Birthdays on Birthdays on Birthdays...

We love a good birthday celebration! We've had a few really great ones so far this year. First was my mom's. When Jake and I were getting our New Year massages, I told my mom I would take her to get one if she came to Arizona for her birthday. Who would turn down an offer to spend a couple of days in the sunshine AND get a free massage?! Certainly not my mom! Her birthday was on a Friday so she drove down on Thursday and I took the next day off work.

 I made sure to decorate all nice!

We spent the morning at the spa getting massages and facials

 then we went out to lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon shopping.

Jake and I made dinner and dessert that night to celebrate. We spent the rest of the weekend relaxing, eating, watching movies, and we had an Oscar party Sunday night with a fancy salmon dinner! It was a great time; I think you should let us handle your birthdays from here on out mom! Thanks for spending it with us.

Next we had Jake's birthday. It's become a tradition for me to surprise him every year with something fun. This is mostly because he won't ever tell me what he really wants to do. This year I surprised him with a weekend getaway. His birthday was on a Saturday so I told him to take half a day off work on Friday. When he got home, I had him open his first "early" gift. A trip to Sedona! We packed up and drove the two and a half hours to Flagstaff where we would be staying and went to dinner and a movie when we got there. The next morning, I had a trolley tour planned as our first stop in Sedona.

 We used the Red Rock Magic Trolley and really enjoyed our hour and a half tour. We were able to learn about the town's history, see filming sights for many famous westerns, and were shown the best place to watch the sunset (which we had already planned to do). After the trolley tour we ate lunch and found a hike we wanted to go on. The weather in Sedona in March is usually pretty mild, mid to high 70s, but this day was particularly warm. By the time we started hiking it was already 85 degrees! We chose the Devil's Bridge hike which is about 4 miles round trip if you don't have an ATV that can take you to the trail head, which we didn't.

Getting to the top was worth it. 

We didn't go up to walk across the bridge because it was pretty crowded, but I'm sure the view from up there would have been amazing. After our hike, we found a little nature walk we could go on that was mostly shaded so we could keep cool. 

Cactus flower

This was growing out of a cactus. It was a really smooth, soft wood

We still had some time to kill while waiting to head to our sunset watching spot so we went back into town and had birthday dessert from the local fudge shop. The smell in this place is so heavenly and addicting! I'm pretty sure sometimes I have dreams about it. We got to our sunset spot a little early to walk around and find the best place to sit.

It's amazing how quickly the sun sets once it's in the right position. We snapped a couple of pictures but we mostly just wanted to enjoy the moment. 

Afterwards, we went back in to town and had dinner at a local Mexican restaurant. The food was good, but Jake was a little too adventurous and tried some cactus tacos for the first time. His dinner basically consisted of beans, rice, chips and salsa after that. When we got back to Flagstaff we had just enough time for Jake to open his presents before his birthday was officially over. He'd asked for some very practical things such as work out clothing, and he also wanted a meditation cushion. Overall I'd say it was a very successful way to celebrate Jake's 31 years of life!

This next birthday is particularly special because it just happens to be mine! How should I celebrate the final year of my twenties... well, I left that up to Jake. My birthday fell on a Friday this year and Jake's younger brother was staying with us for a couple of weeks during that time. Jake took half a day off work  so he was home to surprise me when I got off work. The three of us went bowling (something I always ask Jake to do with me and he always says no), had dinner at my most favorite pizza place, Sal's Gilbert Pizza, and then played some arcade games just like a kid on their birthday should do!

Taking a selfie at the pizza place

Second attempt: Jake bailed last second

 Aaron is a much better picture taker than us!

We had dessert at Bahama Buck's which is a shaved ice place that we love. I opened gifts that night and got a lot of fun things like clothes and a FitBit. I also got a lot of cards from so many people I love; it was a great day!

Birthday flowers from my brother and his family

We continued the fun on Saturday by going shopping to spend my birthday money and to a movie. It was a great weekend; I'll leave my birthday outings in Jake's hands any time!

The most recent birthday we celebrated was my nephew's 6th! His birthday was on a Thursday so we drove to Colorado Wednesday afternoon and stayed until Sunday morning. We always have so much fun with this kid and his parents. Unfortunately, my brother had to work out of town so we didn't get to see him, but grandma V was there and we packed a lot of fun into our 3 days. It's a 10 hour drive from Arizona so we arrived pretty late on Wednesday. When we woke up Thursday morning I gave my buddy a big hug and told him happy birthday and he said "I've had 4 happy birthday's so far"!

My bud

Jake kept the birthday boy distracted while Christy, my mom, and I decorated with Plants Vs. Zombies decorations.

His other grandma came over in time for pizza, presents, and cupcakes in the afternoon, and then we went bowling. I'm a much better bowler with bumpers so I won the first round, and the birthday boy won the second round.

Cupcake mustache!

This is his "spare" face 

On Friday we went to a trampoline place and exhausted ourselves. We had way too much fun there. Maybe even more than the kids! Saturday morning we had a water fight with some water balloons that were way too small to pop, but we had a great time with them.

That afternoon there was another birthday party for some kids so Jake, my mom, and I headed to a movie to kill some time. We went to see Mission Impossible; my mom has never seen any of them! We left early Sunday morning and traveled through some pretty spectacular rain storms to get home. 

Those are all clouds; there were no mountains at this point because we were back in the desert. The darkest clouds I think I've ever seen!

We enjoyed our time in Colorado so much and can't wait to go back again soon!

A Valentine Story

In honor of our engage-iversary (previously mentioned here) I'm going to finish this Valentine's Day post that I started last month.

Valentine's Day isn't something we normally celebrate. Occasionally we will use it as an excuse to go out to dinner (since that is a rare thing for us to do anymore) but even then we don't go anywhere out of the ordinary. I think last year we went to Pei Wei and ate outside on their patio, which was very enjoyable. This year, however, we decided to take advantage of the fact that we had a gift card to our favorite restaurant. Before I tell you about our actual Valentine's Day adventure, here's a brief back story of how this place became our favorite.
 
One Friday afternoon a couple of months after we moved here, Jake text me from work and told me to make a plan for that night. Well, those who know us best can tell you exactly what we do on a Friday night; we go to a movie. Since we were still in our "exploration mode" though, I decided I wanted to surprise Jake with something new. I started searching for top rated restaurants and found a place called La Hacienda in Scottsdale. I liked the sound of it and decided that's where we'd go that night. I didn't realize it, but the restaurant is part of a very nice resort called the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess. When we got there, we felt a bit under dressed while getting our car valet parked, and I started to worry we wouldn't get in without a reservation. I'm not sure now if we ended up having to wait long for a table but we did get in and we had an amazing dinner. The kind of dinner that you dream about (seriously, Jake has a few times). Not only was the food so unique and delicious, but the whole ambiance of the place was fun and romantic so it quickly and easily became our favorite restaurant. Although we knew it would also have to be a special occasion restaurant because of the prices. We ended up going back for Jake's birthday a few months later and this time, we discovered they have handmade churros each night for dessert with 3 dipping sauces; chocolate, crème, and caramel. We also discovered you have to order them quickly or they'll run out. We ended up snagging the last order before we'd even ordered dinner! After experiencing these churros and another fantastic dinner, Jake went to work and raved about it. I guess his co-workers were paying attention because they gave him a gift card at Christmas and we were so excited to use it.
 
So, this Valentine's Day was going to be a little different than normal. We made a reservation about a month in advance and we planned to get real dressed up. We spent the day window shopping at a nice outdoor mall so we could enjoy the nice weather and kill some time. After a very nice day together, we went home to change and make ourselves look nice. We ended up getting to the resort just as the sun was starting to set and we were a little early so we found a nice place to sit next to a fireplace and just enjoyed the moment together. The resort atmosphere is a huge part of the reason we love this place. There are so many pretty areas to sit outside and soak in the perfect weather. We had a wonderful dinner with homemade chips and guacamole that they mix together at your table, steak, enchiladas, and of course, homemade churros. After we rolled ourselves out of the restaurant, we decided we weren't ready to go home yet so we went back to that little fireplace and we ended up talking about life and our future for a while. I can honestly say, there are moments when I fall in love with Jake all over again, and this was one of them. I felt so proud to be planning my future with him and so excited about what we wanted to do and where we wanted to go. Every year we have the perfect Valentine's Day together because even if we don't choose to celebrate it in a fancy way, we get to celebrate it together. This year was just extra special, and it will definitely be one we never forget. Here's the best part of this post: the pictures.

The End of 2014

The last few months of 2014 were pretty busy and exciting for us; October was the biggest month. Here's a recap for you!

October is my favorite month for so many reasons, and this year was no exception. October in Arizona isn't quite as magical as it is in Utah, but this year we filled our October with family trips and even cooler temperatures! 

For the past few years, Jake and I have taken a drive through the mountains in Utah on the first Saturday in October to see the leaves changing colors and also the first dusting of snow sometimes.  We haven't been able to do that since moving to Arizona, but this year we did drive up to Flagstaff to attend their Oktoberfest celebration and hopefully see some colorful leaves and escape the heat. We were a bit early for changing colors, even at their ski resort, but the weather was perfect and we still had amazing scenery.

The next weekend was our two year anniversary and we celebrated by going shopping to take advantage of Columbus Day sales and going out to eat at one of our favorite restaurants. We both agree that the second year went by quicker than the first and that it just keeps getting better.

The next week we traveled to Southern Utah to celebrate Jake's grandparent's 60th wedding anniversary! We were only there for the weekend so it was a very quick trip but we got to see so much of Jake's extended family that we rarely get a chance to spend time with so it was really nice. The anniversary celebration was really special; Jake has really sweet and amazing grandparents!

Here's a picture of the whole group!

 Here is Jake's immediate family (I'm the shortest adult).

The last week in October was reserved for my family. In fact, it was reserved for more than 2 years! My mom planned a family trip to Disneyland and she planned it at the perfect time because my nephew, Lukas, is 5 now and he's just tall enough to go on all the rides! I really don't have many photos from the trip because I was enjoying living in the moment, but I realized when we got home that living in the moment costs photographic memories! Thankfully my mom took some and shared them with me. We spent 2 and a half days at Disneyland and one morning at the beach with my mom's brother and his sweet lady-friend.

I made everyone (minus Jan) Disneyland shirts; Halloween themed.

We had breakfast with Mickey and friends one morning.

All of us at California Adventure the first day.

Disneyland 

Jan, Jake, Christy, and Lukas on the Grizzly Rapids ride.

Lukas and Lego Hulk.

Mater

Lightening McQueen

The tire ride.

The Cars ride was the first ride we went on and it scared the daylights out of me and my mom! You can't really see Lukas here, but he's in the driver's seat. 

The castle all dressed up for Halloween.

The highlight of Disneyland for Lukas was getting to go through Jedi training and fight Darth Vader!

Pictures from the beach with Uncle Joe and Maggi.

Disneyland flashback to our first trip! Jan was 5, I was 3.

There was a ping pong table at our hotel and Jake taught Lukas some moves.

We also went trick-or-treating through Disneyland at their special Halloween party, but I don't have any pictures of that. Lukas was dressed as a vampire. We had so much fun hanging out as a family, and I'm so glad we were able to go.

November was a lot less busy for us, and we went to Utah for Thanksgiving. We spent Thanksgiving weekend in Park City with Jake's family. My mom came up for Thanksgiving day and we also had time to spend with my dad. 

On the plane to Utah.

The view from our room in Park City.

We ended the year in Utah as well, this time with my mom at her house, along with Christy and Lukas. Sadly, Jan had to work and wasn't able to come out while we were there, but he was with us in spirit! We had no shortage of snow during our Christmas visit, and Lukas and I took advantage of that by building a snowman. His name was mountain, and he was a blob because the snow wasn't wet enough to pack. Jake created his face by using pretzels, cheetos, chocolate chips, popcorn, and raisins. His arms were celery sticks, and for some reason Lukas thought he needed 4 of those.

Here's our Christmas tree at home.

2014 was a great year; we were able to put our focus on family and spent a lot of good quality time with them. We started out 2015 the same way we have for the past 3 or 4 years, by getting massages, and it's been a great year so far!

Here's to a fantastic 2015!

Dreams Do Come True

A while after Jake and I met, we were talking on the phone, and the conversation was something like this:

Me: "What kind of old person do you want to be?"

Jake: "I want to be the grumpy old man that everyone is afraid of."

Me: "So you want to scare children? You want to be the scary old shut in?"

Jake: "Yes. I want to yell at kids to stay off my lawn and be grumpy. And my wife will be a crazy old cat lady."

Me: "... a crazy old cat lady??"

Jake: "Yeah, that is the perfect type of wife for a grumpy old man."

Me: "I have a cat..."

Be careful what you wish for Jake...

Beach Trip

For the past 5 years my friend Kami and I have gone on a girl's trip to Huntington Beach, CA. This year we changed things up a bit because I live in Arizona and she's in Southern Utah, so I flew into Vegas where she picked me up and then we drove the 4 and a half hours to California. We spent two whole days on the beach relaxing and playing in the water, and had so much fun. I decided to use our GoPro for the first time and made a little video for your enjoyment!

Disclaimer: I've never made or edited a video before so this is not professional quality!

You can view the video here

Our Story: How We Met

When people ask us how we met, we usually give the easy answer; we met through work. But the truth is, we met because I bought a car.

After my first year of college I decided I wanted to buy a new car. There was no particular reason, I just went to a dealership one day and picked out a car. Never mind the fact that I already had a perfectly good car that didn't carry a monthly payment. This car would be mine and I would keep it forever (I said goodbye to it 3 years ago). Well as you can imagine, a college student's budget isn't really cut out for a new car payment, so I had to find a second job. I searched through the newspaper (yes, that's how we looked for jobs back then, I know some of you are laughing) and found a position for an insurance agent. I knew nothing about insurance but the hours were just what I wanted and the ad said there would be on the job training. Somehow, miraculously, I was hired for the job and started in June 2006. After a week of training with my other newly hired co-worker, my boss had to go home and back to work at the Agency's main office which was in Northern Utah. But he told us someone else from that office would come down soon to train with us more. I think it was a week later that his brother, Jake, showed up. Now we both have different versions of the day we met, but mine is more accurate. Jake walked into the office and saw me sitting at my desk while a slight breeze came out of no where and whisked up my hair as I smiled at him; a golden light surrounded me... ok, maybe I like to embellish. Anyway, I'm the one who thought it was love at first sight. I even went to my other job that day and told all of my co-workers and friends that I was going to marry this guy someday. The next day I decided to give Jake my phone number. He didn't ask for it, but I knew deep down inside he really wanted to, and I told him to give me a call that night because I wasn't working at my other job and we could hang out. Well, we did hang out that night, me, Jake, and my roommate/best friend, Kami. I sometimes consider this to be our first date, but Jake disagrees since there was a 3rd party present. By the end of the week I had convinced him to come back not for work, but to go to the midnight showing of Pirates of the Caribbean 2 with me, and it was all downhill/uphill (depending on how you want to look at it) from there. We dated long distance for about 8 months until I moved up to his neck of the woods and we were a little bit of an on again off again thing for the next 5 years and then this happened.

So there you go, all of this happened because of a car. Imagine that.