There's no crying in baseball (Day 3.5)

After hanging with all the animals, we took on some entirely different animals...

Baseball fans.

There really is nothing better than spring training.

Super laid back atmosphere. Garlic fries. The warm sun on your back.

I wish Utah had a Major League team...

It will be interesting to see who Camden chooses to cheer for...his dad is a Ray's fan, and his Grandpa Judd, a die hard Cardinals fan. I'm surprised Grandpa Judd hasn't been trying to teach him how to say "Albert Pujols".

After the game, we headed to Old Town Scottsdale.

Camden got a chance to cool off.

We did some browsing through the tourist trap-esque stores, and ended up at this wonderful ice cream parlor!

Pink seats and everything! It was a perfect amount of girlie for me. We indulged in all sorts of goods...ice cream filled eclairs, ice cream/sorbet drinks, old fashioned sundaes, you name it, we tried it.

Later that night we took on mini golf.

Sadly, Ryan and I lost. Good thing Ryan is a better real golfer...he needs to work on his mini golf skills, I mean, c'mon, I was totally carrying the team.

Spring Break! (Day 1)

Headed to Arizona again for Spring Break!

Sunshine... here we come--

Day 1: A lot of driving time.

We left Cedar City, and drove...

and drove... Camden was a trooper! We figured out that putting a DVD player in the car is pure genius. I know, I was once one of those moms too (the ones that vow never to let their kid watch movies in the car)...but now, I am a believer! And never going back--
And yes, we did rent a 15 passenger van for this trip-- it was a blast! We had a lot of people coming and going throughout the week, so to save money and stay more organized, we opted for the van. Totally worth it.

One of our stops along the way was lunch at the Grand Canyon. It was ridiculously cold and windy...so we didn't stay too long.
But did what Judds do best...Eat.
This picture perfectly illustrates Camden's newfound obsession with horses. He says "nay. nay. nay." every chance he gets. So when we saw this picture in the restaurant, he went nuts!
This part of the drive made me really excited to get to Phoenix...and sun.

Dang that snow.

Camden and I enjoyed many a silly game in the car. It's amazing how easily a 1 year old is entertained...and more amazing is how easily he entertained me. :)
We couldn't leave behind the lovely scenery without a hike, so we braved the wind and cold, and checked out the red rock.I made Ryan carry a blanket that was wrapped around Camden in the elephant seat so his little legs wouldn't get too cold.

After the hike, we drove on. Stopping only one more time (to play sardines in the courtyard of an outdoor shopping center) before we arrived in Phoenix!

Much Needed Sunshine

Well the weather lately in Utah has sucked.
It keeps playing with my emotions, which really isn't fair. A day of sunshine and blue skies here, crazy wind and snowstorms there, oh and a little bit of rain in between. (really Utah, really?) My level of cabin fever was off the charts! Since having Camden I haven't experienced much of the great outdoors...with no help from the weatherman.
So when Ryan said that he would be free during
SPRING BREAK

I literally jumped for joy! It didn't take long to decide we needed warm weather to survive

(ok not that dramatic, but I really really wanted to see the sun for more than just a minute in between snowstorms) We chose Arizona! Figured we could make a stop or two along the way and break up the long drive... Long drive. (Forgot about that for just a minute because of the excitement of sunshine.) Long road trip with a 3 1/2 month old baby who doesn't yet sleep through the night.

Hmm...sanity or sunshine?

We chose SUNSHINE!!

We stayed a night in Cedar City at the Judd Cabin on the way down, then stopped in Vegas for lunch with my parents! (no, they didn't move...they were on vacation also. Maybe it's a Nelson gene to crave warm weather?)

We made it to Phoenix just in time to catch the Jazz game!

Camden's first NBA game and he slept most of the time-- Maybe he is good luck though because we pulled out a win!

We took advantage of the lovely Phoenix weather and saw some spring training. Dodgers vs. White Sox

(also fit in some Birthday Shopping...much appreciated)

On My Birthday... we had a gourmet breakfast at Denny's.

Saw the A's play the Angels

And had dinner with Ryan's cousins {the Browns}

Eric and Lily absolutely adored Camden. Eric wanted to pat his back to "help his tummy", and Lily wanted to hold him. In the middle of dinner Eric decided to read Camden a story...cutest thing ever! It was such a fun Birthday! (Even if the whole year I'll be singing the Blink 182 song...Nobody likes you when you're 23...)

We played games and had an amazing dinner at the Brown's Sunday-- (dinner was so fabulous, props to Jen) And both Lily and Eric held Camden.

Camden was smiling. I promise.

Ryan and I decided to explore Old Town Scottsdale. Maybe we should turn ourselves in for child abuse...turns out the place we ate at for lunch was like the Hooters of Scottsdale. Camden's one and only Hooters experience I guess? It was a cute little area with streets lined in western shops. On our way back home, we stopped in Cedar City again and saw Grandma and Grandpa Judd. It was their first time meeting Camden...I fought back tears :)

It was such a fun trip and I thoroughly enjoyed the sunshine I had so badly craved. It was all worth it. Except now, everytime we put Camden in his car seat, he arches his little back and screams bloody murder. Guess we learned our lesson that the little man wasn't fond of his 22 hours in the car.