Remember that Juneathon stuff?

Try hard to remember back to June.
Lots of running, biking, working out. 100+ degree days. Crazy me running outside. Remember? Well the fun doesn't end there. There is a challenge for January!

Janathon

Why not start the year off with being active? You know I'm down for this! As before, I will probably not be blogging every single day. But I'll post the highlights and weekly updates. It does help that I'm running the P.F. Changs Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon this month. Woot, woot! My first ever half marathon. Actually, my first ever race longer than a 10k. I'm excited!

Anyone else want to join in the Run-Fun that is Janathon? 

You know you want to join the fun!

I use RunKeeper as an app on my phone for tracking my workouts/runs. I also double check that with Google maps and make sure to note the time I start. I've been known to have GPS tracking issues and a random 52 mile run is logged for me. Ambitious but not correct!

Anyone have any cool apps they use? GPS wrist watch recommendations? I need one, just don't have the cash for one.

Happy Active-ness Month!

Summa Time & New Hair

Summer has officially started. Well I guess not "officially" but here in Phoenix, it has warmed up enough to say it has. However, we've just barely hit the 100 degree mark, and our warmest day so far was June 5th with a high of 105. This time last year we were well into the 100's consistently day after day and on track to hit double digits above 100 toward the later part of June. So far, we've only had a handful of days actually at or just over 100. Take it while you can, because once it gets to 110+ it won't stop. So it has been nice, but odd. 

Satellite images of two large fires burning in Arizona; Smoke now spreading into mid-west states

 Also with our "warm" up, but not so warm start to summer has been the dryness. Yes, we know Arizona is a desert, but consistent days of 2-3% humidity? This has only aided in the growth and devastation of two of the large fires burning in Arizona. The Wallow fire, as shown in the above satellite image, is now grown to 389,000 acres and burning with no end in sight. It is just massive and very sad. So many people evacuated. The smoke plumes reached parts of Colorado, Wyoming and beyond. It has become the #1 fire priority in the nation, growing by the hour.

Smoke has been seen as far east as Iowa, Wyoming, Colorado. Forced planes to divert. Ash has fallen over New Mexico.

Not a great start to summer in that sense, but just a heads up as to how dry it is here in Arizona. 

 Since summer is fast approaching, so is our Monsoon Season here in the desert. I can't wait and hope we get some great storms this year! This week has been Monsoon Awareness week as we look for all of the weather hazards that will become evident this summer. 

Now on to the personal life a bit...

That's right, I've chopped my hair again. Thought it was getting a little long and wanted to change it up a little. Do something fun. Well it sure is a lot shorter now! A little shorter than I really wanted, but its grown on me and I like it. Plus, at this rate, it will be nice and long by Christmas.

The before hair picture

...And the after! Way short!

 Shorter, but I like it so far. Can't put it up in a pony tail but its so nice to dry and takes almost ZERO time to get ready in the morning (or whenever time of day I'm working!).

A year in photos

While I began this post nearly 3 days before the end of the year, work and loading all these pictures has taken its time and now we are almost a whole week into the new year. Wow, where did this whole year go? Time sure has flown by. This year definitely had it's work cut out for it, and a fine job I might say that it did. Sounds like I'm giving a report card to someone, right?! {Disclaimer: you may experience a lot of pictures ahead. You were warned.}

This year had many milestones and events that took place and that took Josh and I to a new place in our lives. We spent most of our whole first year of marriage in a new place with new people and new things and learned a lot! To start this year off, a lot happened in just the first two months! Even though our wedding was last September, our first anniversary was this September and it was a big milestone.

In the first two months of this year (Jan & Feb) I graduated (actually in Dec '09), got a job transfer/offer and had to move out of state for this. Woah, woah, woah, back the horse up. Out of state?! Josh and I both grew up in Colorado and have lived there our whole lives, college included. While we've visited other states, never have we lived anywhere else. And especially in a place where we knew NO ONE. What a better test of a newly wed couple for their 1st year of marriage then to pick them up and smack them down in a whole different state away from all of their friends and family?! It was and still has been quite the test. I must say we've had our tough times and our great times, and we've gotten through all of those together. It really strengthened our relationship with each other knowing that we only had each other and we had to rely solely on each other. We've dated and been together for 5 years and just 1 year of marriage. I'm so glad we were able to experience this together. Don't get me wrong, we both miss our families & friends back in CO INCREDIBLY, but we've started to call Arizona home.

Here are some photos from the year, some are out of order, but you get the idea.

Breakfast the morning before we left with some family

Some of our dear friends, who now have those beautiful baby boys, the day before we left

Last stop as we left Colorado

We visited my brother in Oceanside, CA for Easter in April

A trip to the Botanical Gardens in April

A trip to the Botanical Gardens in April

A trip to the butterfly pavillion in April

A trip to the Botanical Gardens in April

We moved in March

We moved in March

I made homemade ravioli's, one of my cooking adventures, May



Helped my brother move from California to Colorado in June, we're in Oceanside here



Our first canyoneering trip in Arizona in June

Yes, I jumped off that (this isn't me though) in Arizona in June

Our first canyoneering trip in Arizona in June

Our first canyoneering trip in Arizona in June

The boys camping  in Colorado in June

The "titanic" boat incident, camping in Colorado in June

Visiting family in Colorado in June

Visiting family in Colorado in June

Visiting family in Colorado in June



Camping trip in Colorado in June



Josh being goofy :)

Lucy turns 1 year old in July

Steph & Erin get hitched in August

Along those same lines of moving to another state, how about the weather?! That is what I do for a living, forecast the weather. I absolutely love it and wouldn't change it for the world! Though, one of the things I do love about weather is the ability it has to change each and every day. You never know what the next day will bring. However, in Arizona most of the time the weather is exactly the same. No change. Who would want to forecast "Hot today, Hotter tomorrow"? I suppose the weather geek in me was excited to experience 114 degrees, but I'll be honest, it was brutal. And Josh works outside doing landscaping and irrigation so he felt it worse than I did, since I sit in a nice office. He sure has put his brain to work learning all the new plants and vegetation and the way things work down in the desert. Our condo now has multiple kinds of plants & cactus all over the place! Nonetheless, we survived our first summer in the desert!



Some other exciting things that happened this year for us: we got a couch! Yeah, yeah, laugh it out. We thought it was kinda funny too. We didn't have much to sit on in our living area. When we first moved we went out and got 2 chairs that recline a bit but didn't need much else just being the two of us.

We also went on our first real hiking/canyoning trip in June with some friends we met here in Phoenix. We went cliff jumping and hiking through a canyon up near Payson, AZ. What a blast!

For our first year anniversary we went up near Prescott, AZ and hiked, camped and went kayaking on a lake. So nice to explore parts of Arizona. Some of these places make it feel a bit more like Colorado in the higher terrain.

We have hiked South Mountain many times which is in Tempe, AZ right next to where we live. This is a huge mountain park and we haven't been able to explore it all but it is a great little hike to get your heart pumping.

Almost forgot, cooking! For some reason I got the cooking bug shortly after we moved. I think it was party due to the fact I didn't have anything else to do in my free time. I'd just graduated from college in December of last year and the lack of having to do homework and spend all my time at school had caught up with me. Plus, I didn't have anyone I knew to hang out with here besides Josh. I didn't have my Stephy to hang out with. So I began taking up cooking. I love cooking! I've always loved to cook, but over the course of this year I have really taken off with it. I love reading magazines with recipes, cookbooks, making my own recipes up and the list of daily blogs I read for cooking ideas and meals (and for pure enjoyment!) is quite long. I hope that I've inspired some others to go out and cook. It's really not that hard and a lot of meals can be made quick. You'd be amazed how quick I throw stuff together when I get home from work. Though my dishes may not be "Iron Chef" appearance approved, they taste pretty darn good!

We've also been fortunate to have 2 visits each from both sets of parents, we must be missed! On one of the visits this little bugger (picture above) came along, our nephew Kayden. His first real plane ride. We had a great weekend and loved having our families come out to visit us. The Dewey Hotel is open and rent is free, so plan your trip now! {However, you can't stay forever!}

Well as this post is well overdue and pretty long, kudos if you're still reading, I suppose I better head out.

We're looking forward to another great year full of adventures and so many wonderful things to come. See you very soon!