Camping Trip!

Colby & I decided to take a quick camping trip! Colby took work off on Tuesday and we headed up Monday afternoon to a place called Crown Point, about a 3 hour drive. The last 30+ miles are on dirt roads climbing up a mountain to 6500+ feet! It was a little crazy and Im glad that we drove it during the day and not the night!
There was plenty of wildlife on the drive up...

There were cows just roaming the dirt roads on the way up! They definitely caught us off guard a couple of times! 

But other than some birds, and an occasional squirrel we were the only ones at or around our campsite!

Before we set up camp Colby decided to cast out a couple of times and try out his fishing pants..

You might notice that its seems that Colby has changed his allegiance to Carolina to the Sundevils.. no worries. Kazzi just ate his favorite Carolina hat (bad dog) we found the same exact hat at marshalls, the only difference, it was Sundevils instead of Tarheels!

We were only at the lake maybe a total of 10 minutes because we could hear the thunder and wanted to set up our tent before the storm came in. We were able to get set up and start a fire just in time for it to start pouring down rain! Luckily there was a little shelter for us to sit in on our campsite!

After the rain was over we had to restart our fire. A couple wet branches and lots of gasoline later we had a nice fire to cook our delicious tin foil dinners in, and of course roast marshmallows!
We headed to bed and had planned to go hiking in the morning, but it was raining again and we decided to just start heading back! It of course decided to stop raining so we stopped at a couple places a long the way to tkae pictures and walk/climb around!

 Colby's Truck

 There was a wildfire a couple years ago that destroyed most of the forest. Alot of the trees ended up looking like this. Pretty cool!

Mountains for miles and miles! You can see one of the roads in this pictures, looks like the one that we had to take to get up there!!

We had a great time and cant wait to go camping again! The weather was a perfect 75 degrees and not to cold at night!!

The weather is finally becoming bearable here! It was 90* today! So much better than 110+!!

Not much going on here!

Well we have been here over a month now and are pretty much settled into the house! After a very long delay, we have a bedroom suite being delivered on Saturday and I seriously can't wait.
We have been sleeping on the floor (on a mattress of course) since we have moved in and with our nice friends the scorpions rapant around here...well Im sure you can see why I am excited! Yes I will still check underneath the covers and my pillow every night but atleast I wont be on the floor!!

Colby has discovered that there is a serious lack of home improvement projects for him to do and isnt quite sure what to do with all of his spare time! Dont worry, Im working on finding some for him! :) Work is going great for him and he has discovered a new talent of grilling. He has been creating some delicious dinners for us the past couple of weeks!

We have been having lots of "monsoons" they arent called thunderstorms around here and with the crazy wind and dust clouds I guess I can understand why! A couple weeks a go we had a crazy huge dust cloud called a haboob blanket the entire PHX valley (which is massive by the way) It was I think 70 miles wide and tall enough to cover the skyscrapers! Tonight we had another one! These are supposedly a very rare occurence so I guess we should be considered lucky to have witnessed two of them.. I went out to get pictures of this one.

Isnt that crazy??
This is the grand canal that runs across the street from us. It waters all of the crops throughout the west valley. I believe we also have it to thank for the many critters we have found by the house!

Speaking of animals...

I found this baby lizard the other day, I have never seen one so small!! Isnt it cute! I wanted to keep him but decided to let him go so he might actually have a chance to live!

I have been busy trying to keep up with house chores and working. I am currently temping at Conair (hairdryers/straigheners) for the week and working from home doing back end processing for the insurance company my mom works for. So I am staying pretty busy!

The dogs are starting to like it out here, as long as I take them across the street to the park (aka GRASS). Krone is protesting the rocks in the backyard and will only go if I take him across the street, I honestly dont blame him. Kazzi of course could care less...

We are trying to go out and explore the area, but its hard to be motivated to go outside when its 110....
I cant wait for the fall when we can enjoy the weather! We did go out one evening so I could take some pictures of the flower fields and saguaros..

Anyways, now you are up to date and informed of our lives!

I'm a winner...

SO I love checking out other blogs and once in a while I come across a giveaway! If it's for something good I will enter and I my hard efforts have now rewarded me! Twice!
The first giveaway I won was for a free print from a fabulous local (Raleigh) photographer, Julia Wade .  She had done a 52 week project and I chose a picture from one of the weeks and she sent me a print! Colby and I chose a boat on a dock and put the 8X 10 in our downstairs bathroom. Looking back I should have gotten a bigger print but hindsight is always 20/20!
Then yesterday much to my surprise I won a giveaway yesterday on one of my favorite cooking blogs Just Cook Already!  They were hosting a giveaway from JO TOTES  Fabulous camera bag store for a free camera bag of MY choice!!! I am so excited I can hardly stand it! I have been wanting a fancy camera bag for quite a while but I wasnt ready to shell out the $$ for it!  Now I dont have to!!

The bag I chose! I cant wait until it gets here!!!
Speaking of giveaways, Check out the giveaway on my Photoblog HERE !!!!

Tis the season...

...to be grateful! I have just been feeling so incredibly blessed lately. There isn't one particular reason and I am not going to post 1 reason I am grateful a day (we all know how that will turn out! :)  )

I love my husband!
I love my family!
I love the gospel!
I love my life!

I posted them on facebook but just in case you havent seen how cute Colby and I are together.. :)

 Isnt he gorgeous!

look a post with no pictures of the pups!

Next post I will put pictures up of the master bath and the re-decorated living room and office!! yay! It's amazing what a little paint can do!

busy busy!

Colby has been busy!

He finished our floors! All of them! The only floor related item left to do is to put the quarter round molding around the edges! They are gorgeous!!

He finished our tile! He tiled both the upstairs bathrooms and the downstairs laundry room! The dogs were "helping" me with the laundry...

We got new knobs for all of our cabinets! It makes a world of difference but it still doesnt make our "pinkish" cabinets look any better! :) I can't wait until we paint those suckers!

and because he is cute!

I get to teach the relief society lesson tomorrow. That is my new calling and it is my first official week teaching and I am a little nervous. It was a talk from the Ensign which means I had to make up my own questions! Those lesson manuals are good for something! :)

In other news, My photography business has really been picking up! and I am so excited about it!! I have tried to revamp my photo blog page to make it look more professional! And I learned how to make my own logo using photoshop! Woohoo! I am hoping that it keeps getting busier! My goal is one photo session a week!

I won!

Day 26-A couple of weeks a go I won a contest that I entered on a blog! It was for photographer that was giving away a print of a few select pictures. Colby and I had a hard time deciding which picture to choose but eventually chose this one.

 It is called East Coast Pier. We love it and it goes perfectly in our half bath downstairs!

Thank You Julia Wade!!

Spring

I took these 2 weeks ago! I am so excited that spring is here! The weather has been beautiful and I can't get enough of those carolina blue skies!

*These are straight out of camera, no editing at all!