SPRING TRAINING, PHOENIX, AZ March 19-29, 2012

Once back from our trip to Guatemala we enjoyed a couple more days visiting friends.

Then Sunday we packed up our little house and got ready to head east to Arizona for 2 weeks of  Spring training, but not before a last minute sale of both the little brown Mercedes and Paul's VW van. What good fortune for us! The Mercedes sold through Craig's list rather than eBay as we had hoped, our only eBay buyer turned out to be a flake never responding to us at all once the auction ended, disappointing but in the end it all worked out. The new buyer was from Jackson, Wy and had seen our Craig's list ad while he was here in CA. We left the Mercedes in the Rizzoli's lot till he could get back out to pick it up. 

The van was a little more difficult, we just couldn't get a serious buyer... but Sunday evening Paul gave one last call to someone who had seen it on Sat, offered it at a lower price and the guy said yes, he'd take it. He's a surfer and the van will be perfect for hauling surf boards around the county.

So, after a long try both cars were sold and we had 2 less items to store and worry about, such a good feeling, though hard to part with our little MB of 42 years. We dropped the van off at a Santa Maria High School where the surfer buyer is an English teacher, then we set out for our next adventure.

One more night's stay along the coast then a REALLY long day driving 520 miles on to Phoenix and our camp at Cave Creek Regional Park. We finally arrived at sunset...gorgeous!

Paul's sister, MarLyn, and her family have been coming to Spring Training in Phoenix for over 20 years and this time we decided we'd join them. What fun we had!  MarLyn had taken care of getting our seats reserved for each game and I'm so glad she did! Great seats and no hassle.

Due to our delayed departure from San Luis we missed our chance to watch the Giants play, a bummer. But we did get to see 3 other games all at different fields and in different parts of the city, and even a night game.

I totally got in the spirit  of the games,

March 21st we had fun celebrating our 42nd Anniversary, spending the afternoon at the Desert Botanical Gardens.  So beautiful to see so many desert plants in flower.

and a butterfly house to explore.

Mandy and Logan took us out for a wonderful dinner, what a fun evening! 

We also got to celebrate MarLyn's grand daughter, Mackenzie's, 7th birthday at a horse ranch late Saturday afternoon. 

Once everyone had arrived we loaded onto a wagon for a hayride, followed by a tasty BBQ and cake of course!

Such a fun night! Especially loved this new idea for roasting hot dogs...Stick them on a pitch fork and roast 8 at a time! With 3 pitch forks going, there were plenty of dogs cooked up in no time.

The birthday girl was busy having fun playing with friends and cousins so I never caught her with my camera, but I did get photo of MarLyn and Randy with their oldest grand daughter, Kiley. 

Sunday was a little overcast and cooler so we decided to stay inside and visit the Heard Museum North in Scottsdale.

Couldn't resist taking a photo of this Safeway sign...very "Scottsdale"! Don't think I've ever seen such a stylish sign for Safeway anywhere else.

Afterwards we drove into the Boulders Resort and came upon a wonderful afternoon of jazz and wine in a nearby shopping area. The rock formations at the Boulders Resort were surrounded by beautiful wildflowers. So pretty to see color in an otherwise muted scene. 

Another baseball game that following Tuesday then we said good bye to MarLyn and our nephew, David. She was flying home early the next morning.

I also got to visit Mandy and her first grade class at Quail Run Elementary on Wednesday

afternoon...what a treat! I read them a story, talked about Guatemala and had fun watching their little dance routine as they practiced skip counting. I had brought them each a bookmark from Guatemala and got this fun photo before I left.

It's so fun to see Mandy in her element, she's such a natural in the classroom.

Our last night in Phoenix, Mandy and her friend Molly came out for dinner, campfire and sleepover leaving at 6:30 in the morning. A beautiful sunrise and we were soon packed and ready to go.

With our new South Dakota license plates attached, we drove south to visit Tucson for the next 5 days.