The Only Place It's Acceptable to Walk Around With a Jumbo Turkey Leg...

Yep, you guessed it... THE FAIR.

The Little Rock Fair was full of the usual: funnel cakes, carneys, rides, and fun. However, as I get older, the rides are not what they used to be. They are still scary and large, don't get me wrong. It's just now all I can do is think about not getting sick on the person in front of me during the entire ride, which makes the carney games all the more enticing!!




Jake (Josh's brother) and his girlfriend Courtney rode a ride that I was happy to be taking pictures of and not riding myself, but they had fun ;)




Meanwhile, Josh and I tried our luck at the "Ring around the coke bottle" game.





This is what lured me in to playing this IMPOSSIBLE game...




and these





But, with no luck at ringing the coke bottles, we moved onto the next game...



DROWN THE CLOWN!!!




The clown was being so mean to people that I MADE Josh and Jake play the game. I figured if two pro baseball players can't dunk the clown, who could?!








I think they were more nervous to "Drown the Clown" then they are pitching a baseball game! Luckily though THEY BOTH DUNKED HIM!! It was great ;) BUT, they didn't win a prize, so of course we had to try another game ;)




This one was called "Fool the Guesser"
The Carney had to guess Josh's weight within 2 lbs high or low. He guessed 198 lbs.
Josh stepped on the scale and....




He weighed 208!!!! The Carney was 10 lbs off so we won an alien!!!!!



It kind of looked like Josh...




Okay, so the plastic Alien was no stuffed Tiger, but our nephew Brooks LOVED it, and that's all that matters ;)




The fair was such a fun day spent with family, and we were all actually sad it came to an end!

Baby Will was especially sad...




So, Josh gave him some ice to chew on and once again, all was right in the world.





**Note: My camera went kaput during our travels in the Giant forest due to the Bug Incident. Josh's camera is taking fuzzy photos, so we are looking forward to getting a new camera soon! I'm looking forward to sharing higher quality photos with you very soon! xoxo

On Fire!

ripOn Fire District that is! Josh and I had the opportunity to have the Chief of the Ripon, CA fire district give us a tour of the station. The woman we live with, Brenda, is a volunteer at the station so we had a foot in the door! The fact that the Chief is a huge baseball fan helped a little too I'm sure ;)
(For those of you who are also baseball fans, there's a Josh update for you at the end of this post.)

We learned a lot about the RFD. It was created in 1921, before the city was even created and in 1974 it added an emergency Ambulance Service which was the first ambulance service or fire department in San Joaquin County to provide Advanced Life Support. Ripon Fire welcomes firefighters from all over the WORLD to see their training facilities, procedures and equipment. They have a 4 story fire training tower to aid in training classes. The structure has 2 lined burn rooms: one with propane-fueled props and a second story attic designed for normal combustible materials. Ripon is a very small city, so the RFD is kind of a "big deal."

Here are some photos from our tour!


This is one of the old fire trucks





This is one of the new ones!





It's every man's dream...a toolbox on wheels.





Yep, every man's dream ;)



Aand of course we had to have a view from the top!




Yes, fire stations really do have the pole...







We had a great time touring the station, and learned SO much! Thank You RFD!!




Now, here's what else is "On Fire!" (Josh is going to KILL me for that one.....)

For our family and friends who like to keep up with Josh and baseball you know it's been a long road to get back to "healthy!"
I'm not bragging, trust me when I say he's had challenges since coming back from (three) surgeries. Which is why I like to celebrate the good days!

Here is an article that Brian VanderBeek from the Modesto Bee wrote about Josh

Sullivan almost perfect as Nuts sweep Bakersfield - Modesto Nuts - Modbee.com


Here are some photos from that game!!












This is (left to right) Will Harris, Casey Weathers, and Josh




And here is me and Josh




and Me, Josh, and Brenda





Last night, Josh had another great start and the writer of the Modesto Bee, Brian VanderBeek, figured out my dad Will's connection to Ripon (the small town next to Modesto where we live) and thought is was just too cool of a connection to not write about! So here is the article from today's paper:

Nuts' Sullivan sharp in win over Stockton - Modesto Nuts - Modbee.com

It's been an exciting 10 days for the Sullivan family. With only 2 weeks left in the season, we are looking forward to the off season, but must say it's been a wonderful 4 weeks in Modesto so far ;)

Another "Home Sweet Home!"

For most, moving seems like a daunting task. Don't get me wrong, it's definitely not easy moving all the time, but you quickly learn how to make the most of your move and how to turn just "another home" into "home sweet home!" (Especially when moving in the baseball world is usually a positive thing....moving UP!!) Moving often allows us to meet some amazing people and provides us with opportunities we may never have had, so we are really loving all of our new homes!

As you may think, it's pretty difficult just finding living arrangements. We spent 5 weeks in Washington, then moved to Modesto and have only 5 weeks until the season ends. Renting an apartment was an option but finding furniture and setting up utilities just seemed like a lot of work for a 5 week stay. So, we got really really lucky when our living arrangements worked out PERFECTLY! We are renting a room from a family friend for a very good deal in a house in Ripon, CA. It is a 50's style ranch house and we pretty much get the entire left side of the house to ourselves. The house is so cute and homey. It reminds me of my grandparent's house, minus the made-from-scratch biscuits!

Here is the front yard





And here is the cute little kitchen stocked with everything we need!




But, the BEST part is the back yard!!









We grill out all the time! Here is Josh hard at work ;)






While the food is on the grill, we have cannon ball contests! Josh's form is decent....





My form is decently BAD.....







We play basketball too and I KILL Josh at HORSE. :)





Ripon is such a cute little farm town with a population of around 13,000. The downtown area is all brick roads and they have cute little shops and a couple of restaurants. Every Thursday afternoon they have a small farmer's market. It is really small, with only about 10 booths, but it is so fun to walk around and look at all the fresh Ripon grown fruits and veggies!



The Ripon farmer's market is "quaint" but in a good way. It's so refreshing to know that when you purchase something you could literally helping out your neighbor!




And the Kettle Corn is AMAZING!!!




The farmer's market is only a few blocks away and I really enjoy getting to go there every week. Ripon is definitely a close knit community where it seems everyone knows everybody! The wonderful woman, Bren, that we rent the house from volunteers at the Ripon fire department and is involved in other parts of the community as well so, we hear first hand at what's going on in the little town we live in. I'm thinking a visit to the fire department is in our near future!! Bren tells me that the firemen at the station are HUGE baseball fans and would love to meet Josh ;)

Speaking of Josh, here's what HE has been up to...





Bet you never could have guessed ;) Here are a few more of him in action, I love taking pics when he is pitching! Nights at the ballpark are beautiful here. The weather is gorgeous every day and it cools off to the perfect temperature every night.





Look at the sunset!! It's like this every night here! Aren't we lucky?!






We miss all of you but we are sure enjoying our new "Home Sweet Home!"

Where It All Started...Part 2

We are now in Modesto, CA. Josh is playing for the Modesto Nuts!!! If you aren't that familiar with minor league baseball you will quickly learn how hilarious the names of the teams are.

Here is a quick pic of Josh in action. There will be many more of these to come in later posts ;)




Now, let me catch you up FROM THE BEGINNING of the season ending with our trip to modesto.

Josh drove from Arizona (spring training) to Los Angeles, picked me up, and we started driving north towards Tri-cities, WA. We had 3 whole days to get to Washington, so we decided to make the most of our time and make it an enjoyable road trip!

Our first stop was Sequoia National Park. We drove down the winding roads of the Giant Forest, hiked up Moro Rock, visited the General Sherman Tree, and drove through a fallen sequoia tree.


This is the Giant Forest...it was GRAND. It was also where a bug the size of a small dog dropped in through the sun roof and landed on the gear shift. I don't have an actual picture of this bug because I was too busy freaking out and jumping out of the car, but it looked something like this...




You can imagine now why I was freaking out. Anyways, now back to the Giant Forest....






Now, to give you an idea of their actual size, look at us compared to these trees!!






The General Sherman Tree is the largest living tree in the World (by volume)!! Here are some statistics:
Height: 275 ft
Diameter: 37.5 feet
Estimated trunk volume 52,508 Cubic feet

This is a BIG TREE...





Here is the Fallen Sequoia tree you could drive through!!





and here are some views from our hike up Moro Rock!








Sequoia National Park was absolutely gorgeous and no doubt worth the 3 hour detour!


The next morning, we decided to take the scenic route up the coast on HIGHWAY 1. This was the most beautiful drive we'd ever been on. Just look at the views!!!




Slider liked it too ;)








The drive was beautiful, but the roads were so winding that we had only gone about 60 miles in 3 hours. We still had 15 hours of driving left to do, so we decided to cut back over to the freeway and get going!

However, the views were still something to look at!




No, this isn't back in Sequoia, this is a different forest on the outskirts of where redwoods are abundant.




That night In Oregon, the roads got really remote. We saw an "ELK CROSSING" sign and laughed really hard about that....until we saw this:



Yep, EIGHT HUUUUGE Elk just hanging out on the side of the road. We must have done 10 U-Turns in the middle of the road looking at them. (Don't worry, it wasn't dangerous....we hadn't seen a car in over an hour. It was the middle of NOWHERE:)




We always would try to stop in smaller quaint towns that had some character (and cheap hotel rooms...we get reimbursed by the Rockies, but they don't pay for us to stay in 5 star hotels in the minor leagues lol)





There were so many cute small towns!



And when I say small, I mean small...


HAHAHA!! Notice the TWO "cars?!"

We had a bit of car trouble this day. So LUCKILY we came upon a 2 man fix it shop in the backwoods of oregon and pulled in. We sat on fold out chairs in a field, aka the "waiting room," borrowed the owner's jeep to run down to "Fred's Market" to get cash out of the ATM because they gave us a deal for paying cash money, ate some sub sandwiches, and 3 hours later we were fixed right up and on our way!




We then drove straight into Tri-cities Washington. For a grand total of about 1,282 miles. Pasco, WA is where the baseball field is located. Richland, WA is where we lived for our 5 week stay. Tri-Ciites is made up of Richland, Kennewick, and Pasco. It also has three rivers that flow through the cities as well -the Columbia, the Snake, and the Yakima.




Thanks to Jill for taking these pictures! (See "where it all began Part 1" to read about Jill)

Josh plays baseball 7 days a week, yes SEVEN! So, pretty much every day between 2:00 - 11:00 I fend for myself. That's when we are playing at home. The road trips last anywhere from 3-10 days, so I was worried about what I would do to stay busy! To stay busy and help pay the bills, I decided to get a job at a local bridal store!! I loved the job so much and was sad when I had to quit. It put the bug in me to start my own bridal store one day...I'll keep you updated on that ;)




Pasco is where we met two other married baseball couples. Jill and Emily were the other two wives in Pasco. I don't know what I would have done without these girls!!! We spent 90% of our time at their apartment, or as Jill calls it, their "Humble Abode." Jill wrote a great post on her blog about how you live and furnish an apartment when you live your life on the road. Their apartment was one of the most "homey" minor league living apartments I've seen in a while. To you it may seem bare, but to us it was PERFECT! This post is getting long, so I will quickly show you some of our time together...


We planned a 4th of July Birthday bash for Josh, Jill, and America's birthdays!


Jill and Aaron, Emily and Brad, me and Josh (I haven't talked much about Emily and Brad, but they are 2 of the most awesome people I know and I miss them SO much!)

Nothing helps the budget more than dollar store decorations!!




We had a mexican fiesta!




and I baked them a cake!




The dogs had fun too...I don't know if THEY would call it fun...




You can't have a 4th of July birthday celebration without Fireworks!!
We were having a contest, and Emily totally won...must be the fact the she is the most athletic girl I've ever met! She played soccer for Mississippi State ;)




The boys had fun too!




We couldn't resist the Sparklers...




Yes, we were having fun ;)



When the guys went on a 5 day road trip over a weekend, the 3 wives decided to stay home and enjoy what Pasco had to offer....

WINERIES!!!




The tri-cities is home to about 25 wineries. A couple of our favorites were Tagaris and Keyona Vinyards






It was a fun day of "Chic Food" and wine tastings






We stayed in the wine room at the Hedges Family Estate Winery for a long time, cooling off and taking fun pictures ;)



This is obviously what I want my wine cellar to look like... :)



It was such a fun day with the wives!!

Right after the wineries, I got word from Josh that the Rockies were MOVING him the very next day as soon as he got back from the road game! WOAHH!! Talk about quick changes! Jill and Emily left me no time to think and they were over at our house helping me pack. Within 2 hours we had all of Josh and I's belongings packed up, in the car and ready to go! I don't know what I would've done without their help and Emily's expert packing skills ;) Josh got home at 5:00 a.m, slept for 5 hours and we were on the road to Modesto by 11:00am!!

It was pretty sad leaving our new friends in Tri-Cities with less than 24 hours notice, but that's all apart of baseball, and you definitely get used to it! We always look to the future and hope we will be able to live in the same city as them in the years to come as we all try to "make it!"

We only had 1 day to get to California, so it was a pretty uneventful road trip but beautiful drive. We traveled 750 miles to get to Modesto and had 3 days to find a place to live! My dad Will had a family friend that was looking for a roomate in a wonderful ranch style 50's home in nearby Rippon, CA.




We are enjoying the small town of Rippon and I'm looking forward to telling you all about where we live now!

So, that's "Where it all Started!"

Next Post: "(Another) Home Sweet Home!"