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!!!!