Note for next time... Get the special waterproof bag that will fit any camera inside to take underwater pictures!
The pictures turned out alright, but they definitely dont capture half of how bright, colorful, and beautiful this coral reef was!!
**Again Sorry Colby for having my finger in front of the camera in every single underwater picture of you!! Guess thats why I like digital better!! :)
If I see one more creature, thats not a dog, i might pull my hair out.
We have had an abundance of SCORPIONS!!
See how little that thing is? maybe an inch and half!!
Every night we have to go around and check for these things. We have found 8 too many inside the house.... and went around with a black light outside and found way too many more!!
And just to top of them being scorpions, they are bark scorpions, the most poisonous kind in North America...
So needless to say it has been hard to fall asleep, our bed is currently on the floor, and for what seems like forever before I can fall asleep, all I can feel is scorpions crawling on me...
Then I come in from taking the dogs out, and there is a snake in my house!
It was just a little ground snake but still... why is it in my house??
He got stuck in packing tape (luckily), and unfortunately for him, died in the struggle of getting unstuck.
So, after that and several other things just not going right yesterday I was done...
On a more positive note, we only found one scorpion in the house last night and an exterminator is coming to do an inspection on the house to see where they are coming in from!
After Colby got home we decided to go get our underwater camera pictures developed and explore a little.
We went to the HUGE Cabelas thats right up the road. They have a really neat wildlife museum and small freshwater aquarium.
While we were walking around the museum looking at the mule deer, there was a part that had a hunter manequin and a tent set up. Colby walked in front of it and the manequin started talking in a really loud voice. Colby jumped back 5 feet!!! We both couldnt stop laughing! The best part was other people were around and saw it happen!! So it was a nice little comic relief for the day!
After Cabelas we headed over to the Westgate center, which is a huge shopping/eating center that attaches to Cardinals Stadium and Jobing arena. They were having a crazy bike night. There were atleast 1000 bikes there! They were having live music and they have a much smaller scale version of the bellagio fountains in the center.
Just a few of the many bikes. They had custom choppers, harleys, and speed bikes.
It turned out to be a pretty good night. We are excited to keep exploring and find new things to do.
THe one problem we have is when we ask people what to do around here, there answer is "Oh there is so much to do around here"......
Examples please???
Anyways..
There is just a little update from the Its Really Hot here front!!
We made it to Phoenix (glendale) after a very long (35 hours) ride in the budget truck!! We did it in two days, which was a little crazy! The trip went pretty smoothly! The dogs were wonderful! They both laid on my lap almost the entire trip! The worst part was the last 4 hours of the trip! It is basically all coming down mountains. So it was dark, we were driving a budget truck, pulling a car, and running off very little sleep after waking up at 430 central time that morning! But I am here to blog about it today! :)
We love our house! We were a little crazy and bought it without ever seeing it in person. We trusted our realtor and he did a great job! Its in a pretty good neighborhood, across from a park, and is huge! It feels much bigger than our last house even though its only 200 more square feet! It has 4 beds/2 baths and a pool that is already getting lots of use!
It has fresh paint and brand new carpet in all the bedrooms! So no painting for us!! It does need some updates but nothing needs to be done right away! It was clean and ready for moving in!!
Here are a few pictures of the pretty much done rooms!
We do have one room that we are not quite sure what to do with. It is technically the Formal living & dining room but we have no need for either of those. Its a long room and is in the front of the house. Any suggestions??
We have all of our bookcases but since we already have two couches we dont really need another one..
So one thing I was worried about was the dogs and the pool. See Kazzi, poor thing, just isnt that smart. He is so sweet and cute, but no brains! I didnt think he could swim! Well he can!!! Its a good thing too because this morning he was running around the pool and slipped in! It scared him to death and I grabbed him out but I couldnt help but laugh!
Krone wont come near the pool.. but Kazzi has decided that he really like relaxing in it as long as someone will join him..
I mean does it get any cuter than that???
Dont worry Krone is adjusting well too! You can usually find him relaxing or chasing kazzi..
Well thats about it for now! It has been the longest week ever but we are adjusting to the changes and enjoying spending time together before work starts next week!
We are so excited to move and so sad to leave! It is still surreal!
A part of me cant wait to pull into our driveway and run into the backyard and jump in the pool! The other part is sad to leave the slow pace of the south where Ive really grown to love everything (except the humidity, mosquitos, and other bugs)! The fireflys have just started to come out and play! I love watching them out the window!
One thing I am worried about is traffic. I know that sounds silly but for the past three years I have had basically a straight freeway shot to work with two stop lights and open road! It has been soo nice! I now get nervous around traffic, even though I learned how to drive in Las Vegas and have driven in some of the worst traffic there! Oh well! I will just have to get used to it!
My last day of work was last thursday and since then I have been so busy packing, painting, running errands and trying to get everything organized and figured out!
So only 6 days now until we head off to Phoenix, well actually Glendale since that is where we will be living!
We were lucky enough to go on our cruise before all the chaos of moving sets in! It was definitely a nice break after a very long and stressful April!
So we embarked on a 7 day cruise out of Tampa and went to Cozumel, Belize, Roatan (Honduras) and Grand Cayman! It was pretty much amazing!
After getting lost, twice, in the middle of the night somewhere in South Carolina ( I am not a fan of the roads in this state by the way), we made it to Tampa by mid morning and heading onto the ship.
By the time we got on the boat we just wanted to take a nap. So we did! This was the first of many!
The first day on the boat was fun we played some games and had a great table at dinner and made some new friends! The food was delicious, as expected!
The next day we were in Cozumel. We hadnt planned an excursion and had decided to just rent a scooter like last time and drive around stopping at beaches and ending at the Mayan ruins of San Gervasio. So we started out and went to a beach spent a couple hours and headed towards the Reggae bar on the tip of the island to eat lunch. We had eaten here last time and wanted to make another stop in!
After we left the Reggae Hut we started the ride to San Gervasio. FOr most of the ride you are right on the coast but then the road turns and goes through the middle of the island where its kind of a wasteland. There is a random house and cow but thats about it until you get back into Cozumel. So We finally get to The entrance for San Gervasio and there is another 10 minute drive to the ruins. The road is a long, dirt path, with lots of pot holes, and also a surprise 90 turn. When I say surprise I mean there are several signs that state in english and spanish, dangerous curve, slow down to 20 km.....
this is what happened there...
Ya so we totally crashed!! Not sure exactly what happened but we went to fast around the corner and the scooter hit a rock, I flew off the scooter stopped and fell over and 4 Jeeps full of people were there to witness it! It was pretty embarrassing!! They did give us free drinks and cleaned up my wounds though so that was nice of them! Other than the purple stuff didnt come off all week!!
So we still headed to the ruins and checked them out. They were cool but not as cool as the ones we saw the next day in Belize.
Here is a video of us cruising on the highway in Cozumel! It is so beautiful there! Just turn down the volume for this one!
The next day was spent in Belize! WOw, what wonderful people! Their way of life is so much different than ours and I know that they just look at americans as wasteful! Which we of course are! This is definitely a third world country. We took a bus tour of the city and then to the mayan ruins. We passed many houses (shacks) on stilts, side street restaurant tents, and tons of little kids in their school uniforms! We did not pass one single fast food restuarant (they had a subway but it closed because it was too expensive) and gas here was close to $6 a gallon, probably more now!
The ruins here were AMAZING! When I picture mayan ruins in my head, this is what I pictured!
You can tell how hot and humid it was by the nasty back sweat on Colby! :)
So after we walked around and heard stories of why the world is going to end 12/12 we went to the shops off the side of the road and bargained for a gorgeous hand carved wood bowl! Originally $150 sold for $40!
Then we went to find a magnet (we collect them) and the lady who sold one to us was telling us that she sees jaguars roaming across the road on her way home! Crazy!!
On the way back we toured more of the city and saw some of the parts that were destroyed by a hurricane this past year.
We also learned about cashews. Did you know that the cashews have a fruit attached? The juice is like bleach! ALmonds also come from a fruit which we learned in Roatan the next day!
All in all we really enjoyed Belize. We wish we could have gone out to the islands and seen more but maybe next time!
Day 5 - Roatan Honduras
By far our most favorite stop of the trip! We went to a private resort on a little island that had its own lagoon and beach! We were greeted by monkeys when we got off of the bus! They were adorable and right in your face!
We went snorkeling on the reef and it was so beautiful! The colors of the fish and coral were so bright! We saw a ton of fish and a pretty large nurse shark that Colby and I spotted! We were in the back of the group doing our own thing and I look down and swam back up really quick and started yelling shark!!! Colby started laughing and and the whole group came over to check it out! Since they are non threatening sharks! All of the snorkeling pictures are on an underwater camera that still needs to be developed!
After the snorkeling we kayaked in the lagoon, saw a jelly fish, and met some pretty nice people!
Day 6 - Grand Cayman
We weren't too impressed with GC the last cruise we took. We had a much better experience this time! We waited until we got to shore to choose an excursion and ended up going snorkeling and to sting ray city! Basically you go to this sand bar and a hundred sting rays stay there and swim all around you! It was kind of scary! But really exciting! The craziest thing is you would just be standing there and all the sudden this slimy thing would be going across your leg! You look down and its a HUGE ray! We held giant star fish and snorkeled here too but it wasnt anything in comparison to the day before!
Still can't get over the bright blue clear water!!
We were wiped out afterwards and headed straigt back to the boat to take a nap!
Ever night we had a great time kareoking, eating great food, trying to avoid crazy girl, and checking out the shows! Everyone we met was so much fun!
I am so glad that we were able to take this vacation! It was a life saver!
Now we are almost all packed up and leaving in exactly one week to Phoenix!!
p.s. So if you read all that then you are awesome!
