Phoenix and Vegas!

Last Saturday was the start of our "unofficial" spring break. We spent the afternoon cheering on Baylor as they beat Texas for the second time this season.

After celebrating, we drove to Fort Worth and spent Saturday night with my parents before leaving early Sunday morning to visit my cousin Gina, and her husband, Brad, in Phoenix! Gina and Brad graciously offered us the opportunity to stay with them, watch some of the Texas Rangers spring training baseball games in/around Phoenix and hang out in Las Vegas for a day!

(These suckers are everywhere in Arizona.)

After landing we (almost) immediately drove to the ballpark to take in our first Ranger's game of 2010. And wouldn't you know that of the ten days it rains in Phoenix a year, we were there for two of them--meaning we'd have to wait a whole extra day for the long-awaited first game. We decided to head indoors and watched "Brooklyn's Finest" (review by John to follow, I'm sure...) and some dinner before calling it a night.

Monday morning we drove to Suprise, AZ to watch the Rangers play.....having to think really hard....the Angels. I'll admit the spring training games are cool--the stadiums are more intimate, the players are real casual and you can totally feel the excitement for the upcoming season. (Well maybe that excitement was coming from John, but it makes me smile to see him so pumped...)

(Murphy, Kinsler and Hamilton during the National Anthem)

Before the first inning was over, John had already purchased one of his all-time favorite meals...ice cold beer and a ballpark hot dog. Yummmmm.

After seeing all our favorites play, we took off to see the more scenic side of the greater Phoenix area. Brad and Gina knew of some pretty cool mountains/overlooks.  Phoenix is beautiful.

(Phoenix below South Mountain)

(Rock climbing in Uggs...)

(Gina and Brad)

(Mountains in the distance)

(Really cool rock formation)

Tuesday morning we took in another game (versus the A's?)  but not before  having devouring some delicious In-N-Out burgers and fries.

(Why won't they expand to Texas?!)

(John's idol, Michael Young)

Then, we hopped on a plane and flew to Vegas for the night and Wednesday. We checked in at the Mirage ate a wonderful meal at the steakhouse in our hotel and then walked across the way to see Blue Man Group!

(We were close to the stage and got to wear some lovely panchos.)

Blue Man Group was pretty awesome and we had a blast hanging out with Brad and Gina until early Wednesday morning.

(Glad we didn't wake up and find one of these in our hotel room.)

We spent Wednesday taking in all the excess that is Las Vegas, making a couple of bets, and eating more good food. This time, we found a Serendipity and Gina and I were estatic to try the legendary frozen hot chocolate.

(Deliciousness)

Our time in Phoenix and Las Vegas was incredible and we're so grateful to Gina and Brad for showing us a good time! We'll be looking forward to coming out there again soon!

We returned to Fort Worth and met up with my family and celebrated Dad's birthday at Pappasito's and watched the Bears dominate Texas again!

John left Friday for Colorado with his guy friends through Tuesday and I kicked it in Fort Worth with family and friends over the weekend.

It's back to the grind this week--luckily I've got some Baylor basketball games to look forward to and, what should prove to be an entertaining recording session with Courtney. Details to follow. ;)