Moving Day

This post is painful just to write; remembering back on this day makes me cringe.
So I'll give you just a brief rundown... We had been contemplating moving back to Spokane for some time now and although the idea was out there we really didn't make up our mind for sure until like 3 weeks before we were to go... crazy? yes, I am aware! Being off of school, I was home everyday with nothing better to do than pack. So I packed the majority of our apartment. Joel's mom, Ann, came down to visit and helped us pack and move as well which was a huge relieve.
Now this is the painful part, we (and by we, I mean Joel) decided that it would be best for us to get everything packed up during the day on Thursday so that we could get on the road as soon as possible. Sounds like a great plan right? Not so much, we had a few friends who had agreed to come over after work to help us move and doing it during the day would mean that we would be moving it by our self, down 3 flights of stairs, in the middle of the day, in the heat of the Arizona summer, brilliant I know!
 The 3 of us, had a pretty sweet set-up where Ann brought all the boxes to the top of the stairs. Joel brought them to the bottom of the stairs and then I carried them to the truck. We sold a lot of our big furniture on craigslist prior to moving so it mainly was a lot of boxes. It seriously was one of the longest days of my life and there were moments where I thought I might die from heat exhaustion but thankfully we made it and will never have to do that again!
After scrubbing down the apartment and having the carpets cleaned we didn't really have a place to sleep so... (enter brilliant idea #2) we decided to get in the truck and begin our journey. So after working all day, non stop in 100+ degree weather, we got in the moving truck to begin our 12 hr. drive to my parents house in Westpoint, Utah. Keep in mind Lucy has been along for this entire adventure and is very confused by everything but did so well as we were driving. Around 6:00 am, Joel and I both were so exhausted so we decided to just pull over for an hour to sleep. As luck would have it, Lucy decided this would be a great time to wake up...devil dog! We ended up sleeping in shifts so one of us could walk around outside with Lucy. This trip was pure madness but we did survive and surprisingly still even liked each other when we arrived in Spokane 3 days later :) HOORAY!
We are excited to be back in Spokane but will definitely miss all of our family back in Arizona :) Especially these little guys...

 

 

GO San Diego!

 

I feel like we have been non stop going the last few months. We have lived in Arizona for almost a year now and in Manchak fashion have waited until the absolute last moment to actually see some of the sights. This weekend we decided that we needed to go see San Diego before we move back to Spokane in like 3 weeks. So Joel got us each a GO San Diego card; which for those of you who don't know is basically a card that you purchase for a flat rate and then for a specified number of days you can get into about 75 different attractions in San Diego including some pretty cool places. Let me just say we made the most out of our short 3 day trip to SD.
 Joel insisted on me planning down to the minute where we would be each day. So I set to creating our itinerary and on Wednesday night when Joel got home from work we left for San Diego. Thursday morning our adventure really began, and over the next 3 days we visited so many fun places including; the San Diego Zoo, SeaWorld, Knotts Berry Farm, LegoLand, we went kayaking, speed racing, on a harbor cruise tour, and we even made it to the beach. Some of you may be thinking WOW you could spend a day alone at each of those attractions, and you would be right. But we were pretty adamant on getting our money worth and seeing everything we possibly could! We were so tired every night but it was so worth it! We had so much fun and we know that it is little trips like these that we will look back on years from now and remember fondly :)

GoCar Tours was seriously one of the funnest things we did. You get to ride around downtown San Diego in this little mini car and it's a GPS guided tour.So as we drove the little lady came threw the speakers and told us all about the sights as we passed them!

SeaWorld was another favorite. We went there 2 different days actually!

The Wavehouse was pretty awesome. Basically they have created this device that is suppose to simulate a wave so people can experience the thrill and joy of surfing without ever going into the ocean.
 

Joel and I each tried surfing once but decided that body boarding was more fitting for us :)

We really weren't that impressed with LegoLand but decided it would be neat if
 we had kids... so maybe someday we'll go back!!

 

 

One of the most exciting things on the whole trip was
seeing "the beast" again! Joel sold his old Ford truck from
 high school before we moved to AZ so we were both so
surprised to see him again and at In-N-Out of all places!

Salt River Tubing

This weekend some friends invited us to go tubing with them down the Salt River. Growing up in Arizona, Joel could recall several times of tubing down the river with his family. I was excited to join in the fun. The company, Salt River Tubing has a pretty legit set up there. You park, get your tubs and then they shuttle you up the river to the drop off area and then take you back when you are done.
July in Arizona... I am sure you can imagine just how hot it was. We were sweating just waiting to get in the water. We tried all of our tubes together and down the river we went!

Overall the day was fun and quite an adventure. Not exactly what Joel remembered as a child. For one the river was packed with bodies. People everywhere, it was pretty crazy. Then on top of that everyone on the river was drinking, smoking or both! There was just a constant stench of pott and alcohol. We were definitely ready to be done when we finally reached the end. We had a lot of fun though and it was one of our last adventures with our friends Taylor and Bridget, so definitely worth it.

Joel is trying to prevent 'the burn' with that fashionable shirt around his neck,
 but there was no use. We got fried!!

 

Bridget and I... I miss her :(

Congrats Bair's

 I love my little sister, Holly so much and this last month I got to take a month long trip down to visit her and celebrate her wedding day! I arrived in Salt Lake about a week before the wedding and we had a lot of fun playing and getting things ready for the reception. Joel flew down the day before and the festives began!

 

 

On Friday, June 22, 2012, Holly and her husband Tyler Bair were sealed together for time and all eternity in the Jordan River Temple. It was such a beautiful day! There reception was on Saturday at a local park and of course my mom and grandma did an amazing job putting everything together. I am so grateful that I was able to come and celebrate this special day in their lives. Congrats, I love you both!!

 

 

Look who else made it... Elder Woodburn, all the way
 from Peru!



This is one of my absolute favorite pictures... just look at their faces ;)

Hooray!

Congrats to my best friend and sister. I love you so much and cant wait for all the
 amazing years to come for you and Tyler.

Sedona, AZ

We went to the beautiful city of Sedona this past weekend and boy was it fun! We had a great time road tripping up there.... it was a full house too! We went with Joel's sister Jocylin, her husband, their baby, our puppy and their dog! Can you say PARTAY! We seriously had a lot of fun though. We decided that we would all stay in ONE room to keep the cost down and boy was that an adventure. We basically didnt sleep the whole trip. Overall the trip was lots of fun and we got to see lots of beautiful red rock and visit a couple vortex sites which was pretty neat too. Here are a couple pictures of our fun trip.

 

 

Our hike to see the vortex

 

Joel sitting in a HUGE tree that had been curved from the vortex

 

 

And it's a GIRL!

So we finally took the plunge and added an addition to our little family. In May we got our sweet little Chocolate lab puppy Lucy.

This is like the first week
we got her, this is her protesting
going down the stairs!

We just love her so much. She is seriously a hand full. Living on the 3rd floor in Phoenix Arizona in the middle of Summer was not ideal for potty training. On any given day we would take between 20-25 trips outside daily. Take into account the 3 sets of stairs and the 100+ degree weather and you have a very tired mom and dad :) Joel and I have really enjoyed having someone else around to look at though and Joel has done such a good job training her. She knows quite a few tricks but at the same time she is very naughty and definitely "does what she wants." She gets in trouble quite a bit and spends a lot of time in "puppy time out". She must like it though because she just doesn't learn. We sure love her. Here are a couple pictures of our sweet Lucy Lou!

Adorable in every way!!

Caught in my purse yet again...
this literally happens on a daily basis!

She's getting bigger!
 She loves playing in her swimming pool :)

Grand Canyon here we come!

While living in Arizona we have been blessed to make so many new fun friends and this weekend we were lucky enough to go on a road trip to the Grand Canyon with two of them; Bridget and Taylor!

Funny story about how we all became friends so I will share. Taylor and Joel met at work and bonding over their crazy love for sports, naturally they became friends. Well, when we realized that Taylor and his girlfriend lived in the same apartment complex as us we had them over for dinner. At dinner I met Taylor's girlfriend Bridget and found out she was also a teacher, and that we both shared a love for children so as you can see this was a friendship made in heaven. We have really enjoyed their company and the many dinner dates and road trips spent with them :)

Okay enough about that back to our Grand Canyon adventure...
We decided that since we finally had a moment to breathe with school being out that we should take Lucy to see the Grand Canyon... she has been dying to see it for weeks :) So we got up Saturday morning, left at like 6:00 am and drove up to the Grand Canyon National Park. When we arrived we set up our camp site. As much as I love camping (no sarcasm here, surprisingly) we have not yet invested in any camping gear so we had to borrow from Joel's sister. We were reassured several times that this camping gear had just recently been used by them and that everything would work perfectly....

 

Well as this picture clearly illustrates, the tent and air mattress were not made for each other. The tent was just right for Joel and I but when you add a crazed puppy to the mix you end up sleeping with your knees touching your chin. It was great fun as you can see!  

Overall we had a very fun trip, we hiked around the rim of the canyon. Lucy tried to be a trooper but all the walking combined with the heat made for one pooped puppy. At one point Joel had to empty out the backpack and put Lucy in it and carry her. She absolutely hated it and didn't last long, which is why there is not a picture. Here are a couple of pictures from our trip:

Making breakfast on the BBQ

Grand Canyon Sunset was absolutely beautiful!