Spring Training - Part One

We went to the see one of the Cactus League spring training games between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Colorado Rockies. The stadium was located out in Glendale in a beautiful new sports complex. Reminded us a lot of the setup we have here in Round Rock.

The Dodgers were the home team and unfortunately Manny was not playing due to injury. Regardless we were happy to be in the sun... well maybe not this much sun. As you can see above poor Ty had my little fan going as he tried to beat the heat.

More from this day out in the next post.

The Agony of Defeat

Sure G-Pop looks all nice and snugly in our last post with Ty. But put him in the competition arena and the gloves are off. There is a kid's club at the hotel with an awesome game room full of Playstations, X-boxes, and even a Wii (funny story on that in a moment), but we are still into the "analog" world of pool tables, foosball and air hockey. Never mind that Ty's reach is not very far across the table, he is great at timing and hitting the puck back. So when a goal gets scored against him, it only amps up his energy.

[Links to previous posts about Ty and air hockey here and here]

Oh and about that Wii... G-Pop hasn't played any of these modern video games. I think he last played with us as kids on our Atari 2600 (yeah baby! bring back those giant pixels). We walked into a room with a giant screen TV and a Wii was hooked up with the golf game. In a matter of a few "strokes" he already had the hang of it and was knocking in pars and a few birdies. He is a low handicap golfer in real life, but to see how he took to this new technology made me realize why this system is so popular. Seems we have a birthday present all picked out for him now.

Sunset with G-Pop

Hey G-Pop, your sweater goes nice with that sunset.

And who is the cute kid next to you?

Medusa

We headed out on the first full day to the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix. The garden is filled with all sorts of cactus and wildflowers, but the reason for the special trek was an outdoor sculpture installation.

Titled Chihuly: The Nature of Glass, featured about a dozen glass sculptures scattered in the desert. It was really quite beautiful.

More pictures of the glass and garden can be seen on my flickr stream here if interested.

Spring Break Begins

Day one of the trip. We arrived in Scottsdale in the afternoon. Sun blazing. This was a welcome relief from the past five days of rain we endured back in Texas.

Ty was very happy as he stands on the patio of our room overlooking the desert and Pinnacle Peak. This is our fifth trip out to spend spring break with Ty's grandparents.

Toothus Interruptus

Dad was all set to start relaying the Scottsdale adventures tonight, but we interrupt the regularly scheduled programming for this news flash:

Ty lost his first tooth!

It happened on Monday 3/23 at school during lunch time. For anyone tracking important milestones in Ty history, please mark that date.

Thank you. We will now resume your normal broadcast, following this brief intermission.

SXSWe Hardly Knew You

Ty and I returned from a week in Arizona late last night. Dad is uploading and editing the over 150 pictures shot on the trip. We did not want to leave our loyal followers without any posts for so long, so I offer this intermission.

Ty is a big fan of polar bears. We have seen them at Sea World and also at the Central Park Zoo. I even picked up a stuffed one from FAO Schwarz once in NYC. So to my surprise I found this fellow wondering downtown Austin on one of the first nights of SXSW. We missed the rest of the music, movies and parties, but maybe next year we can attend some.

Arizona Redux

It is the eve of Spring Break again for Ty and Dad. Tomorrow we will be jetting out of Austin and over to Scottsdale. It has been cold and rainy this week in the ATX which is highly unusual and we are more than ready for some serious sun in the desert. Lots of time in the pool planned as well as a Dodgers baseball game. Looking forward to some quality time with Gram and G-Pop.

We may try and post an update during the trip, otherwise we will resume next weekend and start to upload the photos and stories we captured. For all the other parents headed out for various Spring Break trips, we hope you have fun as well.

Leaving you with a past memory from AZ: Ty with G-pop walking around the pool area. Thankfully the days of the pacifier are long gone.

Having a Ball

One of these balls does not look like the other.

Can you spot the Ty in this picture?

Pirates Game One

Pirates Game One-03, originally uploaded by TexKap.

It is soccer season again. Ty is back with the RRSA and playing on a new team, the Pirates. Red is their color and it looks good on them (and incidentally is the perfect contrast to the green grass).

In the first game the boys played so well. They don't really keep score, but our kids scored about 14 goals, of which Ty was responsible for 5 or 6. This shot is during warm ups. If you click through the photo it will take you to my flickr page where there are more shots. Enjoy.

Go Fly a Kite

Last weekend we attended the Zilker Kite Festival. An annual event that helps Keep Austin Weird and is really just a lot of fun. It was a beautiful day and we arrived in the late afternoon. Our plan was to get there earlier, but the transportation system they had going was sloooow to say the least. No parking at the park meant several thousand people taking buses across the city. Personally I am thinking after years of doing this, the city would have the routine going smoothly, but alas no.

While there we watched the kites and tried not to get tangled in everyone's strings, or get bumped by people running backwards. We took in a puppet show and also Ty spent some time jumping around in a few inflatable bounce houses. Both of us were exhausted on the drive home, and Ty fell asleep in his car seat. Next year we will plan the trek a little better.

Have Fun Storming the Castle

Small diversion today. Dad got a new camera. It is a Nikon D60. I figured it was time to upgrade the point-and-shoot and get back to the kind of equipment I used to use in school. I still have my old Nikon F series, but I'm lazy to shoot real film because digital is just so easy.

So playing around with my lenses in the house I took this closeup of Ty's castle setup in the playroom. It is an elaborate Playmobil knight's castle with the awesome little figures all around. Ty plays with it almost everyday. And that kind of means I do too.

Laissez Les Bon Temps Roullez

Last week Ty brought home some beads, actually they were stashed in his lunchbox of all places. He told me that the teacher gave these out to everyone in class for Mardi Gras and they were put away for safe keeping.

When I told him that I had saved some beads from prior years, his eyes lit up. I scavenged for the bag buried under a counter and came up with my stash. He immediately laid them all out on the floor and determined which one was his favorite (all of them).

After donning all the beads at once I rushed for the camera. I think I will wait about 10 more years before I explain to him some of the traditions of Mardi Gras as they relate to acquiring more beads. Innocence is bliss.