West Bound and Down: Seattle Edition

Road Trip theme song: Don't Stop the Party by the Black Eyed Peas

Before Garrett came home my siblings and I planned a fun little road trip to the Emerald City. We haven't been back to Seattle since my family lived there in the 90's. Riley and Garrett were both born there, so we decided to take them back where it all began. Morgan and I of course have many memories going to watch the Mariners play in the Kingdome. We had posters of Ken Griffey Jr., Edgar Martinez, and Jay Buhner plastered all over our walls as kids. And since I now work for a farm team of the Mariners, it was the perfect opportunity to revisit our roots.  

It was also a great opportunity to see our cousins down in Ridgefield. Mase and Alyssa live near the Washington/Oregon border, which was right on the way. They were nice enough to let us stay and venture with us up to Seattle. We got to meet the newest bebe Kendall, who is the cutest thing ever. We had such a great time together ... which only means one thing ... I need to move to Seattle and work for the Mariners. Haha. Ojala.....

This is the shot from the Owner's Suite. Best seat in the house.

This is Hide Sueyoshi, and he is the Director over Minor League Operations. I work with him the most out in Pulaski. He generally comes out to visit 3 times during the season. Great guy. He gave us a sweet tour of the ballpark.

The guys taking BP

The boys enjoying the Owner's Suite. Hide said that is where they bring the big dogs ... like the Prime Minister of Japan. 

This is what happens when one of your owners also co-owns Nintendo.

This is the press/interview room ... and this is Garrett trying to explain the loss to the reporters :) Morgan and Riley are his bouncers.

This is me getting a question from a reporter. This is where they announce big players they've signed, hold post/pre-game interviews, etc.

On the way out to the field "Party Rock Anthem" was playing. Notice me at the end of the hall with the fist pump. Yeah.

Riles and Tal on the field during BP

YES, that'd be Josh Hamiltion of the Texas Rangers.

As he was coming in from BP, Chone Figgins tossed Riley this ball.

King Felix himself

Riles putting some heat on the ball.

Chaser representing Pulaski. Woot woot!

Our seats were about 25 rows behind home plate. Not too shabby. Notice Baby Kendall in Riley's lap :)

Good one Riles

Okay, so we stayed at the Moore Hotel in downtown Seattle. It was $100 a night ... which is a GREAT deal for downtown. So I booked it. My mom thought there was a catch ... Mase thought there was a catch ... but I convinced them I had just found a great deal. Not so much.

As I'm checking in the lady hands me the keys and she says, "Okay, this one is for your room ... and this other one is for the bathroom ... which is down the hall to your left." Hahaha. Helllllllo.

So yeah, it was basically an upscale hostel. So that explains why Talia looks so scared in this picture and Morgan looks so excited. In my defense it said nothing of the sort on their website.

Shot from our hotel room. Muy nice.

Another plus of the Moore Hostel, brown water comes from the sink. Haha.

Posing in front of the Puget Sound.

The Space Needle

We thought this picture was the coolest thing since sliced bread. This is at the top of the Space Needle and Garrett's taking the pic from outside. And what is cooler that drinking a Starbucks hot chocolate in the city where Starbucks STARTED!?! We were loving life.

Shot of Seattle from the north.

The Curran's met up with us for some shopping after.

Now THIS is a work of art.

Playing around on the artwork by the Space Needle.

Breakfast at Pike Place: 5 dollars ... Going up into the Space Needle: 18 dollars ... Mariner gear: 50 dollars .... Cramming into the Curran's minivan in downtown Seattle: Priceless.

Can you say NIKETOWN?!? We had to have everyone pose like the above Federer picture.

Chaser taking it all in at Pike Place

We ate lunch at the Athenia, which was where they filmed a scene from Sleepless in Seattle.

Chase puttin' down a longneck.

We had the SWEETEST view of the Sound

The whole fam damily.

This is what happens when you have three kids...

At the second game we went to it started raining in the 8th inning ... so what do you do? Just close the roof!

Another amazing trip with my amazing siblings. I love them so much.

Vamos Marineros!

Bienvenido a Casa Elder G

This kid is finally home ... Welcome back Garbear.

The only bad part is ... I haven't actually seen him yet. And I won't see him until next Tuesday. Such a bummer. The season ends tonight and I need to be here for the next week to clean up shop. I'm pretty sure it's going to be the longest week of my life.

My whole family hasn't been together since February of 2006 when Morgan left for Korea ... So this is going to be such an amazing reunion for my family. Plus, we now have Talia in the family ... who was a friend when he left, and is now a sister-in-law. So many changes. Granty is a monster and Hal is a Beehive. I'm sure he's experiencing some shock right now.

I heard many tears were shed at the SLC airport today, which is expected. I cried and I wasn't even there! Garrett is such a positive, energetic force in our family. He has the most charismatic personality and the ability to make anyone laugh. I have to say that I have missed him so much. I have missed his smile and his face and even his pretty boy V-neck shirts. Bienvenido a casa, Elder G :)

All I know is that this is somewhere in northern California ;)

I've missed this SMILE!

Frightening close to the edge. Mawa would have FREAKED.

He's just a STUD in every way. Congratulations Elder Lyman. You did it.

Random Park Pics

So I thought I would put up some random pics from the ballpark. We've had all kinds of stuff going on this season ... it's too bad that the thing we struggle with the most is winning games. We're currently fourth in our division with a slim chance of making it into the playoffs. It's a shame, because we have a great group of guys ... they just can't seem to find their groove. 

But regardless of their record, we still have the best cheeseburger in town ... and when it gets down to it, that's pretty hard to turn down. 

These guys are called the "Part-Time Party Time Band". Such a mouthful.  

This is what I battle almost every day ... the uncontrollable weather here.

The guys before the game ... hence the pretty white jerseys.

Cutest kid ever. Haha. On this day Slyder dressed up as Santa.

Luke Taylor and Frankie Christian ... doin what they do.

Little Maria Mummau

You would think these guys actually went to Virginia Tech...

Hazlett, get back to your bag!

This is what you would call stare mode.

Good form from David Colvin

Hello, Cougar Marching Band.

This guy is such a poser.

I just realized how weird it looks that I'm grabbing both of their legs. Awkward family photo anyone?

Meet the Mariners luncheon put on by the Pulaski County Chamber of Commerce.

Manager Rob Mummau ... such a great guy.

My intern facing off against Slyder in the jousting ring!

Slyder literally doing the electric slide? Haha.

The Lyman's Takeover Pulaski

Well, they finally made it ... to a game, that is. In fact, they actually made it to three. The whole family wasn't able to come out, but I'll take what I can get. And 3 out of 8 ain't bad at all. My dad, Morgan, Granty were able to see 3 games, and two of them were walkoff wins. One was a walkoff double in the ninth and the other was a walkoff double in the 10th. Not bad at all. My guys know they need to perform when my family is in town :)

We had a great time. I took them up to see Virginia Tech (as I do with most of my guests), one of the team's owners took us out on Claytor Lake, and we even had time to catch a movie and do some shopping. (My family does it's part to keep Nike in business) It was an all around amazing trip. One of my favorite parts was making my fam try a loaded hot dog. It's part of the Calfee Park experience. That's right folks, a hot dog that is loaded with: chili, cheese, onions, cole slaw, and jalapenos.

It does not get much better than that.

The guys posing with two of our pitchers: Angel Raga and Reynaldo Sabala. They were both drafted as free agents from Venezuela.

"I will go to a Cracker Barrel by the end of this trip." -Morgan (after picking them up from the Roanoke airport)

"Hey Abby, do we look like we could be one of the Who's from the Grinch?" I kid you not ... that's what came out of his mouth. Morgan looks like one of the Who's with a nasty case of rabies.

You can't tell that they was a HUGE storm that came through right before I took this picture. Storms out east are loco.

Nothing like a day out on the party boat.

At Claytor Lake enjoying the view.

Poser

Morgan sneaking around my chair without me knowing. And his accomplice Grant was taking pictures of it. Weirdos.

Giving Jamal a shake. If this kid ever gets up to Seattle, it will be because he has wheels.

My interns and I posing with our announcer Jerry (to the right of me). Great announcer. Great guy. He will be missed.

After Grant got booted out of the limbo competition.

Grant threw the first pitch to one of our pitchers coincidentally. Ha. Ben Cornwell is his name and he played for the University of Georgia.

This is what these two look like in the morning.

This was at Lane Stadium ... posing with the Orange Bowl trophy.

Morg doin what he does best.

The guys posing with Luke. Luke is from Woodinville, Washington. He graduated LAST YEAR and then was drafted to the Mariners. The kid is 19-years-old. Whenever I couldn't find my dad, he would be over talking to Luke in the player/scouting section. I'm sure that's not hard for anyone to imagine.