Phoenix, Arizona

A while ago Ryan and I planned a little summer vacation for ourselves for when we were finally done with school and tests and everything. First, we headed down to Phoenix, AZ from July 1-4, then we swung over to Hemet, California for the Tibbitts Family Reunion (Ryan's mom's side) from July 4-7, next we drove up to Moneterey, California just for one night on the 7th, and finished the trip up in San Francisco from July 8-10. We had such a blast and it was fun to be away that long and relax!

Ryan's cousin, Kristi, and her husband, Derek, were nice enough to let us stay with them in AZ. I had only been to Phoenix once (and it was for school, not fun, so I didn't see much) before that and since Ryan lived there for the two years before we met, I wanted to go see this place. Also, Ryan has a bunch of relatives down there, a few of which I hadn't met until this trip.

We went and saw the homes that Ryan built/managed. He worked at Trilogy Power Ranch, which is the active adult division for Shea Homes.

These signs were scattered throughout the community. I thought it was funny. Who knows, maybe that's a normal thing, but not where I came from.

We passed by the "Field of Dreams" in Gilbert and had to stop. They were called something else, but I can't remember what, and they were surrounded by corn fields, so it was fitting. These are city league fields that they built to look like famous stadiums around the country. They looked so real and would be so fun to play on!

Check out that temperature. I wanted to die. I was soaked with sweat after being outside for more than 5 minutes. I was actually pleased when it "cooled down" to 98 degrees at night!

Of course we had to go to a baseball game, so we got our tickets to a Diamondbacks game.

We got there during batting practice and everyone was waiting for a home run ball down in the first row, but right when Ryan and I walked in, a ball was hit, landed by all those people waiting, and then bounced right back to us!

This picture was taken after a long, hot day of walking around outside, hence the sweatiness. Luckily, Chase field can have the top closed on it and so the game was air conditioned.

The next day we went to breakfast with Ryan's cousins, Kristi & Derek, and JR at T.C. Eggington's. Check out the food... it was soooo good!

We finished off that day by doing a little shopping, going swimming with the Ridings (cousins) at some pool park thing, and then going out to Five Guys on Mill Avenue with Ryan's old co-worker Alex and his wife, followed by a walk around Tempe Town Lakes. It was such a fun few days and a perfect, relaxing way to kick off our trip!