Dobbins Point

Tyler  & Claire had mentioned a cool spot that you could see the whole valley from called Dobbins point so we decided to check it out this past Saturday! it was pretty cool.
After you drive 5 miles or so up a windy mountain road you end up at the top where you can see all of the East and West valleys. I wish that it would have been a little clearer out and not so smoggy but it was still gorgeous and cool to see none the less! We were able to make it up just in time for the sunset!

A storm was rolling in! The storms here are awesome because of all the lighting! Its one of the only "free" forms of entertainment that we have found that AZ has to offer!! :)

Tubing

This past weekend we went on another adventure! Its so hard to want to do anything outside here because it is so hot outside, so it seems like you have to drive a couple hours to somewhere cooler or sweat it out! But good news! It is supposed to be in the 90s/70's starting next week! We CANT wait!!!
We found a happy medium and drove about an hour to the Salt River to go tubing. It was still 110 outside but the water was cool enough that you didnt realize how hot it was!
The sucky part of doing things with water is that I cant bring my camera! So all the pics are from other websites.

It was so pretty, the river goes through a national forest with mountains surround you. We were also probably some of the only ones who werent intoxicated. We floated down the river for about 4 hours and saw about a dozen wild horses and even a bald eagle (my first one!)

 just imagine Colby Tyler Claire and Me in this picture

 The wild mustangs

some of the views, probably in the spring or winter

So we decided to invest in some inflatable kayaks! They should be here tomorrow and we cant wait for more adventures out on the lakes/rivers!

What have we been up to?

**Sorry for crappy camera pics**
Well August has really flown by! We started it off by heading up to Vegas and hanging out with my family! We enjoyed going shooting out on the dry lake bed and going cosmic bowling.. among other things! Im glad that we are so close to them now!

I was able to stay for the week and hang out with friends that I haven seen in a couple of years! It was so great to catch up and see everyones babies/toddlers!! For some reason we didnt take any pictures together though!
Colby has been attempting to fish and finally was caught some catfish at a local pond. It wasnt what he wanted but it was better than not catching anything at all!!

I have been working from home since June and have been keeping busy! I usually have two stalkers surrounding my desk at any given time.

We've been enjoying our pool and trying to go out and explore! We went to a pretty cool car museum a couple of weekends ago and this past weekend we went up to Sedona with the Coltons to explore. We went to Sliding rock state park where we froze our butts off in the ice cold water! We did some cliff jumping (not claire), I surprised myself and jumped off without much hesitation, but was shocked by how cold the water was. We hadnt tested it out before hand! Colby & Tyler braved the 40 foot jump, but once off the 25 was good enough for me!  We slid down the creek and went "hiking" upstream. It is absolutely gorgeous up there!

the cliffs we were jumping from.

The rock slide

We are planning on going camping sometime in the next couple weeks and cant wait to explore more of the AZ mountains and lakes! Colby cant wait to fish, I cant wait to take pictures.. :)

Well thats a quick little update! I cant get my SD drive to work or else I would post some other pictures, but I will just save them for next time!

Sleeping on the Floor, No More!

I am happy to announce that we are no longer sleeping on the floor! You can all stop worrying about the scorpions attacking us in our sleep, I know it was keeping you up at night!

We ordered a bedroom suite back at the end of may so that it would arrive here by the middle/end of June. We kept getting the run around from the company and after over 6 weeks of not receiving our order we had to cancel... We were back to step one! Luckily we found a great discount furniture store here in Glendale and were able to get a fantastic deal on an even better set!

We still need to do some decorating but Im just happy to not be sleeping on the floor and living out of suit cases!!

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!

Fourth of July Fun!

My family was able to come down for a couple days and celebrate 4th of July! Since they have to leave on the actual fourth, I tried to find stuff to do for Sunday night.
We drove out to Lake Pleasant, about a45 minute drive, to watch the fireworks there! This was Colby & I's first time out there but I know we will definitely be back! It was gorgeous! They had some beaches, nice grass, and lots of boats and people to watch!
When we got there it was really windy and looked like a storm was coming. We were worried they were going to cancel the fireworks but around 730 the winds calmed down and the temperature dropped to the low 90s! It was so nice out! Around 8 we noticed storm clouds surrounding us and lighting in the distance! The lightning show was just as cool as the fireworks! Anyways, it started to sprinkle, then it would stop. So they started the fireworks about 30 minutes early! It was so cool to see the fireworks with the lightning behind it! At the very end of the fireworks show it started pouring down rain! We attempted to run back to the truck like everyone else, but were drenched by the time we got there!
Never thought I would have to worry about rain on the fourth of july here!!
Back in Las Vegas they had flash flooding, high winds and power outages so I guess we lucked out here!

Here are a couple pictures from our adventure!!

Cruise Continued-Underwater Camera

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!! :)

Colby Kissing a sting ray

Me not sure what to do with the stingray!

Crazy jellyfish in the lagoon in Roatan.

The nurse shark Colby & I spotted in Roatan.

School of Fish