Birthdays, Surprises & Baseball
As we roll into the end of the winter February starts to stack up some birthdays. Amity’s sister, Autumn’s, birthday is on February 24th, while my birthday is on February, 28th. Stacking these up made for some really fun and very different birthday celebrations! We started out the birthdays in Kansas City for a surprise of a lifetime, while we ended our birthday celebrations back in Phoenix with some spring training baseball!
Mile: 35,775
Quote of the Blog: “If you don’t do it this year, you will be one year older when you finally do it.” - Warren Miller
Song of the Blog: “Bithday” - The Lumineers
Flying back to Kansas City has become a very simple and quick flight from Phoenix. This made getting over there a breeze. On the other side of our flight, Autumn’s “Big Surprise” was waiting for us. This was Juan Carlos and two of his three daughters, Cata and Eva. Juan Carlos, “JC”, was a AFS foreign exchange student from Costa Rica. He lived with Amity’s grandparents and mother in Shelbyville, Missouri. He has become an Uncle within the family, and has played host for us in Costa Rica. This was one of the few times he had been in Kansas City, and the first time his daughters have been there. It was fun to have them there, and we were very excited to surprise Autumn and the rest of the family. We all had rented a vacation home together, so after meeting up with them in Kansas City, we went to our rental to get unpacked and settled. Funny thing was, the rental had not been cleaned and was still a mess from the last people that had stayed there. We were able to contact the property owner and get it taken care of, but that was a first for us.
We all headed over to the Early’s house to drop the “Big Surprise” on them. JC had worked out a script while in the car in which we were going to go in before them, and then a little later they would come in asking about a party. He nailed it! The shock and looks on all of their faces was priceless. Autumn was at tears of joy to see him in her house along with his daughters. This was a great way to start her birthday off. As the day progressed, we headed over to one of Andy’s siblings house, which was not far from the Early’s. They had planned another surprise for Autumn. They had invited the entire Early family, which is HUGE, over to celebrate. I mean it feels like there are 20 children alone! We were able to hide in their house and surprise her again as she came in. This led to a great evening of celebrating and catching up with the Missouri family. We were very grateful to have been able to make the trip over to KCity to spend Autumn’s birthday with her!
Over the next couple days, we continued to play host for JC and his daughters. We took them out to help Eva and Cata find a dress for a friend’s upcoming wedding. This was a long day of walking and shopping, but we crushed it! We treated them to an entertaining “American Tradition” of pickleball at Chicken N Pickle. It was a treat to share with them one of the quirkier bits of American entertainment. They shared with us some of the greatest treats to come from Costa Rica; coffee beans and chocolate! We are very excited to have these treats at home! Spending time with JC and his daughters has been really fun! Getting to know them more and more is a special treat! Next time, we will be hanging out with them back in Costa Rica! We wrapped up our day by going to Atticus and Baylor’s basketball games. Really fun and comical to see Atticus’s age play, and surprisingly good.
Our flight back to Phoenix was right in time to celebrate my birthday. I really didn’t have much on my mind other than going to a Spring Training baseball game. Since we have been living in Phoenix, we have been to a couple baseball games. We went to the Savannah Banana’s, we meet up with Amy Zurcher while she was in town to go to a White Sox game on the opening weekend of Spring Training. We also found a way to mix in some Putt-Putt! For my bday game we are headed to go see the Seattle Mariners play the Kansas City Royals. It was only fitting to go to a Royal’s game the day after being in KCity.
We took advantage of cheap ticket prices for Spring Training games, and sat first row on the first base line. It was all too good to kick our feet up on the wall of the field, soak in the desert sun and enjoy some quality baseball! Amity and I both found some really fun baseball gear at this game. I got a new shirt that has cacti in the shape of baseball bats and she got a new ballcap that has a cactus wearing a baseball hat and glove on it. Perfect for the next few months of baseball! I was also lucky enough to get a foul ball from the game from the ball boy that was working right in front of us. This made the birthday game all that much more special! We were even sitting next to a couple from just outside of Kansas City that we were able to chat and laugh it up with.
Following the game, we went to a brewery that is close by, which is actually one of my favorite ones in the Phoenix area. It is called Peoria Artisan Brewery. They have some really quality beers there and a nice patio area. This was capped off with some sushi at a spot that was recommended to us by one of Amity’s patients; called Tomo Japanese Cuisine. It was a great way to cap off a solid week of birthday celebrations! With just under one month to plan for Amity’s birthday, I need to get to work and find something fun for us to do!