Our First Week in Arizona

The last half of our move-in crew left bright and early Monday morning, and Andy and I were left on our own! We began trying to tackle our inordinate amount of boxes to try and get organized. We have made some great progress this week! We have made a couple of trips to Ikea and Target to try and make our apartment feel more like home, and I think that we have done a pretty good job! We have also been around town to check things out. We have a pretty good fitness center and some pools (we just got working keys to the pools yesterday, so that will be fun!) and some good restaurants around. We made a goal of doing one date night per week, even if it's at home, to spend some time together, and for our first date we went and checked out a movie theater that is close and saw Toy Story 3, then went to a new restaurant for dinner. We'll have to look around for some different restaurants--I don't think we'll be frequenting the one we went to. We also tried playing some games with just the two of us--we have tried Nertz and Canasta so far. I think that Canasta was made for more than two people, because it was the greatest whooping that I have ever received at the hands of Andy with a score of 5945 to 1260. Wow. Nertz was pretty good, though, but a lot slower than with more people. We'll have to keep trying things out. Suggestions are welcome :) Arizona is good-I think that we are adjusting to the heat ok, we just don't go outside super often. It's crazy how warm it has been. It was 107 yesterday when we drove to Ikea, and I felt like I started sweating right when I walked out the door. Ikea has misters outside the building, and those were lovely. The heat is like a wall when you walk outside, and it's going to get hotter! Goodness. That said, we have an air-mattress thanks to Evan and Linn, and a futon thanks to Alan and Whitney, so if you have a hankering for the heat, feel free to give us a call!

The Big Move!

We made the big move this last weekend! Zo and Jen buddy got married, and we were so excited that we were able to be there for the festivities before we took off! We did most of our packing on Thursday with the help of Linn, Dawna, Janet, Brig and Keith, and a couple of helpful neighbors from the court. We got the U-Haul all packed up and headed off to Zo and Jen's wedding reception. On Friday morning, Linn and Dawna came to help us clean up the apartment so we could take off right after the wedding. Andy and I hurried down to the temple for the wedding, and while Andy stayed for pictures, I ran back up to the apartment for our check-out appointment (after a few tears). Andy came home after the pictures and we were off..for about five minutes. We hadn't made it to the freeway yet, and the check engine light went on in the rental truck. Luckily, it turned off after Andy was on hold for about 20 minutes with Budget and we didn't have any more problems.

We drove down to St. George to meet up with my family and to stay for the night. Saturday, I drove ahead of Andy who was manning the U-Haul so we could be to the complex to sign the lease in time. It was a good thing, too, because that thing doesn't drive very fast, even with Andy behind the wheel! That, and he had a lovely detour through Zion's National Park. Andy claims he was just following the GPS, but I think he just wanted to feel important and make everyone wait while they shut down the tunnel so he could drive down the middle and not scrape the top with the truck. And with those winding roads I'm glad he was driving and not me.

My mom and dad, Bear, and McCall helped to get our cars unloaded and we were able to go and get some groceries and drinks before the second crew (Evan and Linn, Dawna, Andy, and Addi and the boys) arrived. We unloaded the moving van in about 2 hours and our wonderful moving crew had us out of a lot of our boxes by dinnertime! We had some tasty, tasty Cafe Rio for dinner (very excited they have one down here) and crashed! It only took the turning on the AC overnight to get our apartment down to a nice temperature. We could not have done it without our amazing helpers! Thank you so much for taking a whole weekend to come down and help us! We love you guys!

Backpacking

Andy had a hankering for some camping before we head off to Arizona. So, we went with Alan and Whitney, Murph and Lacey, and Chet and Katelyn up Big Cottonwood Canyon for a quick backpacking trip! We hiked over to Desolation Lake and had a great night around the campfire, thanks to Chet who is, apparently, a lumberjack! I had no idea... We had some amazing marshmallows and played a rousing game of Catch Phrase around the campfire. Since we didn't have a lot of time, we packed up in the morning and hiked out. It was a fun last trip before we leave! Thanks guys!

BBQ

We have some of the greatest friends and family in the world! A couple of our really good friends, Brig and Amy, threw us a going-away BBQ during our last couple of weeks in Utah, complete with cake! If you know our group at all, you would know that a BBQ is a perfectly fitting way to get together. It was amazing! We were so glad that we were able to have an excuse to hang out with everyone before we leave! We're sad to be leaving such good friends, but we're excited to have visitors come down (hint, hint!). Here's a picture of the group--they humored me because I was feeling sentimental. And thanks to Brookie and Meek for volunteering to take our pictures!

Jackson Hole

For one last hoorah with my fam, we headed up to one of our favorite places to visit--Jackson Hole! Andy and I drove up with Brock to meet the rest of the family who were already up there partying. And Uncle Mike joined us all of the way from Australia for the trip! On Friday, we woke up bright and early (cough, cough) after getting in LATE on Thursday night/Friday morning, and went for a bike ride to Jenny Lake. It was beautiful and flat! I was excited because I got to try out my AMAZING new bike that Andy finished building for me Friday morning! Thanks Andy! I thoroughly enjoy my new upgrade. The ride at the base of the Tetons was so beautiful we decided to take Daner along. Andy pulled him behind his bike in a trailer. He had fun "going fast" and spotting animals until the melodic rhythm of Andy's gluteus maximus in spandex lulled him to sleep.

After the bike ride, we all got cleaned up and took some naps, and went to the Bar-J Ranch for some yummy dinner and a great show! Saturday we went to Norah's for some banana bread french toast. WOW. It was so good!

After that, we went and hiked around Jenny Lake, and came back to the condo for some of Dane's birthday cake! We celebrated our funny little nephew's second birthday on Saturday as well! It was definitely a party! He is such a cute little stinker. After the kids went to bed, we had a rousing game of Nertz! On Sunday, we went to Bubba's for lunch and drove home! It was a great weekend!

Memorial Day Weekend

This weekend, Andy and I went down to Mesa, AZ with Addi, Blake and the boys because...we are moving! Andy got into school in Mesa, so we are moving in July. We had some apartment hunting to do! We found one that we are really excited about that is close to Andy's school. After our apartment hunting on Friday, we had time to play for the rest of the weekend! We went four-wheeling, swimming, played lots of games, and had a rousing game of tennis with Addi and Blake (which we lost in a nail biting tie breaker). A big shout-out to Blake's family for being so hospitable and for letting us join in all of their fun activities! We'll see you guys soon!

Now all that is left is to find an air mattress and a futon for all our visitors.

We are hooked!

Andy and I noticed after we got NetFlix that we now had access to five seasons of Lost. We never really got into it at the beginning, and by the time we tried watching a couple of episodes, we were way past the point where any of it made sense. So, we decided that even though we don't have a lot of time to devote to a TV show, we could devote one night per week to Lost. Alan and Whitney said that they were down with that, as well. So, for the past couple of months, we have been watching Lost once or twice per week--once during the week, and usually one weekend night. I know, it's nerdy, but I like it! Definitely not as intense as watching Jack Bauer save the world, but still pretty good! I have a feeling that if we want to be done with it any time in the next year, though, we are going to have to increase the number of nights that we devote to Lost. Hopefully we'll have some questions answered in the next season or two!