Thanksgiving weekend

Happy Thanksgiving! Well guess what - it actually rained down here... yes for the first time in a long time it was raining. We had been saying how sunny and nice its been, and of course the week my family comes down it rains (we're blaming it on them)!

We decided to go to the Boyce Thompson Arboretum which is about an hour away from our apartment. There were trees from all around the world - it was amazing to see all the palm trees and desert cactus. Enjoy the pics! Oh Breezy came down as well as you can see in the pictures. And Brenna was here too, although she escaped being in any photos :( - Don't worry we'll get you next time!

Breezy: "Oh my gosh that's Brad Pitt!"

Summer: "Is that a dog?"

Looks comfy eh? Kind of like a watermelon patch...

Princess Summer

Does that statue look like a boxer to anyone else?

This one's for Greg

Cute picture of us - I love the curls honey

"I am like DaVinci, I am like DaVinci..." 

cute

Summer sharpening her cooking skills and showing us her great smile

Looks like Summer might be trying to push them into the stream!

Okay as you can tell this is Tyler writing.  I tried to write the first thoughts that came to my head when seeing these pictures.  And by the tone of my writing you can guess that I am somewhat jealous of Summer for going to Utah w/o me a week and half ago!  Lucky her, but I did enjoy some good arizona weather and was able to watch college football for an entire saturday! (which honestly I don't think I'll ever do again, too much football).

  

Our next post we should have some rollerblading pictures or something - so wish us luck

Festival Time

So this week we decided to get a pumpkin.  Of course there are not quite as many pumpkin patches here as we're used to.  The idea of "Fall" does not cross everyone's mind due to the lack of trees and still hot temperatures.  The place we went to was called Schnepf Farms, it's about 45 min. from where we live.  It was basically a mini amusement park besides being a pumpkin patch.    

Tyler's favorite game ever!

Gettin' ready to rumble...  This was our ride for the day - I didn't realize we had to peddle the thing - I thought it would be motorized.  You go around a little course that runs through some woods and there are all sorts of bumps and hills that made it an adventurous ride.  

Today I am showing Summer how to roller blade - wish her luck!

Pinnacle Peak

This is Tyler writing again.  So this last week since the temperatures have been dropping, we decided to get outside of our apartment for a few hours.  I did some research and found that there are lots of hikes close by to Scottsdale, we went to one called Pinnacle Peak which was about 15 miles from our apartment.  First off it was still pretty hot! (90's)  Luckily about half the hike was in the shade.  

Also, when we pulled up to the town where the hike was in, it was like an old WESTERN town!  There were old taverns and storefronts and you really felt like a cowboy.  It really made me think how this area used to be a desert with few homes and people... my how that's changed.  Well here are the pics- enjoy!

I felt like a camel in the desert (I was carrying 4 bottles of water in the backpack)...

I wondered how much it would hurt if one of the many cactuses that we passed on the road fell on you... luckily we didn't find out!  Summer and I made it the whole 3.75 miles through the desert landscape, there was a lot of going up and down.     

Babysitting

Hey it's me Summer!  I don't normally write but Tyler felt that I need to be more part of this blogging experience.  Soooo, this is Tyler and Kaitlyn - we babysat my cousin Jeremy's kids and this is his little girl.  

This is Kaitlyn and her little sister Courtney.

This is just me with one of my students!  

(Oh by the way Tyler is writing this I'm making him do all the work)

So when I saw this grassy area right by our apartment I thought - why did they build a bridge over it?

Apparently for good reason...

All these pictures are taken right from our apartment patio.

So when you here it is dry in Arizona - that's half true...

There was a huge storm one night and the next morning we had a river flowing down our backyard! This happened twice in the last 2 weeks - drybed, storm, then river, drybed, storm, then river... It must be common during the monsoon season here because no one seemed overly surprised. There is even a golf course that they built on the other side of the bridge that gets flooded with water every time a big storm comes.


On a different note, I finished my first week of graduate school here at ASU - things are going well. I work as a math TA for Calculus I - which means I have 50 students that I am in charge of. I have a 6th floor office that I share with some other TA's and it has an awesome view of the football stadium here. Which by the way they just built an 8 million dollar practice facility here for the ASU football team. The team used it for like 2 weeks and then a big storm hit this week and it tore open the building (it is made of some kind of fabric) and now they can't use it for the rest of the year... sad and ironic at the same time.

I go over to Summer's school a few times a week to help her out in her class room which is something I didn't get the chance to do in Utah. I can get to her school by bus in about an hour. She really appreciates it since she has a lot to do and no parent help, so I don't mind coming over. We were so excited yesterday - the weather got down into the upper 90's during the day and it felt so good - there were people walking around outside everywhere! Okay so I know that still sounds hot to some of you, but when you're used to 107 everyday... well you get the picture.

My parents came to visit us for the weekend - this is at Summer's classroom in Phoenix.

We watched the Arizona Diamondbacks play the San Diego Padres. Even though we look hot they close the roof on the stadium. It was air-conditioned and Summer got a little cold.

Our new desk! There were a million pieces to put together - it took me two days to build!!

Hawaii

Tyler catching some waves

Summer too

Summer and I chillin on the beach

Enjoying a sunrise atop a 10,000 foot high crater (We had to wake up at 2:00 a.m.!)

This is before our bike ride down the crater w/ Jenney and Kevin

Snorkeling off Maui in Turtle Town

At the Hawaiian Luau

Here we are parasailing!!!

More Arizona pics

Summer and Breezy looking good at our apartment in Arizona!

Breezy enjoying her time in Arizona by lounging around in the water!

Summer relaxing in the pool at our apartment :0

Arizona

Summer is down in Arizona this week so I am writing the blog again. She wanted to let everyone know it is really really HOT! She had some help from Greg, Jan and Breeze to get everything unpacked and organized.

In the meantime I'm living at my parents house in Provo. I am working at BYU as a programmer - it's a relaxed job during the summer. Well I don't have much else to say other than I miss you Summer!

Happy 4th of July!!! We enjoyed spending the week at Grandma and Grandpa Burnett's. We spent all of the 4th at Greg and Jan's - it was a swimming party and a barbecue. I (Tyler) had a great time playing "Farkle" with the fam - Jan kept saying that I better not go to Vegas! This is Summer's last week in Utah - I will miss her greatly. The next time I get to see her we will be flying on a plane to Hawaii - YESS!

Moving!

We spent the last week packing - yeah! Ok not really, Tyler is exhausted - he had to do most of the packing. Summer is unpacking everything down in Arizona so it was a good trade off. We moved out Saturday and are currently living up at Grandpa and Grandma Burnett's for the next week.
We also went to a Luau at Mark's in-laws. It was great fun - Tyler learned how to do the Haka!