Desert Hike

A couple weekends ago my in-laws were in town so we went on a little hike through the desert. I've always considered the desert to be particularly ugly and this was the first time I've ever had a change of mind and discovered there was beauty to be found.

The barrel cactus was my favorite to capture, I love the brilliantly colored spines! Some yellow, some pink, and some extravagantely red! This is my Pic of the Trip.

Here's Cory with his first time view of the Saguaro Cactus-only to be found in our oh so great state of Arizona.

A little barrel and outlooking over the desert.

Another barrel with some gorgeous color in it.

This one's had too many sweets! Look at those love handles!

Still can't get enough of these. Sorry.

Mmmmm lots of green in this one here. Not my fav but I like the Ocotillo and the blue mountains in the back.

Cory and Debbie delightfully enjoying our desert hike. It really was pretty. I was quite surprised.

Good Hiker we've got here!

This is ones a little extreme There was this little cluster of baby cacti in the grass under a bush and I thought they were cute and deserved something interesting. This is my idea of interesting. I really wanted to emphasize the white and the spines.

A Thousand Words

I'm going to go out on a limb and blurb here for a second-I'd like to take up your time :)

I love to write, it was one of my favorite classes in high school but I'm afraid I've fallen out of touch with my writing self lately and am a little rusty. But everyone says a picture is worth a thousand words, right? And I've been needing a hobby lately. This+that=photography. I've always liked taking pictures and I especially love editing them and from crazy to beautiful. Some people are offended by the whole photoshop thing, but its art, people. Because you know, sometimes the world gets a tad bit boring and I like to add a little sparkle (sometimes a lot). I like to make it MY OWN. Make it SPECIAL. Make it WORTH looking at it.

So, if you're reading this, you've seen my pictures. I'm just starting so there aren't many. But, PLEASE COMMENT!!! (Start with the one topping off my page) Tell me what you like, what you don't like, what you'd change...etc. I would appreciate some feedback. Thanks!

One Year Ago.....

One year ago my wonderful husband finally mustered up the guts to ask me the most important question of our entire lives. And so far its turning out more beautifully than anything I could have ever imagined. Thank you honey, for being so brave and willing to marry me! For making a memory I'll never forget! You're the best!

Performance

Eh Hem Ladies and Gentleman-

There is a special performance going on in Mesa during the next 2 weekends put together by Rob Gardner in which Michael will be appearing. Its called the Price of Freedom. Its a presentation of letters sung by soloists to and from family members during WWII along with actual footage of the war provided by the National Archives. Everything I've seen or heard of Rob's compositions has always been nothing less than amazing! We'd love to see you there-it'll be well worth your time!

This is where you'll find all the information you need if you're interested:

http://www.spiremusic.org/tpof/

Cabo San Lucas

Pretty self-explanitory picture right here. A little info on how this trip went down. We spent muchos time each morning at time share presentations so we could get discounted stuff and free breakfasts. Works out for your benefit if you don't mind listening to them babble on and on and you don't mind turning them down as quickly as possible. To start with, we got a PT Cruiser Convertible for $20. Not too shabby!

First day we took a little boat out to Lovers Beach.
Here's at the dock with the awesome Mexican buildings behind us.

The little boat had a bit of a tipsy time on the smallish waves that were too big for it!

Getting ready to lay out and get tan...little did we know that the rest of our vacation would be full of completely cloudy days....so the whole tanning thing didn't work out after all.

Pacific side looking back at Lovers Beach. Its dangerous to swim on the Pacific side due to the severe undertow that occurs. We found out they call this side Divorce Beach. Don't want anything to do with that!

The cliffs around the beach were stunning and we couldn't resist our urge to climb! So up and up we went! The rock was so adhesive you could walk right up it! Me striking a pose while looking out into the bay-along with my own color rendition.

Up on the cliffs looking down on Lovers Beach, the bay, and Cabo.

More fun colors and kisses!

I got into some of those drinks you see in the background...my interpretation of being drunk. Which is apparently everyone's favorite thing to do in Mexico. 24/7.

Second day we went horseback riding! Michael didn't really enjoy his time-he had a psycho horse unfortunately that only wanted to bolt. But we got to run them all over and see some awesome desert and this massivo cactus!
We took the horses down to the beach for more kisses and the gorgeous ocean!

Bye Bye horses and our guide! Ya...he had a sense of humor.

Later that night was supposed to be a Sunset Cruise with Whale Watching. Remember the cloudy days? So, no sunset. And the cruise? Was actually a booze cruise so the only thing we saw for 2 hours was 40 Mexicans getting stark drunk. No whales. But a wonderful view of Lands End and The Arch. Luckily we got to see some whales each morning just offshore while we sat at the presentations.

Third day we got a real treat! I've always wanted to swim with dolphins except its always so dang expensive! But we got a great deal and couldn't turn it down!

So excited to swim with dolphins in our wetsuits! Good thing cuz it was cold!

The little bums were charging $25 for each 6X8 printed picture and we were like heck no! So what did we do? We quickly and sneakishly took pictures of the pictures on the computer-thats why they're not the best quality-but memories none the least!

I wish we could've gotten more of the pictures because what a wonderful experience it was! We got to get and give kisses, dance with them, and hold on to the pectoral fin while they swam us around! Look at my cute husband...not even the dolphin could resist him!

Hello sweet thing! Such beautiful animals! It was always my dream job as a kid to be a Dolphin and Killer Whale trainer so this was the most fun thing for me to beable to do!

On the drive to the airport we had to stop for one last stunning view and give my final awesome pose! And what happens while we're driving...the sun comes out. Are you joking me!?

San Fran

My favorite picture of the trip, with some of my own modifications-I love pictures and making something extra special out of them!

Unfortunately, we have no pictures of the Hamiltons, a couple from Michael's mission who were so kind to let us come stay with them and show us around San Fran!

Thanks guys!

Here we are on Alcatraz Island looking out at the Bay Bridge. It was neat to take the audio tour and learn lots of goodness about the prison!

This is a picture we took from the trolley-I love seeing the bridge through all the streets and houses!
Here is the cute little trolley!

Gotta love Pier 39 and their oh so famous seal village!

This was outside a little store-so wish I could've bought it!

Alcatraz Island from a distance.

A cell in Alcatraz-what a dreary place to have had to be sent to!

This is just some RIDICULOUS sailboat owned by some RIDICULOUSLY rich
person. Unbelievable.

Oakland Temple up ontop the hill overlooking the whole city!
B-E-A-Utiful!

Being true tourists (once again) at an awesome halloween fair thing-
they really had some neat stuff going on there!

Out on the Golden gate bridge on a lovely day!

On Alcatraz, looking back at the city-so happy!

OAHU

Welcome to Hawaii! Oh how we love it! Lets first say that we did this whole trip in a friday afternoon and saturday-we are awesomely time crunched travelers who make literally the most of their limited time!

We're just happy in this picture-nothing excitingly out of the ordinary. But I do think its a good picture of Michael :)

Our new travel buddies are also happy! Laura and Johnny and our cute jeep we got or cheap! I rhyme.

For our first adventure of the day-China Man's Hat.
The distance isn't as daunting as it looks.

Almost there-looking like we're just offshore-but out in the middle of the ocean!

Hiking up, up, up to the peak of the "Hat" for the most stunning view!

The pictures don't do justice to how glorious it was-being out in the middle of the ocean-

with the beautiful Hawaiian scenery ahead of you-

and the sun streaking its way through the clouds-
gently glittering off the ocean bay below. Truly breathtaking.

Aloha China Man's Hat!

We just dinked around the rest of our friday night-
saying hello to the oh so fabulous hawaiian men.

Eating some delicious shrimp and being true tourists
by posing in the wooden frame (looks for this again in San Fran...)

We took a last stop to the beach to relax for a bit of the night on the sand.

Bright and Early Saturday morning we headed off to Maunawili Falls!
The hike was pleasantly full of crossing streams, slipping through mud, and
viewing some more of that gorgeous Hawaiian scenery. Can't get enough!

The Falls! Nothing huge and grande-but quaint and cute nonetheless
as Michael proves he is a conquerer of waterfalls (which he is)
(no, seriously, he is)

Double jump as we prove we are the conquerer of the skies!

No, seriously, I am. See me? Ya.
Its like being a fairy in Never Never Land.
The vid at the bottom is me jumping from higher up
from the left side of this picture. Freaky it was!

We love to play! No growing up for us! Peace out Maunawili!

Stopping for lunch/dinner. Then Matsamotos-HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT!!!
Before this we were at Waimea Bay
jumping off the rock there as well but unfortunately didn't snap any pictures.

Laura with the Bounty Hunter! Grrrrr!!! He's scary looking.

The one and only Sunset Beach to top off our trip.

There aint nothing like swimming in
the ocean under a perfect sunset!

And a special thanks goes out to Nola and Josh or letting us stay with them!
Even when they had just moved there 3 days earlier! Thanks guys! You're awesome!

Here is my jump-that was really really scary! I've jumped lots but it never ceases to pump me full of adrenaline. This isn't the best shot but this is about a 50 ft. jump out of the trees into the little pool of Maunawili. ROCK ON!!!