Spring Trainin’ & Easter Egg Huntin’….oh and some brotherly lovin’

To me, one of the perks of living in Arizona is enjoying Spring Training games the month of March. And about a ½ hour away, we’re even luckier to be the home of the Angels, our favorite baseball team. When we moved here last March we didn’t get our act together fast enough to make it to a game, so this year I knew I didn’t want to miss out. For Valentine’s Day I bought Austin tickets to yesterday afternoons game…the Angels vs. the visiting D-backs (they train out in Tucson). We have been looking forward to going for sometime and were really excited to take Dax. We bought tickets for the outfield lawn, packed a picnic, some blankets, and lots of sunscreen and headed for an afternoon at the ballpark.

We got there just as the game was starting and found an open itty-bitty spot on the lawn out in left field. The lawn area was packed with hundreds of people, and we had Wyatt in the stroller, so we were in the back, but it ended up being perfect to get up and stretch and for Dax to play around a little. Again, Wyatt missed out on the entire experience because he slept the entire time…even through two homeruns right next to us! It was so much fun being their as a family and spending an afternoon in the sun watching baseball. It truly is one of our favorite pastimes.

Funny story: There was this chain link fence and bushes behind where we were sitting. Dax pretty much spent the day hanging on this fence with his back to the game looking out at this back road and talking to the random people who walked by. He was well entertained and we were able to catch almost all the game thanks to this cheap entertainment. I couldn’t help laughing when I heard him yelling at the street (there was no one walking by and no cars were even driving on this road) “Always, always, ask mommy daddy help! Right mom?” Just to give you a little background, since Dax is a 4-wheeler riding machine on his bike we’ve needed to pound into his head how we don’t ride our bike in the street and how we need to stop and ask for mom or dad’s help to cross the street. I guess he felt the need to tell the street this very important rule!

After we made it home we headed to Austin’s parents house for dinner and a family Easter egg hunt. I had gotten my Easter eggs down a few days ago and Dax and I had been taking turns hiding the Easter eggs and doing some mini Easter egg hunts around the house. Dax loved to hide them as much as he loved to find them and would constantly tell me, whether he was hiding or finding “No peeking!” After dinner last night, the boys went out in front yard to hide all the eggs. Dax was so excited and made sure none of the other 10 kids got an advantage over him and kept yelling “noooooo peeeeeeeking!” They had 216 filled eggs for all the kids and the yard was covered. They let Dax and his cousin, Jett, out first to give them a head start and Dax came running out the door where there were probably a good 20 eggs right along his path and ran straight into the garage. I have no idea where he was headed or what he thought he was looking for, but obviously our week’s worth of practice did no good!

Austin redirected him and when he came to his first egg he opened it up and said, “Surprise” and proceeds to eat all the jellybeans before moving on. With this little routine, the yard was pretty wiped out by about the time Dax had 6 or so eggs in his basket, so some of the kids with a lot more eggs would set some of their extras around the lawn for Dax to “find”. He was more than pleased. And when there were two $5 eggs left, he was one of the lucky ones to find one…with help from Austin of course. Apparently Austin ALWAYS found the golden egg when he was a kid so he wanted to make sure Dax carried on his legacy. It was such a fun night. We can’t wait to do the Easter egg hunt with my family next weekend! Maybe a week’s more of practice will help Dax out a little!

I just had to post this picture of Dax and Wyatt. Dax loves his brother, but is never willing to hold still for me to get a good picture of the two of them together. For some reason this morning he was very willing to spend some time in front of the camera. I love this picture!!