Moab Day 2 and 3

We woke up from a cozy night (of which most of the time only half of me was on top of the air mattress) and got everything ready for our bike ride. We met our friends Rachel and Ryan at their camp site and dutch oven omelette and then Rachel's sister drove us up to the trailhead. I had read about the Porcupine trail in a book about Moab's best trails and this one was rated as the most dangerous, complete with steep downhill runs, elevated drops and exposure to cliffs (see picture). Kelsi was absolutely in heaven.

For the first few miles, there was no trouble. Then we came to some steep, slick rock that both Kelsi and I crashed on. We were both okay, but my bike had sustained a critical injury. My back disc brake had bent, so I had to make the decision of a back tire that wouldn't spin, or a loose brake. Only after a few times over the handle bars I realized that it was better to pedal harder than to only have a front brake! On one of the spills Kelsi said I would have done a complete flip if a bush hadn't have been in the way. Instead, it broke my fall and ripped a huge hole in the back of my pants. Good thing mountain biking isn't really about modesty.

My poor wife didn't stay on her bike the whole time either. Somehow she managed to hit a basketball sized rock in the middle of an open trail. As I was riding behind her, I looked up just in time to see her front tire stop moving and her body flip into the air. It look like she was a BMXer in the X Games doing a handstand on the handlebars. She came down on her hip, though and got a gash on her hip.

It was a great ride though and we saw some beautiful views of the canyon. And as long as we stayed on our bikes, there was great terrain. It was also nice to be dropped off at the top of the trail and not have to pedal back up the mountain! Either way it took us about 3 and 1/2 hours!

After the ride all we wanted to do was take a nap, but we had to squeeze in as much fun as possible. We took my parents and Reilly and Val on a hike to a 'hidden waterfall.' Since we had to cross the stream a couple of times, we tried to see who could keep their shoes dry the longest. Towards the end, it was my mom with two dry shoes and me in second place with one dry shoe (the first time Kelsi and I went, I ended up with only one wet shoe too!)

Then it was dinner time, so we went back to the campground to make burgers and s'mores (with plenty of Sandlot references). Reilly and Val set up their own tents next to ours, but by the time we were ready for bed, we didn't want to split up. Luckily Valerie's tent was almost big enough for three people, so we thought we would have no problem squeezing in four! Somehow Valerie got way more room than Reilly at first so we had to divy up the space again. Then to help us fall asleep we sang the national anthem one word at a time and realized we could use some practice.

The next day Kelsi and I took my siblings on a bike ride which turned out to be much harder than we had expected. We decided we'll have to start out a little slower so Val and Reilly will love mountain biking. On the way back, there was a snake on the trail. He was really drawing a crowd and blocking the trail so I let him crawl on my tire and I carried him to the bushes and let him slither off.

It was almost time to go so we had lunch with my family and then said goodbye. They had brought down Kelsi's ski jacket and skis that she had asked them to get from Kelsi's grandpa's house. He ended up sending a whole box of winter clothes and Kelsi's mom's skis! We all had a good laugh. It was such a fun weekend and we were happy to all spend some time together even if it was only a couple of days.

Moab Day 1

It has been about four months and we have missed Utah so much, we were looking for any opportunity to go back. So when we heard some of our friends were heading up to Moab (Kelsi's second favorite place in the world), we immediately looked at our schedules and started to make plans. Since we would in fact be closer to Salt Lake than Phoenix, I invited my brother and sister to come down and meet us there and soon enough, my parents decided to come down.

As the time approached, I realized that I had a test on the same day we had to leave. That meant I would have to go to class and we couldn't leave until about 4 o' clock. It was definitely an interesting 8 hour drive, including:

- passing a hitchhiker in the dark. I thought it could have been a native American skinwalker, but Kelsi called him a skinhead. It would have been scary to pick up either one!

- karaoke in the car. When they are real songs, you have to sing really loud to make up your own lyrics.

- Tuba City fair. We didn't have time to stop at the fair, but got a 12 pack of caffeine to keep us awake.

- Blanding. So apparently in blanding, gas stations aren't open after 10 o' clock so that means you have to get creative taking bathroom breaks.

Finally we got to Moab. We were planning on camping with our friends, but decided that after midnight, we might be somewhat of a nuisance setting up our tent. Additionally, we wanted to go see my family. They were still awake and were starting to get a littly punchy since it was so late. It was so fun to see them and we stayed up laughing and talking for a while before we finally went to bed. The hut was so small that we barely had enough room to fit on the floor and everyone had to step over us to get out the door, but we were happy to be there. What a great start to our vacation!

Mountain Biking

Kelsi finally has her own mountain bike! I think she loves it more than having a place to live because it took next month's rent. Kelsi told her dad that she might have to bring it into bed and cuddle with it that night and for a minute I thought she was serious. Luckily she was able to leave it in the front room and let me spend the night in the bed.

So naturally we had to go try it out. We had driven through Flagstaff on the way to Utah and we were so impressed that only 2 hours away from the surface of the sun (Phoenix), was this beautiful forested area. Even more importantly, they have mountains! Well, A mountain. Definitely better than the hills around the valley of the sun. The first trail we rode was so much fun, but so difficult. It was like riding a bike up a set of tall stairs because rocks and tree roots were sticking out all over the place. The way down was really fast and had some gnarly jumps and in general, much smoother than the way up. We wondered if we went the right direction! The scenery was beautiful and the temperature was very comfortable.

On Sunday night, we drove up to the top of Snow Bowl, the ski resort on the mountain. It has 3 lifts and cautions that only experienced skiers use the highest lift, because the only way down is on black diamond trails. Definitely different than Utah (we hope the prices for lift tickets will also be different than Utah).

Almost becoming a tradition for us on biking trips is eating at a Mexican restaurant one day after our morning ride. This time we found a good place with huge burritos. The Maires would be proud of us for eating a bowl of chips and salsa each as well as our grande burritos. It was enough to make us head back to the campsite and take a nap.

The next day we went on another bike ride and then took a jog on a fitness trail. On the way home, we drove through Sedona, which also has places to camp and mountain bike. Perhaps the most exciting thing wasn't the things we got to do, but the things we learned are available for us to do in the future. Don't worry, Utah, we won't forget you!

Home Decorating= DISASTER

So we've gotten pretty settled into our apartment by now and things have a place. Our apartment is the basic neutral colors....kind of my style. However, Collin likes the brighter colors and gets bored with one look. I agreed it was pretty bland so we decided to paint one of the walls in our room. What seemed would be the hard part was picking out a color we could both agree on. (Like I said, he likes bright colors, I like the mellow colors). We ended up picking out a red color that seemed bright enough but dark enough. Then things started to get worse and here's why:

This is the wall that got painted

1. The color's name is Va Va Voom.

2. First coat- extremely bright, but blotchy with white spots from the back wall.

3. Second coat- still bright, still blotchy.

4. Paint got on the carpet and didn't come out.

5. I wanted to stop and just hang pictures everywhere, but Collin is a million times more patient than I am.

6. Third coat- Utah Utes red, but no more blotchy spots.

7. Time to take off the tape, but the paint has dried onto the tape with 3 coats already. It required a razor to separate the paint from the tape.

8. We take off the tape, but due to the texture of the wall, paint had seeped underneath onto the plain, white walls.

At this point, Collin's patience left with mine and so far we haven't dealt with it. However, we have hung lots of framed pictures (and of course the mirror has already fell down) so I'm going with "the paint is suppose to look like this" cover up and GO UTAH UTES!

Monsoon Season

Saturday Collin and I went out for a hike (aka walk in the hills) over at South Mountain. We kind of went our own way around and about and ended up really far away from our car. I made a comment to Collin how cool it would be to hike in the rain. About 5 minutes later I was eating my words. From a distance you could see a waterfall of rain coming right at us! It was a really cool picture. Then it was like a cloud and all of the rains in the sky surrounded us and we couldn't see more than 10 feet in front of us- oh and it was thundering. At this point we decided to head back to the car. Where that was exactly, we weren't sure. Walking up and down the trails was like walking along waterfalls. I wore my chacos, but every step Collin took was sloshy in his tennis shoes. In a matter of minutes we were drenched head to toe. It was pretty awesome until it started to get colder (comfortable weather in any other state, but cold in Arizona) and we still didn't know where our car was. Then we found a road and decided to stay on that. I wish we had a sled or something because there was definitely enough water flowing down to give us a little ride! A few park rangers drove by and you would think they would stop to check if we were OK, but no. No they did not stop. We had to flag one down to make sure we were walking in the right direction and hoping that he would maybe offer a ride. No, he did not do that either. He said "Oh ya, it's about a mile away" and drove off. I was looking for comment cards at the end of the "canyon" to let them know about their customer service :).

After we got back down, Collin's parents* brought over Papa Murphy's pizza and then we went out to see the movie SALT (it was awesome). *Melissa and Greg came down for Collin's white coat ceremony. We had such a good time with them and were sad to have them go so soon.

Overall, it was a really fun day and I REALLY enjoyed being outside!

Our New Addiction

As some close family and friends know, our diet during the engagement consisted mostly of quesadillas. However, we were known occasionally to splurge our calories on a sweeter treat called Puppy Chow (AKA Chex Muddy Buddies). It is actually quite a healthy snack, based on vitamin fortified Crispix cereal, protein packed peanut butter, and antioxidant rich chocolate chips with a dusting of powdered sugar. It's what keeps us in such good shape. We actually made three batches on our week long honeymoon.

So adapting to the climate of our new home, we have found a new way to cure our sweet tooth. Our bowl of puppy chow on the counter has been replaced by tupperware containers of ice cream in the freezer. It has taken some time to perfect the recipe; the first batch we doubled the cream (that will be the last time we rely on the GPS to help us convert pints to cups). Now we believe that the possibilities are endless and we are gaining fans quickly. My dad claimed that our cookie dough ice cream was the best ice cream he had ever eaten. Stay tuned and we'll let you know when the "Van Buren Creamery" opens its doors.

Marriage, Moving, and Med School

Collin and I just recently got married June 24th in the Salt Lake City Temple. We thought planning a wedding was busy until we found out Collin got accepted into Med School at the University of Arizona and he had to be in Phoenix, AZ by July 19th for orientation. Not to mention Collin was turning 25 on July 10th. How do you plan a wedding, a honeymoon, a birthday, and a move all in the matter of around 3 weeks... Well let me tell you.

Thursday, June 24th was our day and it couldn't have gone any better! Everything went so smooth and the temple ceremony, ring ceremony, and reception was more than I could ever ask for.

Saturday, June 26th Collin and I loaded up the car and drove to Oceanside, CA for our honeymoon. It was exactly what we needed. The atmosphere there is so chill and laid back that we almost forgot what we were up against at the end of the week. We went out to eat, saw movies, went to the farmer's market, went to a Padre vs. Astros game (Padres won....whatever), watched fireworks, played at the beach, rode a tandum bike for way too long a distance, and it was all so fun and relaxing.

Saturday, July 3rd we headed down to Phoenix to start a search for our apartment. Luckily, Collin's good friend Jason just lives over in Mesa and was so nice to let us stay at his house. Sunday we spent the day just looking at the outside and location of apartments since everywhere was closed due to the holiday. Monday we visited our top 3 favorite apartments and closed on our new place of residence, Legacy Bungalows.

Tuesday, July 6th we headed out to Lake Powell for the Maires family reunion. I can say that was one of our best trips yet and it's Lake Powell.... it speaks for itself!

Saturday, July 10th we sang every primary hymn book happy birthday song my mom could think of... welcome to my family! This was also our last day at Lake Powell and we headed back to Salt Lake.

We spent the next three days doing some heavy duty packing, but, despite all the happy birthday songs, Collin's birthday wasn't over with.

Tuesday, July 15th Collin was surprised to find all of his friends, balloons, cake, and a pool all in the same spot! He had no idea I had been planning a surprise party for him since the beginning of our honeymoon. It was an almost impossible secret to keep! It was worth it. We were grateful to see some of our best friends before we left.

Thursday, July 17th was the big day. Collin and I loaded up a 17' UHAUL and hooked his mazda up to a tow dolly and we headed down to the surface of the sun. The drive to Arizona was about 12 hours long with our UHAUL. You think after that long of a drive we would be ready for bed, but no. We wanted to get rid of that enormous truck ASAP. We unloaded the entire thing in a hour and a half. Impressed? Let me add that there was only 3 of us (Jason lucky for me came and helped out), we had 2 huge leather couches, and 3 FLIGHTS OF STAIRS IN 110 DEGREE WEATHER!!  Be assured we survived without any injuries or fatalities... although, I knew something was wrong when the package of toilet paper felt too heavy to haul up the stairs.

Monday, July 19th Collin started med school. He has a great class and the program is incredible. All my deep, unnerving thoughts about if this was where we are suppose to be have completely dissolved. After going to support forums, socials at the dean's house, and ceremonies I am beginning to feel at home and like we have a "family" here to be apart of.

Today, Friday, July 30th Collin has officially handed over his life and received his white physician's coat! It was such a neat ceremony and they had a great keynote speaker! In a way, I feel like I will be going through med school too but I don't think Collin is nearly as excited as I am (He already has his first test Sunday).

Me... I'm just trying not to get too lost in Phoenix. I don't know what people did before GPS'. I also am currently looking for a job and getting set up in school. Unfortunately they wouldn't take my acceptance into the U nursing program and I have to complete ALL of the pre-req's for the ASU nursing program that wouldn't transfer over from the U and plus some. So the plan is to apply next fall.

But here we are in the brutally hot city of Phoenix absolutely loving life and all of our adventures, but mostly just being together!