word.
And below is a picture of Rob and me on the field!

And a picture of Dad and me on the field too.

I was ridiculously excited for a picture at third base :)

The fan fest festivities included a lot of bounce houses and activities geared toward kids. Obviously, Rob and I had to try them out. We had a bit of an epic battle on this inflatable mat. You could probably say I lost because all of the pictures show me on the ground, but I was light enough to stand up on the lil post at the beginning and the real "rules" of the game (if such even exist) say the winner is the person who knocks the other off. I should probably be victorious since Rob never gave me the chance to knock him off the lil post. Kind of a forfeit rule if you will. :)

Dad called this the battle of the century.

Another fantastic story...There are orange trees all over the place out here (mostly in people's backyards/on private property) and I have really wanted to pick oranges for quite some time now. Well, we discovered orange trees on ASU's campus, which seems less like private property to me and I made Rob hoist me up so I could pick oranges (picture below) and I filled a whole bag. I was ridiculously excited for this free produce. We packed three oranges on Sunday for our hike and when we were driving home, I decided I needed a snack. I peeled the orange. At this point, the car smells all citrusy and everything is fantastic, except the juice that's dripping all over me. I figured I'd just slurp a lil juice up from the puddle in the middle of the orange (not exaggerating, this was the juiciest orange ever!) and holy moly this was the sourest thing ever. My face puckered up and Dad and Rob thought I was exaggerating so they had to try a piece. Same conclusion. I think Dad spit some orange out even. We stopped for gas station goodies to ease the hunger, but I'm still a bit disappointed about the ruined free produce. It was almost the greatest deal ever.

I am hiding in the tree a lil, but I promise I'm there!

I mentioned our hike in the orange story briefly (which is my absolute favorite...I even told it to the kids at school yesterday to teach them active verbs...hoisted, slurped, puckered...just the higher level vocabulary words...and they think I'm insane probably.) Okay, discussing the hike now. We went up to Suwaro Lake, which is another Spanish word I can't spell, and it was absolutely beautiful! Supposedly, the lake is the best place to see wildflowers and unfortunately, they weren't out yet, but it was a huge lake with lil inlets and mountains and clear blue sky. The pictures really don't do it justice, but here are a few.


Overall, it was a wonderful, relaxing weekend. I spent a lot of Friday afternoon running around, gathering recommendation letters and applying for a teaching job in Gilbert-- the city Rob lived in before I moved out here. They are opening a brand new high school next fall and I have a screening interview at their job fair next Saturday. Fingers crossed things go well. Other than the application, I had all of my lessons planned for this week and was able to ignore school work for the whole weekend without falling behind!

Okay, I have laundry finishing in the dryer that needs folded and want to get outside for a run before I have to tutor tonight. Rob and I both hope all is well with you and to see/talk with you soon :) Love, Sarah and Rob