10 years ago we got to experience this tournament with Douglas and had a ton of fun. I was excited when Mason's team decided to go. However, the price of the hotel ($200 per night), airfare ($300 per person) and rental car ($400) was giving me heartburn so we decided to drive. The plan was to leave Wednesday at lunchtime and drive all the way through so Mason could go to school for half of the day. The weather did not cooperate so we decided to leave Tuesday after school to avoid an incoming snow storm. We made it to Vegas.
We didn't have a reservation so we grabbed a cheap room on Hotels.com. It was the Fiesta in Henderson for $30 plus a $20 resort fee. We asked for a King bed and Mason agreed to sleep on the air mattress we brought for this very reason. When we got to our room we were grossed out to find the garbage overflowing, bed sheets all a mess and used towels laying on the bathroom floor. Needless to say, we requested a different room and ended up with 2 queen beds. I really dislike squishing in a queen when I am used to a king. So, we still made Mason sleep on the air mattress and Russell and I took our own bed. Mason wasn't happy about it at all but he has kind of a cushy life so we thought it was good for him to sacrifice a little. He made it through the night! None of us slept well. The room smelled of stale smoke and the bathroom was old and trailer like. Because of our troubles when we checked in, the $20 resort fee was waived and we literally paid $30 for the room. We got what we paid for. Every now and then we need to do something like this to remind us of how lucky we are and make us grateful. However, we are now fully accepting that we are hotel snobs! We could not check out fast enough!
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| Not happy about it but survived! |
The next morning we made our way from Vegas to Mesa, AZ. It was such a long and boring drive. At first, I was fascinated by the random cacti growing along the side of the road but that wore off quickly. We were so glad to get to our Marriot Hotel! It was clean and smelled good and many of our teammates were staying there.
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| Yes, that is a King sized bed but Mason had a super comfy sofa sleeper. |
The whole purpose of going to AZ was to play baseball. It's what we do❤️⚾️.
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| My mom made me this baseball bag YEARS ago. I L❤️VE it! It holds so much stuff and has been to many games. Just looking at it makes me happy 🥰. |
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| Sunshine is always good. Perhaps I got a little too much that first day 🥵. These legs were white! |
Mason played great! He usually has a rough start each season because he is a nervous batter. He is picky about pitches and often strikes out several times before he starts hitting. His first hit of the season was a double! He had a triple this tournament and hit the ball well. It was fun to watch him gain some confidence and not have such a slow start. His pitching has really come along as well. One of our games, we were down 7-2 when he came in to pitch. He only allowed 2 more runs in his 3 innings and we ended up winning the game. It was SO fun to watch. The team also played well. We had no idea what to expect as we were playing leadoffs (which we don't generally do at this age) and new teams from different states. We ended up taking 3rd in the D2 division (D1 is for the hardcore, warm weather teams that travel a lot). It was a great start to the season!
Outside of the games, we got to go to Spring Training for the MLB. We choose the Texas Rangers since we know one of the coaches on the team. Douglas had the privilege of playing 9-10-year-old baseball with Bryan Conger's son, Maddux, and we just love their family. They moved to Texas a long time ago but when we realized he was here, we had to go see him!
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| Coach Conger |
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| Love this baseball boy of mine! |
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| Crew, Rockwell, Mason |
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| Will you sign my ball, please? |
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| Dallon, Mason, Lucien, Rockwell, Crew, Kash |
The best part of this day was watching the boys run around trying to get autographs. There are not very many big names on the Texas Rangers but the boys didn't care at all. Every autograph was like gold to them! So fun!
As if the baseball wasn't fun enough, getting to hang out with teammates all wee was such a blast. There was swimming, eating out, tag, hide and seek, basketball and lots of silliness. Mason had the best time and it really was a great experience.
We hated the drive down so much that Russell joked about selling our car and flying home. We are not good road trippers. I hope we get to do this again. It's worth it as long as we get to fly!
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