Happenings in AZ

A little summary of what's been going on... in collages...

(being super bored + loving pictures = lots of collages). 

Hiking Camelback Mountain

Preston and I hiked the great Camelback mountain in Scottsdale a little while ago. I told Preston we should get an early start because it gets so hot, but he didn't listen and we ended up hiking in the 100 degree heat. He sure learned his lesson! It was actually a perfect hike, I thought. It's just really hard for the last half mile because it's all climbing straight up hot rocks. But, there were people there who were jogging it, so... must not be that hard :)

Call me a granola but I get pretty fascinated with animals and being out in nature, so I was just loving taking millions of pictures of the squirrel and the big lizard on the rocks. I kept making Preston stop so I could get my phone out of the backpack and take pictures.

Preston's so sweet, he hates hiking, yet he always goes with me, and he's even the one who suggests it most of the time. What a good guy.

Finding a car

After taking our Hyundai to the shop when we got to Arizona, we found out they were totaling it out, so we had to find a new car. And we had to do it pretty quick. Our lives were consumed with finding a car for about two weeks. We went to dealerships all over and checked craigslist constantly. We were hoping for a Toyota because they are just really good cars and have great resale value.

When we found one that looked perfect online, we went out at night to look at it. It was a 40 minute drive out clear away from the city. We test drove the car and decided we were going to buy it. The next day Preston left work early and we had set up to take the car into a mechanic to make sure it had no problems. The car passed and so we were moving forward with the process. To make a long day short, I'll skip all the details, but these indian?/mexican? brothers who were selling it to us were pretty sketchy. They had all these weird things they wanted us to do and it was all just really risky and it finally came down to the fact that we just didn't trust them. My grandparents had driven us out to Scottsdale to meet with them and left us there, so after all this mess they had to give us a ride back home (which is about a 30 minute drive). The guy was not in a good mood and it was awkward. We had him drop us off down the road so he wouldn't know where we lived...

SO, we were happy to get out of that situation, and luckily we found another perfect car that very day and bought it! It's a Toyota Camry and it's in great condition. We love it!

Diamondbacks Game

Preston's company that he's interning for got us amazing tickets to the Diamondbacks game. We sat about four rows back behind home plate. They played the Dodgers and won! The game was a little long for me, but it definitely beat sitting at home. We went with Preston's co-worker/friend who brought his son. What more can I say... I'm not a big baseball person. This was on my list of things to do while we're here though and we completed it in style!

Work

I started working for the Instrument Shop again! I thought I was so happy to have a break from that job, but it definitely pays well and we need that, so I am trying to do a little work online for them. The internet at my grandparents home is only working some of the time, so I come to the public library for a couple hours a day. I actually really like getting to be away from the house for a while each day. The people here at the library are a little odd.. mostly homeless people I think. Yesterday there was a crazy guy who came up and asked me if I liked his hat and then I heard him ask a couple other people the same question. He sat on the desk next to me and studied his bible and would occasionally look up and start laughing his head off. Kind of creeped me out but oh well I deal with it.


Ghetto Golf Course

Preston googled cheap golf courses in Mesa. And cheap is what we got. They had a little trailer where you pay and then the course was mostly dirt with spotches of grass. He was just hitting balls on the range though so it was fine. You know what they say, there's beauty in everything... or something like that.. and I brought my camera and tried to find some beauty at the course. I found these beautiful flowers and was able to get some really good shots. That was about all I found, and then I sat on the ground (concrete) infested with ants and ate my Cheetos while watching Prest hit balls. I didn't mind it at all, in fact it was pretty relaxing.

Memorial Day

Memorial day was a blessing because I got a whole extra day to spend with Preston. We played tennis, took a nap, visited my grandma's grave, and had a pool party/barbecue with the cousins. It was quite the feast (which is rare these days) and was just fun to have company over.

I am half way through my time here in Arizona, and although there have been lots of fun times here I am sooo ready to go back home! Only 10 more days till my sister and aunt come and only one month till I go home!!!!

Lexie's Wedding

Preston's sister got married last weekend and we were able to fly up for the wedding. It was so fun to be back in Provo in our own apartment for a weekend. 

His sister, Lexie, got married in the Draper temple. It turned out to be a beautiful day and she was a very beautiful bride!

The Draper temple

Brady and Teresa, Preston's brother and sister-in-law, waiting outside the temple for the bride and groom

Sophia, Brady and Teresa's daughter, and Preston's dad waiting outside the temple

The newly married couple!

Lexie and her dad

After the temple we had a couple hours before the reception, and I went to a baby shower while Preston watched some golf with his dad. Then, since Preston hurt his shoulder last week, we went to his doctor's house to have him check it out. Doctor Jackson was a life saver. He gave Preston some shots in his shoulder (Preston almost passed out, I was so scared; I've never seen anyone pass out!) and prescribed some medication for him. 

Then, we headed to the reception at a cute park in Lindon with a really nice reception place that I had never heard of before. I was Lexie's makeup and hair stylist so I did some touch ups before the reception. I loved the bride room at this reception place, it was so pretty.

Preston and his dad waiting for the reception to start

Zipping up the dress

Lexie and her mom all ready to go out to the reception!

The Livin' is Easy

I've made it through two weeks here in Arizona! Besides all the hustle bustle with our car situation, things have been fairly quiet and relaxing... I guess you could expect that living with grandparents.

It really has been a huge change for me. The biggest thing is just having so much time. I usually am done with everything I want to do by about 1pm and then I just sit and wait for Preston to come home from work. The first time I went shopping when I was down here it really hit me that I have all the time in the world. I tried on at least 20 different things at Target, I waited in line at the store and didn't feel one bit antsy, and I parked at the far end of the parking lot just because I thought it might kill some time. It's a strange feeling having nothing pressing to do, and I think I am going to be in for a shock once I start school and work again. For now though I'll just keep taking my sweet time doing whatever I want to do.

Since my grandma died last year and my grandpa got remarried, I was really worried about coming down here. I thought it might bring back so many memories and just be depressing all the time, but it's actually been the opposite. It's good to be back here where I spent my summers growing up. I love seeing things that remind me of my grandma everywhere I look. I still miss her so much, but I think I've accepted that she's in a better place, and my memories of her make me happy rather than make me feel like crying like in the past.

It's been really good getting to know my grandpa's new wife, Sandy. She is very sweet and just loves to talk. She can be pretty funny too. My grandpa is like he's always been, but more mellow. I'm not going to go in to my grandpa's personality, but let's just say that he is a fireball. Very opinionated. My grandpa and Sandy live very relaxed lives like I currently do. They have breakfast, watch the news, listen to Rush Limbaugh, take naps, and just do whatever they feel like doing.

My schedule includes making breakfast for Preston, taking the dogs on walks, going to the gym twice a day, swimming, reading by the pool (I've finished three books now), taking naps, and talking to the grandparents. Like I said: I've got it easy.

Preston has really been learning a lot at his internship. He's loving it, besides the drive to and from work... there is soo much traffic and he has to drive all the way to north Scottsdale. He had a shoulder injury while we were down here and had to go to urgent care. It's finally starting to improve, but that darn shoulder has been giving him lots of pain over the past week. He sure is a cutie like always though.

I have inherited three best friends while I've been down here:

Pugsy

Harley

Maizee

Yes, they are dogs, but they are very loving and loyal. In fact, Pugsy has not left my side since I've gotten here. She is literally at my feet everywhere I go. She's an odd dog too. I will have to post a video of her sometime.. she makes this noise like a scream when she gets really excited... I really will record her doing it and post it, it's hilarious, but kinda weird.  Harley is just a tiny dog, but she is so fun and full of energy. Maizee is getting really old and fat and sleeps all day besides when she smells food. She's a really sweet dog though.

Ok so you're probably thinking holy cow Lane has turned in to an old person- she even writes blog posts about her dogs and is getting way boring! haha it's true, but it's entertaining to me! This really has gotten  long though. So to wrap it up, Preston and I are loving Arizona. It's way hot, but it's a happy place and we have so many fun plans for the summer!

Here are some pictures I took of the backyard where I spend most of my time now:

Road Trip! 2nd stop: Middle of Nowhere

Part 2 to this little trip down to Arizona is not as happy as part 1. So here's what happened:

We're driving in the desert probably like 80 miles away from any civilization (no joke) and there's road construction out there. This is a one lane road each way so it was pretty backed up. So we come to a stop in the back of this long line of cars waiting to be let by and Preston is all riled up because now we aren't going to make very good time. We'd been sitting there for probably about two minutes when BAM we were hit from behind. It was so scary. I instantly made sure my camera and phone were ok (and my husband) and they were luckily :)

What had happened was that a guy in a truck had taken his eyes off the road for a second and didn't see the line of cars stopped. He had obviously been going really fast and hit into a white Mercedes and knocked that car into the lane of oncoming traffic and then hit into us.

Our car

The Mercedes

The truck that hit us.. he was a nice old cowboy.

The desert

The white car was in worse shape than us and the lady had to get taken in an ambulance. My head hurt a little bit from hitting it against the head rest so hard, but other than that we weren't hurt at all. We did have to stand on the side of the highway for TWO hours. But, the construction people and highway patrol were very nice and funny and we had a good time talking to them. Finally, the main sheriff came after two hours and we were able to get things settled. (By the way, for almost an hour traffic was held up because of this wreck. I bet people were maaaad.) 

When all was said and done, the construction crew helped us tape up and rope up our car so it didn't fall apart on the rest of the drive. (I wish I had a picture of that, and a picture after we'd pulled the trunk off) And we were back on our way to Mesa.

When we finally reached my grandpa's house we were way later than planned and weren't able to take the trip up to Preston's new work so that he could find it on time the next morning. So I just crossed my fingers that he would be able to make it on time!

My suitcase and a few other things were in the trunk of the car, and when we got to my grandpa's we discovered that this trunk would not be opening, and the back car seats wouldn't open either. So I didn't have any of my things and just had to go to bed in my sweaty clothes I had been wearing all day. The next morning we woke up and came out and my grandpa had gotten a crowbar and along with his elderly neighbor next door, they had gotten the trunk off. (the car was looking pretty sad by now.)


To try to make this long story short let's just say that things were pretty crazy that night and the next day. The night we got in we went to get a rental car and the only place open was like an hour away, and my grandpa was working at the temple so we took his old rickety paint truck (which is what I am driving now) and headed up to this rental place. When we got there Preston discovered that he had not brought his license. So we headed back with no rental car and a very frustrated husband.

After working with the insurance company for the last two weeks, we now have one week to find a new car because our car was totaled. Pray for us that we will find a good deal!!

Road Trip! 1st stop: St. George

I feel like I have TONS to catch up on on my blog. (And also tons of reading others' blogs too!) I've only been in Arizona for 3 days now, but I have had a lot happen and I have a lot of time on my hands, so basically I'll be blogging quite a bit here I think.

Oh and I thought I wouldn't have internet at all while I was down here because my grandparents that I'm staying with don't have it, but I was able to connect to someones and it made me the happiest girl in the world! Thank you Trendnet whoever you are!!!

Ok so I'm going to start at the beginning of our little journey. We left Provo early in the morning to get down to St. George and have a little mini vacation before driving down to Arizona. It was a wonderful day! We got down there and had lunch and shopped a little bit, then went hiking around by Dixie rock. After that we played tennis, swam at the hotel, went out to eat, shopped a little more, went to Nielsens, and that was it! We got in everything we wanted to do, and set out the next morning for Arizona.

Of course I took a million pictures of our hike, so here are some of them :)

Tried being an indian and ended up feeling more like a bear...

See the little speck of red in the middle? That was a ninja man practicing his skills with a big stick on top of a rock! Weird!

This was pretty dang tight.. also could imagine this would make some people pretty claustrophobic

Jumped the gap!

Also stopped at the St. George temple to get some pictures of it