Venture to Arizona

Andy has been living in Arizona ~~all alone, sad, and engrossed with school~~ since August. I finally graduated from OT school in Alabama on December 12th, and thus Raja and I began our move to Arizona.

My wonderful family accompanied us on the 27 hour road trip {1,731 miles). We shared intense bonding time ~~and a few cutting edge moments~~.

Raja started in the back... we see where she ended...

plenty of cuddle time.

Alabama-Mississippi-Tennessee-Arkansas...

Fields of Oklahoma

So we originally planned to make the trip in 3 days - make stops, take our time, enjoy the drive. If any of you know Randy Calhoun then you know this was simply against his human nature. Therefore, we slept only 4 hours the first travel night. And made it in 1 day and a half... ~~It was slightly torturous.~~

Yes, people in Texas and New Mexico use windmills. I thought it was cool, so I took pictures.

We all shared in the driving shifts.

Little snow sights in New Mexico.

New Mexico is where Lone Survivor was filmed {if anyone was wondering}. Dylan keeps us informed on these things, ~~whether we want to know or not.~~

And finally Arizona!

We arrived at our new home at 1:00 in the morning... exhausted.

{Notice Andy's temporary Christmas tree pictured in the corner. "Is that a car air freshener?" Might you ask... Why yes, yes it is.}

Therefore, the Christmas decorating began immediately the next day. It was very tiring for pup.

Hiking...

Sunsets...

This is something you don't see often... Dylan reading and Dad studying.

more desert exploration...

He-man

they're cute.

pup's cute too.

Andy has been enclosed in the library and has not been able to join in the fun yet {I don't just exclude him from pictures}.

Plans for the next few days include a drive to the grand canyon, snow skiing a couple hours north of us, and more Arizona exploring. Stay tuned...

We wish you all a wonderful Christmas! It truly is the most wonderful time of the year.

Thanks for reading!

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Let The Summer Begin (almost)

We decided we needed to get out of the valley for a few days {with summer quickly approaching and tempts reaching the 90's}, so we packed up and went to Payson for the weekend. I highly recommend going to see the Natural Bridge, pictures do not do it justice. And I'm pretty dang impressed with Andy for hiking all day with this baby pack. It is seriously not as easy as it looks. I've got to start training... Raja clearly had the time of her life. {per usual} We are so excited that little man is big enough to ride in the baby pack! And I'm excited Andy is able to haul the baby pack. Raja is just excited about dirt and water {mud}. Happy Monday, everyone. Thanks for reading :)

Arizona Lessons in 3 Years

As of August, we have been official Arizonians for 3 years! Seems kind of crazy that it's been that long. We have all learned a lot about the west. So, in celebration of our 3 year Arizonniversary here are a few things Arizona has taught us... about survival. 1. Get up early. From about May-September if we want to run, hike, ride the horses, swim at the pool, really anything outdoors we are up the the flipping crack of dawn because any other time of the day is miserable. When it isn't the heat of the summer, the evenings are pretty decent. And when people say, "oh it's a dry heat out there though, so that's probably not so bad", I literally laugh out loud. Before we moved here people had told us the dry heat isn't so bad {you know who you are}. So we stupidly went out to the barn to clean stalls in 120 degrees. I thought the hot breeze was going to melt my eye balls. And then we were both sick with chills the rest of the day. Now, under 105 degrees,...

A desert summer.

We moved into a new house this week!!! My family came out to help us move and of course we had to make some time for play. We made the tough treck to Fossil Creek! It was worth it. I jumped off the little one. It was scary. I don't think I'll do it again. On the last day we went to Apache Lake. I forgot my camera so we don't have many documents of this trip, but it was very relaxing. We are so thankful for their help. And for play time. And for our new house!!

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