We Were Tourists

Since I started working in June, I haven't had a free Saturday unless it was requested. So when I was lucky enough to be scheduled off last Saturday, we took advantage! We decided to visit the Phoenix Botanical Gardens. Right now they're featuring a glass artist, Chihuly. We had an amazing time. The weather was perfect (73 degrees) and it was so nice to spend the day together. Here are some pictures from the gardens; everything was so cool to see, I took way too many pictures!

I never knew there were so many different types of cactus!

So much fun! We can't wait to play tourists again!

After Christmas We Left Our Hearts in San Francisco

Jake and I celebrated Christmas in Arizona this year with just the two of us. We visited the family we have here Christmas Eve and Christmas morning we Skyped with my brother and his family (including my mom) in Colorado. After watching my nephew open gifts we Skyped with Jake's parents for a few minutes with a brief appearance from Jake's sister and her kids. Then it was our turn to open presents together. We really enjoyed spending a nice relaxed morning together and had a good time sharing Christmas day with our families over Skype. One of the gifts we opened was tickets to the BYU bowl game in San Francisco, so two days after Christmas we headed to the airport to spend the weekend in California! Of course we documented our Christmas/trip in pictures, here you go!

Jake let me get a Christmas tree this year, so we got to decorate and bring out all the ornaments!

Christmas Eve we tried to take a picture by the tree (we have horrible lighting in our house).

Christmas morning!

Arriving in San Francisco.

Our hotel was by the airport and we used public transportation to get around. The game was Friday night at AT&T park so we had 6 hours to kill when we got there. We ended up sharing a cab from our hotel into town with some other football fans (Washington). Then we walked from AT&T park up to Chinatown and some other scenic places.

Jake has the same face as this Dragon!

After our walk (which was pretty long) we still had a couple hours so we decided to go bowling at an alley right across the street from the stadium.

I'm a pretty horrible bowler..

Getting to the stadium!

Our second day in SF we found our way up to Fishermen's Wharf and spent the entire day exploring.

We went to Ripley's Believe it or Not and had a great time. Here I am standing next to the world's tallest man (this is what happens when I ask Jake to take a picture when he doesn't really want to take it..).

After Ripley's we headed back to the pier to eat.

When we were done eating we decided to rent some bikes and take a ride to the Golden Gate Bridge.

It's probably 2 and a halfish miles from Fishermen's Wharf and we started close to sunset (plus it was freezing!) so we didn't go all the way to the bridge but stopped a few times to take some pictures and warm up our hands.

The bike ride back was pretty cool because we came down a hill into Ghiradelli square and the wharf and the view was just amazing!

We had ice cream at Ben & Jerry's before heading back to the hotel.

Sunday morning we slept in, packed up, and headed into the city for an early lunch before heading to the airport. We had such an amazing time exploring San Francisco together and going to the football game. We always enjoy traveling together but it's good to be home too! I don't know yet if we'll go out for New Year's and do anything fun but we hope all of you enjoyed your holidays and have a very Happy New Year!

Time To Give Thanks

Jake and I just celebrated our first Thanksgiving as hosts. My mom came to Arizona to celebrate with us, and we packed in as much fun as we could! My mom arrived Tuesday evening and we made her one of our favorite dinners; stuffed avocados.

I was lucky enough to have Wednesday off from work so mom and I did some shopping and got pedicures that included massages. It was the perfect way to spend a day off and prepare for a day full of cooking!

We love pink and purple!

Thanksgiving day started out right with Jake making some delicious German pancakes accompanied by some homemade Apple cider made by yours truly. After breakfast we watched the Macy's parade and started on football. When everyone was dressed and prettied up we headed outside for some pictures. I really wanted to get a nice picture of me and Jake for our Christmas card and my mom wanted one of all 3 of us for her card. Here's a couple that may or may not have made the cut:

Meanwhile our turkey had started cooking. Jake was in charge of the turkey; it was brined for 24 hours before being cooked. I had a list of recipes I wanted to make for the side dishes and I found them all here (including the Apple cider). We ended up having rolls, cranberry sauce, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, and mashed potatoes and gravy that Jake made in addition to the turkey. All homemade and so delicious!

Needless to say, we have plenty of leftovers!

Those are some happy eaters!

After dinner we had an amazing pie from the experts at village inn provided by the company I work for. Each employee received their choice of pie for Thanksgiving, which I think was pretty generous.

I had to work half day Friday and Saturday, but we still managed to do more shopping and gym going and movie watching and just enjoyed spending time together the rest of the weekend. My mom headed out this morning (Sunday) and we're glad she was able to come out for a few days and have fun. This year, and every year, we're thankful for good friends and amazing family. We're happy to be in Arizona and are grateful for the opportunities we're being given. There's no better way to give thanks for all you've been given than to celebrate with family. Hopefully next year we'll be surrounded by even more of the people we love! Thanks for spending the holiday with us mom, we missed all of those we didn't get to see, and we hope you all were blessed with the same joy we were!

4 Little Words

I know Jake won't approve of this message, but just this once, I don't care ;)

When we moved to Arizona I unknowingly put myself in a pretty tough situation. I exposed myself to something that would toy with my emotions and confidence; an endless amount of job interviews. I had to try to convince a complete stranger that I am amazing; they want me on their team, they'll regret not choosing me, I will change the fate of their company! Plenty of people weren't convinced, and pretty soon I felt like a failure. I felt unwanted and useless. Now, we all know I ended up with a job, but it took me 6 months of applying for numerous jobs a day and interview after interview to get. I felt like I had been kicked in the gut over and over. It was nice to feel wanted by someone, but let's face it, they weren't exactly going out on a limb by choosing someone with 5 years experience when they would have been fine with 6 months. I'm still working on feeling "back to normal" but sometimes I let something that someone says get the best of me. And when that happens I end up complaining and venting to Jake. He's gotten really good at listening and he's put up with a lot of ups and downs, and just yesterday during one of my frustrated rants he said 4 little words that made everything better.

Even auto correct isn't going to ruin that for me :) I married a great guy, I know that, and sometimes I get to be sweetly reminded like this.

We Played Hooky..

And went to our first NFL game! We thought we might as well take advantage of the fact that we live near an NFL stadium and go to a Cardinals game. We decided very last minute the morning of and quickly took care of our Sunday obligations and made the 45 minute drive to Glendale. Here's how it all went:

We were there on Veteran's Day weekend so there were a lot of fun things happening

Here's Jake getting ready for our "card stunt"

And here's what it looked like

We had a lot of fun! (Don't mind Jake's red eyes, he's adjusting to new allergies in the desert).