Christmas Caroling in Freezing Utah

Here we are back in Utah for christmas where a huge snowstorm hit today.  I'm content living in Phoenix for now :)  Summer's parents have some cute neighbor kids that we "borrowed" for the evening to go christmas caroling down their street.  It was a fun time! 

I have really exciting news too - it looks like I will be working here in Phoenix.  It's not official yet, but it looks like I'll be staying at the company where I did my internship.  Me and Summer are both excited to stay here, being that we love the weather and are finding good friends.  Enjoy the pics! 

For Halloween we went to Southern California for Summer's grandma's 80th birthday

Here she is:

We stayed at Summer's cousin Ashleys house - here are the two of them:

On saturday we decided to go to Summer's favorite place: the Aquarium (in Long Beach)

This whale greets when you walk in.

Ah... the ocean!

This was like a seeing a sci-fi movie.

Here were some cool looking manta-rays that a scuba diver was showing us.

Grand Canyon

This is us when we were about to start our hike in the Grand Canyon.  I don't look sweaty there but believe me I look grimy at the end.  The hike was fun but I was glad I was not one of the ones going on the overnight hike.

This picture is for my nephew Cody.  We saw this while driving on the shuttle.  Cody never got to see one at Yellowstone.  Sorry the picture is weird because it is from inside the shuttle.  
This is a picture we took from Hopi Point I think.  I was a beautiful spot and lots of fun to see Tyler get nervous about the heights.  
We waited at Yaki Point to watch the sunset.  This is not the best picture but it truly was wonderful to watch.  Below this picture you will see the only not wonderful thing about waiting for the sunset was that it was FREEZING!! I was wishing for my Phoenix sun.  

Nerd Party

Nerd Party

This is a bunch of people from work.  We had a party where we all dressed up like nerds.  It was tons of fun and shopping with friends for the costume was just as much fun as going to the party.  

These are some of my closest friends from work.  They are all first grade teachers.   

Pine

This week we decided to get out of the heat so we headed up to Pine, Arizona with our ward.  As the name suggests - there are lots of pine trees, in fact we almost forgot we were still in Arizona!  It was nice to have some cooler weather and we had some fun hiking around the woods.  

Summer is soaking wet here with our friend Lisa - she decided to jump in the water hole along the hike. 

My cute wife!

Update

I realize that I have not put up a post in a while and thought I would let you all know what has been happening since the last post.  I will sum my entire life in two words.  SCHOOL STARTED!! Yes that is right I am now back to teaching 27 eight year olds.  Why oh Why do I torture myself.  I forget how untrained they are at the beginning of the year.  No wonder I don't have a child.  Anyways I will actually have a life this weekend so I will hopefully bring a camera.  

Cooler Weather

It has been very VERY hot here in Arizona so we decided get to cooler weather for a while.  We went to Sadona and had a picnic by the river.  It was so nice to be able to sit outside and not sweat to death.  This first picture is me refusing to sit because there was fire ants everywhere and I was having a heart attack.  Lucky we moved and it turned out to be a nice picnic.  

This is a picture of Me, Breezy and my friend Ashley that showed us this place.  

We were a little hot but not even as bad as in Phoenix.  

Summer Fun!

Fourth of July this year was spent at Newport Beach with my dad's side of the family.  It was really beautiful there and I loved seeing the fireworks over the water.  

This weekend we decided to do something fun so we went to one of those pottery painting places.  We each painted a bowl which took a really long time but was more fun than I have had in a long time.  Once they glaze them and we get them back I will post the finishing product.  

Tyler and I with our cute polka-dot bowl.  

I have been a slacker updating my blog but I am finally putting up My pictures from my trip to Utah.  When I got to Utah it was my little brother Seth's wedding.  On the day of the wedding my little sister got her hair and makeup done and I cannot believe how old she looks.  I believe she is finally hotter than me.  Yikes.  Anyways the day after the wedding we all went swimming and then went with my Older brother Scott and his family to Yellowstone.  It was tons of fun.  We camped, ate marshmallows, hiked, and stayed in a beautiful cabin.  You might notice in the Yellowstone pictures I looked sick and that is because I was sick the WHOLE TRIP!!  Even though I was sick I loved being with my family.  

Birthday Fun!!

This week was my birthday and I had TONS of fun.  I have three great friends that took me to a fun Italian restaurant called Buca di Beppo.  My friend Laura always knows the best places to eat and is good at getting everyone together.  For the first birthday in a long time I got to blow out candles and eat cake.  They got me a fun present called a table topper and we all got to eat and enjoy.  I don't have a picture but all of their husbands came along for the fun.  I truly don't know what I would have done this year without these three awesome girls.    

Houston Vacation

We had a great time on vacation to Houston.  It really made us want to move there. The first place we went was to the Alligator Park.  I have never seen so many alligators up close.

                                 Doesn't Sydnie look so cute in my hat!!

                    

                    This is me and the girls having tons of fun on blow up toys. They are all at a place called the Ruckus Room.  

It made me and Tyler Really Hungry.  That is why we ate some yummy hot dogs. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                          

Before we went to the beach we got to go on a fun boat ride.  Maddie liked to go on Tylers Shoulder and feed the birds bread.                                                                                                                                                                                                          

I loved the warm water at the lake.  I had fun jumping off the dock.  I don't know if I will ever miss the snow.  Even though Houston was a blast I missed my bright shining Arizona sun.  I tell you there is nothing better.    

Leadership Bowling

At the school I work at we have a leadership club.  It is only for the third grade which is the oldest grade in the school and if you are picked to get in the club you get to wear a special Yellow shirt every Friday.  For them this is about the coolest thing ever because everyone else wears a uniform everyday including only the colors blue and white.  Each month each third grade teacher chooses one student that shows leadership to get into the club.  They have lots of jobs at the school including running the video camera each morning for announcements.  At the end of the year all the teachers take all of their Leadership Kids on a bowling trip.  We had the bumpers up and tons of music and lights.  It was the most fun I have had in a long time.  I had some mega cute pictures of my kids but can't put them up.  Oh and in case you wanted to know I lost in bowling and my kids thought that was hilarious.   

This is me dancing to the fun music.  I was the only third grade teacher that knew all the music because it was all High School Musical, Hannah Montana and stuff like that.  

This is my friend Ashley that teaches with me. 

This week Summer and I had the ward picnic - which Tyler got soaking wet at from the young men he teaches!  (while Summer was gabbing away with ladies in the ward).  Then we returned and Summer proceeded to take a nice nap on the bed with her book in hand.... all in all this last weekend was great.  Oh and I am almost finished with my school semester!!!  

So good news and bad news - Here is the *good news* first -

I was accepted to a paid internship here in Phoenix for the summer!! I will be working at a company called TGen (Translational Genomics Research Institute) that does Biomedical research. If I find the cure for cancer I'll let y'all know...

If you're wondering why I have a picture of computer servers to the left well... the research I do is actually not in a lab. All of our work uses computer programming and it requires lots of servers to analyze long DNA sequences. I let other people get their "hands dirty" with biology experiments while I sit in a nice rolling chair :)


Now for the *bad news* -
Many people have been affected by the economy, well Summer unfortunately was laid off from her job this last week (or "riffed" as they call it). All first year teachers in her school district were let go, and since this was her first year in the school district here she was automatically let go. The Arizona Economy has been hard hit and one of the first sectors to lose money is education. She has a chance of being hired again after the arizona budget passes in June, but we will not know before then and since most schools in Arizona are not hiring she will have to wait until June/July to find out about a job.
Please keep her/us in your prayers during this difficult time

Easter Weekend

Summer's mom and Breanne came to visit us for Easter weekend because Breanne had spring break.  We spent a lot of time in the pool just laying out in the sun and relaxing in the hot tub.  Yesterday we all climbed Camelback Mountain - the second time Summer and I have climbed it.  It is about a 5 mile hike including the walk from the car and it gets pretty steep at some points.  We made it up to to the top and were proud of ourselves because several groups stopped before they reached the summit.  It was a rare cloudy, rainy day in the land of the SUN.

Summer new class pet - a crawfish

Our reward for reaching the summit - trail mix :)

A rare cloudy day in Phoenix

Summer and I exhausted but looking good