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Okay - we're home from California and our week-long National Convention. I'm not sure that we've recovered from jetlag yet though - especially after takimg the red-eye home Saturday night. We worked some long days but they were very productive and for the most part great fun.
The Pechanga Resort was amazing and the staff was the best we have ever experienced. TR was able to play golf on Wednesday. It was a brand new course that was built into the side of the mountain - totaly unbelievable views. He only lost 18 balls during the round! Guess we know what he needs for Christmas.
It was great to see my old teacher, Don Clatterbough, inducted into the Hall of Fame. He and his wife, Bonnie, are great people and both gave great speeches. Finally, at the end of the night, I received a huge surprise as I (along with two coworkers) was named the EA Ramsey CEO Award Winner for 2009. This was one of the few times I really was speechless.
Bradley managed to survive the week but is glad that we are both home. Unfortunately, we didn't get to do much sightseeing - no San Diego Zoo or other fun things. However, we did manage a stop in Beverly Hills to Rodeo Drive and the Beverly Wiltshire (where Pretty Woman was filmed) on our way back to the airport as we had time to kill before our flight. It was really neat seeing all the shops and the Christmas decorations.
Okay - so I will freely admit that one of the best things about Florida is the weather. It is great to still be running around in shorts and playing ball in the first weekend of November. Last weekend we played great on Saturday, only to completely fall apart in the 5th inning of our first game on Sunday and lose. Our boys worked hard at practice this week as we knew it would be a tough state tourney this weekend as we were playing up a division.
To kick off the weekend, we had Orlando Magic tickets for Friday night against the Pistons. Bradley loves JJ Redick but normally when we go to the games, JJ sees very little playing time. Not so this time (maybe Miranda was the good luck charm). JJ saw a bunch of playing time and we got some great pictures - even one of Dwight Howard fouling Villaneuva! Better yet, Bradley managed to get not one, but two t-shirts during the game from the Flight Crew, which never happens and they don't usually throw any shirts in our section. (The second one was a total fluke that hit something and fell in his lap!)
Saturday we took to the fields for our state tourney. We had two tough pool play games and were glad to finish 1-1. Bradley pitched 4 innings in one game and then played left field during the second game. Sunday morning pitted us against the EP Cobras who beat us badly both games a few Sundays ago. This morning we sent Bradley to the mound and he pitched an amazing game - going all 5 innings we played and leading his team to a 4-3 win. Bradley had used up all of his 9 innings of pitchinig for the weekend.
We then had a two game break before facing the Hitting Academy Rebels who have won all three tournaments they played in this fall. Our boys put up a good fight and played defense, but the Rebels didn't miss any plays in the field and we only managed three baserunners during the whole game. Bradley entered this game in the fifth inning and played second base for the first time all year. He did a good job, listened to the coaches and held the runners on when necessary. We hung in and took the game all the way to the sixth inning but still lost 7-0. Our boys didn't have any reason to feel bad though but now know how hard they need to work to compete at the top level of baseball in Florida.
