Pink Jeep Tour

A 2 hour drive north of Phoenix is the beautiful town of Sedona. Living in Phoenix the past 14 years, I have only managed to visit this magical place a handful of times and I have never truly gotten to experience everything it has to offer. For my birthday this year, my mother treated me to a Pink Jeep Tour of Sedona.

If you are planning a trip there, I suggest you give the Pink Jeep tours a try. It is definitely worth the money. There are many different tour options to choose from, but we decided on the Broken Arrow tour. A 2 hour long ride in the back of a jeep through the wilderness of Sedona. It is amazing! You load up into your tricked out jeep (made for some major off-roading and we found out why). The tour guide takes you over treacherous terrain and up to different lookout points. We started at Eagle Rock and then made our way to Chicken point. We found out why it was given that name later. It was so nice to see Sedona this way and we learned quite a bit about the history from our tour guide. You are able to hike a trail through the same path that the jeep took and save some money, but for our first time it was nice to be on the jeep. Plus, the jeep tour ended up being quite the rollar costar ride.

We went down this!! (My mom screamed the whole way down too)

The tour comes with lunch, so once we arrived back at the pink jeep station, we headed over to their new café "Pink java café" for a sandwich, some fresh brewed iced tea and of course a cookie. Yum! We sat out on the terrace overlooking the beautiful Sedona red mountains and Snoopy Rock. I just loved the names!

Hahahahaha

What a great day and wonderful birthday present. Thanks Mom!

FINALLY!!

A couple weeks ago, one of my best friend's Christie finally got engaged to her long time love Clint. I know, I know...it has taken me forever to write something about it. I guess I have been busy.

I am so thrilled for Christie and Clint, they couldn't be more perfect for each other. The engagement took place at Lake Almanor in California where her parents own a house. What a special place for the engagement. I know Clint had it planned out to a T. Haha... he is probably relieved to have it over with, so all of his friends and family can stop pestering him.

They set the date for April 10, 2010 and we will all be traveling to their destination wedding in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. I can't wait!

The Happy Couple

Wowzers!!

Check out the beautiful location for their spring wedding!

http://www.hiltonloscabos.com/

Congrats you two! I love you.

This week my wonderful husband came home with a bouquet of beautiful Tiger Lilies. He said, he "just saw them and thought of me." I think that is the best reason to buy flowers.

It was such a simple gesture, but it made my day and really let me know he was thinking of me.

I hope you are all so lucky!

Durango for Labor Day

Our friends, Kevin and Nikki, invited us to the Hanger family ranch in Durango over the Labor Day weekend. We were excited for the invite and the idea of escaping Arizona heat for a few days. We drove up with Kevin, Nikki, and their dog Maggie on Thursday night after work.

On Friday, we went for a quad ride around their property. The ranch was so relaxing. We saw plenty of deer and some people even spotted a bear about 100 yards from the house! I missed the bear sighting, but Nikki and I did go try and find him, but no luck (thank god).

Finally on the last day, Kevin and Aaron woke up early to get the horses ready for Nikki and I to ride. They knew it would get them points, but it was a really nice gesture. The horses hadn't been on a ride in a while, but they were good sports and it was a great end to a great weekend.

Thank you Hanger family for the wonderful weekend!

Showing off their wedding dance moves!

Smoking one of those gum candy cigs Nikki picked up in town. He looks pretty cool though, huh? ;)

Happy 30th Anniversary!!

Two weekends ago (I know I never post anything), I threw a surprise party for my parents 30th Anniversary! They have supported me over the years and I felt they deserved a night to celebrate their relationship and what wonderful people they are. I didn't think I could pull it off, but the party ended up great and they were really surprised. They hadn't seen some of their friends in a long time, so I was glad that I was able to reconnect them.

Happy Anniversary!

Wicked

For my birthday, Aaron and I went to see the Broadway musical Wicked. Yes, I know it is a little early to be celebrating my birthday (it's in October), but Wicked was playing at Gammage and I just had to get tickets. Plus, Aaron actually agreed to go with me!

The show was amazing! If you haven't seen it, you must go next time it comes to town. Even though our seats were in the LAST possible row, the show was great and their voices were just incredible. Aaron even enjoyed it, which I thought would never happen.

I will definitely be going next time it's playing, but I will be splurging for better seats.

2 Year Anniversary...a little late

On July 7, Aaron and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary. I can't believe how fast the time has gone, it feels like yesterday we were celebrating our wedding and now we can't even be considered newlyweds. Aaron is a wonderful guy and I am so lucky to have him in my life.

Such a beautiful location (Seville)

One LUCKY guy

So handsome :)

Mother's Day Weekend

My mother is the greatest! I love hanging out with her and I truly consider her my best friend. For Mother's Day weekend we decided to go to the Chiluly Glass exhibit at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix. We have been there before, but we had never experienced an exhibit like this one. Dale Chiluly's glass work is incredible!! He is the same artist who did the glass for the Bellagio hotel in Vegas. We had a wonderful day, although it was HOT, and enjoyed a nice lunch out on the patio. Here are a few pictures of our day.

This one was amazing.

My favorite

Mom's favorite

Happy Mother's Day!

QUICK CALI TRIP

This weekend my mom and I drove out to California to see my little brother, Shane, play volleyball. He is on the Cal State Northridge team and this weekend was the first round of their regional tournament. They played BYU and defeated them in 4 sets! Go RIDGE!! I also got the chance to meet up with a former teammate, MO. It was so good to see her and hear all that she is up to. She made me really miss volleyball.

Whenever we are out in California, we stay with my Aunt Suzi and Uncle Dean-o and their two kids, Natalie and Nic. They are so nice to always let us stay there. It was really good to see them and I love those little kids so much! They are growing up way to fast. Here are some pics from this weekend.

One of these is not like the other...

So this past weekend, Aaron decided our yard needed a little something "extra." I am not happy with the decision at all, but got tired of arguing when I knew he wasn't going to budge, so he got his way. What do you think?

Keep in mind, we live in the desert and although these are "desert pine" trees... it is still the desert! Oh well, if I really still hate them in a few months I can always chop them down, right?

Hiking South Mountain

This past weekend, my mom and I hiked South Mountain. I haven't worked out in a while so it felt good to get out there and do something. The weather here is finally starting to warm up, so it was a perfect day for a hike. My parent's dog Snoops and the Mules came along for the fun. Snoops is so competitive, when he was not marking his territory along the trail, he was racing Muley for the lead on our hike. I think sometimes he has little dog syndrome, but it sure is funny to watch. Here are a few pics from our hike.

Twilight

So I finally jumped on the bandwagon and started reading Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series books. I have a thing for vampires anyways, so my friends knew I was going to love them. It took me a little while to really get into them and I did see the movie first, but now I am hooked!!

I have read the second and third books in just over two weeks and I will be purchasing the fourth tomorrow since I can't bear to wait for more. Pathetic I know! I really enjoyed the third book, I think it is my favorite so far. So there is my shameless plug for those of you out there who have not read these books yet. They are wonderful!

Go Cards!!

I just had to get on here after the exciting game tonight vs. the Eagles and say how proud I am for the AZ Cardinals! They played so well and it was a great game to watch. How exciting to have that type of victory in our new stadium at home. Go Cards!!

New Years Eve!

Aaron hates taking pictures, so he always tries to ruin them. This was the only "good" picture I have of us that night. He sure is cute when he actually smiles though! I can't believe January is almost over and I am just now writing about New Years Eve. I have a feeling this is going to be a good year for me. I hope so at least.

Aaron had his friend Brady in town over the holidays and his girlfriend Sarah came as well. They stayed with us for a week and to be honest I had no clue what to expect from Brady's girlfriend, so I was a little nervous. There was no need to be and we hit it off right away, she is such a nice girl. Since they were spending the New Years with us, we decided to throw a party at our house. We ended up having 10 or so people over and I think I was in bed by 12:15! haha I don't know if that means the party was bad, but I am thinking it was a little too good! Anyways, I had so much fun sitting outside with everyone and playing "Kings." Here are a few pictures from that night.

Jess couldn't stay for the party, but I was so excited that she got ready with Sarah and I. We had a fun time at Kona before the night began and then got ready at my house for New Years Eve. She was hanging out at a party with her new love interest Matt in Tempe. I wished she would have stayed, but know she had a good time at her party also.

The girls (Jess, Me, and Sarah) ready for the night to begin

Sarah and I

The boys (Aaron and Brady)