Garden 2014

My garden has been pretty pitiful. After breaking my wrist in November, I did zero outside chores. All dead plants were left looking dreadful until this weekend.

Even though my wrist isn't near 100%, I couldn't let my garden go this summer. This is pretty much the very last weekend to get tomatoes in the ground and hope for a decent crop. Last year we had a lot of late cold rain and I didn't get them in until mid april. We didn't even get a dozen tomatoes.

This year, since it is still pretty late, I purchased bigger plants. J & DH wanted big 2 lb tomatoes so we got some sort of beefsteak. I don't know what it was, just that it came in a big pot and it is suppose to produce big tomatoes.

I also have dreams of multitudes of Roma tomatoes so I can roast them like some blog post I recently read (but can't find because they cancelled Google Reader and feedly doesn't provide a search within your blog list or maybe they do but you have to pay for it but I can't bring myself to pay for it since I'm still so mad at the demise of Google Reader.)  I bought some Roma tomatoes. They didn't have bigger plants, so I had to buy itty-bitty ones. I don't know what will happen, but I can cross my fingers and hope for the best.


I also bought a poppy plant because I thought they looked pretty.


Three surprises in the garden.

I planted a hellebore 3 years ago and it isn't amounted to much. It stayed about the same size, but it was never eaten or trampled or killed. It just stayed the same. I looked out the window this week and noticed something white. I was happy to find it wasn't a piece of trash but a flower.


The plant doubled in size and is flowering. I guess it just needed time to establish itself.

The second surprise is strawberries. I've planted them every year for the kids and we've never gotten much out of them. The birds get to them before we do. I wasn't planning to plant them again this year. But went I went to rake the leaves out of the bed I uncovered the strawberries from last year growing and already producing!


(It is sort of hard to see but under the bright green leaf in top left are two baby green strawberries)

The third surprise. A tiny baby garter snake. It was so cute!


It was nice to pull some weeds and get some plants in the ground but I can already tell that my wrist isn't happy with me. Off to ice it down!

Spring Break Part III

The rest of Spring Break was baseball, baseball, baseball. We spent Sunday-Thursday in Phoenix and saw 5 games. DH even squeezed in an extra afternoon game on our last day in town.

Sunday afternoon we went to the Rangers at the Mariners. We got seats down the first base line. The kids went to sit right on the wall, easy access to signatures from players walking on and off the field.

The best part about this game was that B was sitting on the wall with J & cousin M. A player walked passed by and patted him on the head. But what he really did was take B's sunglasses off the top of his hat. B was sort of starting to freak out but the player turned around and gave him a thumbs up. He dropped off his gear eventually came back to return the glasses. The player turned out to be Brett Nicholas, a catcher who played in Frisco last season. Brian was super excited. After the game, we hung around after the game and got his autograph.


Monday morning we went to the Rangers practice facility. Lots of excitement.

Pudge Rodriguez coaching the catchers.


Elvis Andrus walked right passed me!


The kids got tons of autographs! There were baseball players everywhere. Most of them were minor leaguers, but they happily stopped to sign baseballs/shirts/hats.

After a lot of searching, we found Preston Beck, the son of a math teacher at school. He was nice enough to stop and talk and take a picture with some of Mrs. Beck's former students.


While we were at the back fields watching Preston play, B went to find his new favorite player Nicholas at batting practice. He yelled out, "Hey, Brett, remember me!"  Brett remember that he was the sunglasses kid. After he finished batting, he gave B his batting gloves. When they were leaving the batting cages, he stopped and signed a glove!




B was one excited boy!

We had lots of fun the rest of the week.

Adrian Beltre signed autographs.



Yu Darvish pitched.



All the kids got a picture with B's favorite, Brett Nicholas


They rode the carousel.  Well, girls took selfies while riding the carousel. (I liked the warnings on the sign!)




Adrian Gonzales tossed a ball to J on his way to the dugout


We watched Elvis Andrus & Adrian Beltre do pushups after losing some sort of bet in the batting cages.


We met Darren Oliver while watching Preston Beck play.


We got a picture with all of the kids and Preston Beck. Those poor single A boys don't get much attention at Spring Training. Preston must have loved the cheering squad we brought to his game!


It really was a fabulous Spring Break trip. We'll have to do it again some day.

Spring Break 2014 Part II

On our way down to Phoenix, we took the scenic route through Sedona. We stopped at a place called Slide Rock State Park. It was a great place except for the very cold water. It would be nice to go back when it is warm enough to slide down the rocks.










We finally arrived at the fabulous house in Phoenix and waited for the other families to arrive. The S family showed up about an hour later. The kids went from heated pool to pool table to hot tub back heated pool all night. We all (including me who tried to go to bed multiple times) stayed up until the cousins arrived.

A was excited (or I was excited for her) because they brought along the very big envelope that arrived in Dallas that afternoon. We have an Ursuline girl in the class of 2018!


Sorry for the awful lighting/bad picture! I tried to get her to stage it again so I could get a better one but she refused.

Spring Break 2014

We had a great spring break this year. Last year DH & BIL#2 went off to Spring Training for the weekend. They enjoyed it and decided we should go back with the families for Spring Break this year. BIL#2 rented a big house and invited us and another family to join them in Phoenix.

Since Phoenix in only 3 hours away from the Grand Canyon, I convinced DH that we needed to make a side trip. We left Dallas at 4am and drove straight through with only 3 bathrooms stops. We made it in time for sunset. It was an impressive road trip with 3 kids, especially with B who has a teeny bladder once he sits in a car.

The Grand Canyon is awesome. We had a quick visit, less than 24 hours but we made the most of it.





After catching the sunset, we checked into the hotel. DH called ahead to confirm our reservation and asked for a room with a view. They told us that not many rooms have a view, but they managed a bit of one.


We walked down to a cafe to eat dinner and check out the gift shop and then we headed to bed. We were tired.

The next morning we got up and watched the sunrise.


















After a very nice breakfast at the hotel, we purchased souvenirs and headed out. We left the park via the East Entrance and stopped to check out the sites along the way.




We went down 4-5 turns at the Grandview trailhead. A is convinced we need to take a family trip to hike down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. I don't know if that will ever happen!










After leaving the park, we pulled over at a lookout on some reservation land. Brian was disappointed but he did obey the signs.




It was a good day spent at the Grand Canyon. Maybe someday we will take A's trip!

Last Y Guides Campout

DH participated in Y Guides with both the boys. Neither of the groups was super involved, mostly just participating in the 2 campouts each year. DH & B had their last campout the first weekend of March.
















As always, they came home tired but had a lot of fun.