I Love Littles

I love being an aunt. Love it!

It helps that I have the best nephews that anyone could ask for.  I have four nephews, and a fifth one on the way!  I got to hang out with three of them all day on Tuesday...the day before I had to head back to Arizona.  My sister Nikki was the only one that knew I was coming to visit so we had this day planned for a while, and the boys had no idea that I was coming!  I got to do another little surprise to them as well, and it was the best!  They always make me feel so loved, and they did just that as they all ran to me and gave me great big hugs!  It's amazing what happiness little kiddos can bring into your life.

I sure do love them.

We spent most of the day at Cherry Hill Resort.  We played nonstop and had the best time.  I was exhausted by the time we went back to Nikki's...those boys sure know how to have a good time.  I stayed until Mason had practice later.  He's my little soccer buddy, and I promised him all day that I would come and watch his practice.  He is such a little stud.  I whipped out my camera and took a ton of pictures because the lighting was awesome...so be prepared for all the pictures!  It's hard not to take pictures of them because they are both so darn cute!

Thanks for letting me play with your boys all day Nikki, and of course, hang out with you!  I had so much fun!  Love you guys!

I had so much fun in Utah.  Thanks to everyone who came to visit me and who let me come visit them! 

I had to head home the next morning to get home to my sweet husband of mine.  I also had a few appointments I had to get to before I start my job.  Although, I loved every second of being in Utah, I think both Ollie and I were excited to get home and be with Brad.  It just isn't the same without him around.  The drive felt so long, but we finally made it back!

Ollie was so excited to see Brad when we got home.  I have never seen him act like he did before.  It had me and Brad laughing so much!  I'm so grateful for that little bugger.

Enjoyin' the nice Arizona sun!

Lava Hot Springs 2014

We go camping at Lava Hot Springs every year in July to celebrate the many, many birthdays that my family has.  We have gone there every year since before I can even remember.  It worked out perfect that I could come home just in time for it.  My parents were both so excited that I could come!  I was originally planning on surprising everyone when I got there as well, but my mom couldn't handle her excitement and had to tell everyone that I was in Utah haha!  It was fun to see everyone, and we all had a blast.

Like always, we floated the river all day on Saturday.  My dad and I took Ollie and his poodle, Bella, down to the river as well and they had so much fun!  They were constantly running in and out of the water and swimming.  We didn't have very many battle wounds from the river either which might be a new record for us!  On Sunday we played at the pool all day.  We spent lots of time watching Josh and Braxton do crazy tricks off the top platform and we did our annual "who can go the furthest off the steep slide" contest.  My uncle Willy won this year by going all the way off the edge!

We did a lot of fun things, but I was happy just to be with my family.  It was also nice to be in a little bit cooler weather.  It was in the mid-90's the whole time, and that felt amazing to Ollie and I.  We did miss Brad lots, though!

Surprise!

I have never been very good at hiding secrets or keeping a surprise...a surprise.  I get really excited when I learn about a surprise (as long as I'm not the one being surprised), and I can't help but say something to someone!

When I found out about my job my sweet husband insisted that I make a quick trip to Utah since my start date wasn't for a few weeks.  I had the option of flying on Allegiant (which is usually really cheap), but because of a spur-of-the-moment decision the price wasn't great.  The biggest reason I decided not to fly, though, was because I wanted to bring my Ollie-man with me.  So without telling a single soul (except my sister, Nikki, because I just had to tell someone) me and Ollie started our long drive back to Utah.  I was most excited about surprising my parents since I knew for a fact that they had absolutely no idea that I was coming.

Surprising Dad

Me and my parents have this routine where I call them almost every single night while I am sitting at the dog park with Ollie (yes, I take my dog there...don't judge...that is the only time he can go outside without dying of heat).  It's usually around 8:00 in AZ and 9:00 in UT, and that happened to be the time I was rollin' into Cache Valley...which by the way was B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L coming back to.  So as I turned onto Hollow Road I called my dad (my momma was working), and he was definitely thinking that I was at the dog park.  He told me he would call me back because he was outside spraying off the trailer before it got too dark.  It was perfect.  I pulled into the drive way, and I saw him poke his head around the corner where he was working on the trailer.  He had a confused look on his face (I'm assuming because I was just talking to him in AZ, or so he thought, and he was thinking there was no way that could be my car sitting in his driveway).  Before I got out of the car I let Ollie out to go greet him.  A smile instantly came on his face, and after surviving the excitement of my massive dog, he hobbled quickly toward me (he is recovering from an achilles tendon repair...ouchy) and gave me that big hug that I had missed so much.  Although I had only been gone for two months, it felt like much longer.  It was so fun surprising him.  We hung out for a couple hours before I headed to surprise my momma.

Surprising Momma

If any of you know my mom, you know that she has a really hard time when either of her kiddos leave.  She works at the ER at Logan Regional and is one of the best nurses there, and I am not just saying that because she's my mom.  She's pretty amazing!  I showed up at about 11:00, and walked in through the back hoping that she wouldn't be too busy.  She wasn't out at the nurses station so I asked a few people to have her come out when she had a minute.  She was currently taking care of a patient, so I waited for a few minutes before she came walking out of the room looking around for "some girl that is looking for her" (I told them not to tell her that it was me).  The second she saw me she was covered in tears with her hands covering her face.  Like I said earlier...I realize I was only gone for two months, but with the relationship I have with my parents, that is really long.  She gave me a big huge hug and wouldn't let me go.  I couldn't help but cry a little bit as well.  Our reunion was awesome.  She was so happy and confused all at once.  She obviously had no idea whatsoever.

It was a good feeling to completely surprise them.  I think I was more excited to surprise them then I was just to be in Utah in general.  The next day my parents took me out to Hyrum Dam on their new boat that they just bought.  It was Ollie's first time on a boat, and he was a little nervous at first, but I think he ended up loving it.  It was a perfect day to start off my week in Utah.

More to come from Utah!

America!

Our Fourth of July was different than any other one that we've had.  We are used to knowing exactly what's going on and knowing about all the "good spots" to hang out and watch the fireworks.  Since we don't know a whole lot of people yet, we just had to google something that was going on near us.  

We ended up going to the Firework Fest at Gateway, which was just 15 minutes from our house, AND I was pretty sure dogs were allowed...even better (since I can hardly go anywhere without Ollie coming along).  We parked and walked into this really nice mall-like, entertainment place.  There was a ton of people, two live bands, a splash pad (almost a must here in AZ), and food.  We were a little nervous about having Ollie because of so many people, but he did awesome!  He is usually a little shy when it comes to kids, but we had a constant amount of little hands reaching to pet him.  He got to the point that he would sniff their little faces and lick their hands.  Everyone loved him, and I was a pretty proud momma! :)

We walked around, enjoyed some music, sweat like crazy (oh yes, we experience our first "haboob" followed by a crazy thunderstorm the night before, so it was soooo humid...bleh...I hate humidity...hence why we came to AZ, but the storm was awesome!), let children flock to our pup, and then we got some food and found a place to sit down.

It was so crowded inside, and the liiiiitle bit of grass that was available was already covered in sweaty bodies practically shoulder to shoulder.  There is no way we would have fit, especially with our not-so-puppy-sized-puppy.  So we thought we would follow the rest of the crowd and sit down in the rocks that were in the parking lot (we're definitely not in Utah anymore).  We were amazed by how many people were "enjoying" the parking lot.  Actually that's probably where most of the people were.  So we joined, why not?  It wasn't horrible, but as we sat there, covered in our own sweat, unable to cool down, and sitting on rocks...we agreed that we missed our endless amount of grass, snuggled up, chilled Fourth of July nights in Utah.

No, I am not bagging on Arizona.  I am just complaining about the summer heat...just like everyone else does here.  I now understand why the Phoenix population decreases during the summer.  (We moved at the most perfect time, wouldn't you say?)  Brad and I are really good about making any situation really great.  So that's what we did!

We had a blast!

We laughed all night, felt proud about our cool dog, and about died of laughter the way that Ollie spazzed out during the fireworks.  We kinda knew he wouldn't love them, but he was so funny to watch.  Brad was able to hold him down, and within a few minutes he was enjoying them just as much as we were!  

Watching the fireworks!

We had a great Fourth of July.  We definitely missed being with our families, but we were happy to at least have each other.  We feel proud to be living in such an amazing country!  

Happy Birthday America!

I Got A Job!

We've lived here in AZ for 6 weeks now, and I quit my job in Utah about 3 weeks before we left...so I've been unemployed for pretty much 9 weeks and I was going crazy!!  I do not understand how people can just be okay with having nothing to be to everyday.  (Yes, I know it will be MUCH different when I have a child, which I cannot wait for, but in terms of jobs...you know what I mean).  It was nice for the first week or two that I was here because I could just relax by the pool and hang out with my pup all day, but even all that gets boring.  I had a really hard time relaxing because I wasn't working toward anything.  I felt guilty when Brad would leave early in the morning and get home later that day from school and he would be exhausted, and I would have all this energy and want to do something because I had just done nothing all day!  

I mean, I didn't really do nothing.

  I searched for jobs constantly, walked Ollie a bajillion times (but then it started getting too hot that we would both die each time we walked for maybe 5 minutes), went grocery shopping, learned how to cook decently (finally), went to the pool, went to our gym, caught up on my TV shows and social media, researched why vaccinations are good (those crazy anti-vax people), called people from home,  watched the World Cup (okay let's be honest, I could do that all day and never be bored), did laundry, and cleaned the house over and over. 

So...yeah...I wasn't doing nothing, but really, I wasn't doing anything.

By the time I got my first interview ((June 20)) I had probably applied for at least 236 jobs.  I was getting so discouraged.  I kept reading all these stats on how difficult it is for a new grad RN to get a job in Phoenix (greeeaat!).  I thought I was never going to find a job.  I had tried to stay really positive, but one day I finally lost it when Brad came home, and I just went nuts on being really negative.  That night as we knelt in prayer, Brad asked, with great sincerity, that I would find a job.  The power of prayer is amazing.  Until Brad and I came to AZ, we were horrible at saying our prayers each night, but we haven't missed a night since we got here, and I can already feel a difference in how our days go.  What a blessing it is!  The next day I got called for an interview!  I said a million little prayers of thanks!  I nailed it (I thought so at least), and I was offered a second interview for the following week!  Woohoo!  I was stoked!  Then, before my second interview for that job I was called for an interview for a different job! Ahhhh!! I was so excited!

Long story short...I really wanted the second one more, but was very nervous that I wouldn't find out until after I was potentially offered the first one (are you confused yet?  Sorry if you are).  Prayers, prayers, prayers.  All the timing worked out perfectly, and I honestly don't know how.  I was offered the job that I wanted, and was able to tell the first company that I was no longer interested!

I HAD A JOB!!

I got the call ((July 2)) and as soon as the lady told me that I was offered the job I started jumping up and down and tried my best to act professional (I tried really hard), and she just giggled at my excitement.  As soon as I got off the phone, I called Brad (while I was jumping up and down and running around our house) and we both celebrated!  He was on his way home so as soon as he got here I told him everything!  He is my number one supporter!  I love him!

I called my parents and texted a few people that had been dying to know.  Then, I sat down with the biggest grin on my face (a little out of breath to be honest), and couldn't help but feel overwhelmed with gratitude.  I never thought in a million years that my first RN job would be in Trauma/Surgical ICU.  How exciting (and terrifying) is that?  Brad kept telling me that I just had to be patient, because a perfect job was waiting for me, and he was 100% right.

I was enjoying my own little moment while Brad was sitting down studying.  I walked over to him and said, "Hey, I need you to take a picture of me so that I can tell everyone that I got a job!"  I'm a big picture freak, and I feel like I can't announce anything without a picture attached to it (even if the picture has nothing to do with the announcement), so I thought maybe Brad taking it will be less...odd...than if I did a "selfie".  He just smiled at me and said, "Okay".  I stood awkwardly in the kitchen while he held up my phone to snap a picture.  Okay that was really awkward.  So I grabbed Ollie, and said that he needed to be in it with me so I didn't look so weird.

So...this was the result.   

Hooray!  It was official now that all the people who, at least act like they care about my life, now know!

Perfect!

I sat down as my phone rang with encouragement and congratulations.  I was even more overwhelmed with gratitude, and had to have a few personal words with my Savior.  He is the reason for all of this to have fallen into place the way that it did.  I feel so blessed to have this opportunity.

Now that is has been a few days, I am really starting to feel the nerves.  I don't start until July 28th, but I have already been looking into all the things that I might need to know working in the Trauma/Surgical ICU.  Crap, I need to know everything!  Yes, nerves are definitely setting in!  Any thoughts, words of advice, ANYTHING would be awesome! 

Either way, I know it's going to be really hard at first, but over all I will always feel grateful to have a job and be able to provide for my sweet little family right now.  I can't tell you enough how powerful prayer is.  I know my Heavenly Father loves me, and I love him too! 

Thanks for the love and support, everyone!

Hiking In Sedona

Brad and I were hanging out at our house Saturday ((06-28-14)) morning, and I think that both of us were itchin' to get out and do something.  Brad spends most of his time at home, but he is usually studying.  So Ollie and I have do to our best to not constantly beg for attention :)

It seems easy but it's very hard to not talk to him constantly.

We sat there and talked about possibly goin' to Lake Pleasant to let Ollie cool off, but we had done that a couple times already and we wanted a new adventure.  Then we remembered that Sedona is only an hour and a half from our house...so of course we went!  We hurried as quick as we could to get ready and go!  We had no plan whatsoever, but we packed for possible hiking, swimming, and staying the night.

As soon as we pulled in to Sedona we were in awe!  It is beautiful!  And I'll be honest it was a little comforting because it was the closest we've come to anything looking like home in Utah.  All the red rock and beautiful green trees were just amazing!  We both had a hike on our minds, so we got a map from a visitor center and went from there!  We pulled off the main road onto a different winding road and found what we thought looked like a potential trail head.  As we got out to check out the place a guy was just finishing with his dog.  We asked him about the hike and we were sold!  To add to that he even offered us his parking pass so we didn't have to pay a thing!  It was so nice of him!  He told us that he didn't think it was specifically "made" for dogs because it's a little slippery from the slick rock, but he said his dog made it fine with a few pushes!  We said "why not" and went for it!

Boy, we were happy we went!  I don't even know what the trail was called, but it was by far the coolest hike I have ever been on!  We were a little worried about Ollie because we had never taken him on hikes and he is sometimes a little cautious, but he absolutely LOVED it!  Sometimes it was hard just to keep up with him!  He had a blast, and so did we of course!

When we got back close to the trail head we had the option of going a different direction, and we had heard that there was water close by here so we decided to take it to see if we could find water!  And....we did!  Ollie was stoked!  He was such a trooper in this Arizona heat that he deserved a little refreshing swim!  The place we came to was so pretty!  It was just like Utah!  I had no idea that there would be beautiful places like this in Arizona!  Brad and I wanted to stay there all night and camp, but we didn't bring our stuff :(  Either way we were happy to relax in the river for a little bit!

By the time we were done hiking and swimming we were both STARVING to say the least.  So we drove around Sedona a little more to see if we could find a place that would allow dogs.  We ran into this diner that had outside seating so we went for it.  They let Ollie come and join us!  It wasn't until we sat down that we realized the place had an alien theme.  Brad and I both lost it when I turned around and I was staring at an alien butt.  It was so funny!  The place was called Red Planet Diner, and it was completely decked out with aliens and space ships.  The food was surprisingly delicious, but that could have been because we were so hungry that we didn't care what we were eating.  We would both just randomly start laughing because the place was just so funny to us, but they allowed Ollie so we were happy!

We were exhausted and Brad really wanted to get some good studying in on Sunday, so we opted out of staying the night and cruised home!  We had so much fun!

Let's Try This Thing Again

I almost forgot that I had a blog because it's been almost a year since I wrote in it!  I can't believe it!  I wanted to start writing in it again because Brad and I are now officially living in Arizona, and we have a lot of family and friends that are wondering if we have melted yet ;)

Haha but it really isn't as bad as everyone told us it was going to be.  Maybe we were just prepared, but so far we are loving it here!

I am not even going to try and catch up with our lives in the last year and write it on here.  Pretty much we got a dog, Oliver or Ollie, and as most of you know...I.AM.OBSESSED!  I am well aware of it so no need to make fun of me :).  Brad got into PA school at Midwestern, hence why we are here in AZ, and he graduated with his Bachelor's degree in exercise science in May.  I am SO proud of him and everything that he has accomplished!  He is doing awesome in school too by the way.  He will never admit how awesome he is, so I have to do that for him!  Oh, and he obsessed with Ollie as well, but he wont ever admit that either!  I am finally graduated from nursing school and I passed my boards so I am officially a Registered Nurse...WOOHOO!!  I got into an online Bachelor's degree program so one more year and I am completely done with school!  I am searching for a job right now, so any kind of advice, kind words, connections or just prayers would be very appreciated!  Fingers crossed that I get one soon!

Since we have been here in AZ we have had a blast!  Apart from Brad studying a lot we still do our best to have "us" time.  So instead of doing a post for each of the things we have been up to lately I will just post a bunch of pictures and call it good! 

ready, set, go!

Packed and ready to go!

One of our pools at our apartment! A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!

Happy to have our room put together!

Exploring!

Visiting my cousins in Chandler!

Boating with my Uncle Willy that lives just an hour away!

Boating

My mom stayed for TEN days to help us move it!  It was so fun to have her here that long!  We are missing her lots now!

Our front door!!

First time checkin out Lake Pleasant!

Ollie got a haircut!  He is much happier now!

Cousins came for a swim at our apartment!

Well that is about it!  I am posting one about our trip to Sedona this last weekend!  Thanks to everyone for all your love and support!  We can feel it all the way down here in AZ!  We are so grateful for this opportunity to be here, and we are so excited for all the adventures we have ahead of us!