Our New Puppy!!!

Michael and I got a puppy. He is sooooo cute! We decided to name him Gambit. We got him on Nov. 1st and he is a beautiful white lab. We absolutely love him. Right now we are working on potty training and not biting us so hard, man those teeth are sharp. We have bought him all kinds of toys which he likes but still wants to chew on everything else as well.

We already take him on walks so he is learning to walk on a leash. He will hopfully start puppy training classes in January.

He loves Tucker (my roommate Mandy's Boxer) they play all the time, chasing eachother, eating together, and Tucker lets Gambit chew on him as much as he want...so sweet. Tucker is a boy and when we brought Gambit home he kept trying to nurse off of Tucker. It was so funny, poor Tucker. Luckily he has got over that.

I'm Getting Married

So for those of you that didn't read on Facebook.... Michael and I are getting married. We are so excited. Michael proposed on Oct. 4th, and it was a very pleasent surprise. We'll I knew it would be soon, but I didn't know it would be that weekend. The week before Michael and I had been looking at rings here and there and I found a couple I really liked, but figured I would look some more. We had plans to meet my parents up in Pinetop for Conference weekend, so Michael told me we would keep looking when we got back. I figure he was going to ask my dad to marry me that weekend and so he didn't want to look until after he talked to my dad. Michael and my dad went to Preisthood session on Saturdaynight and before we went to bed I asked Michael if he talked to my dad. He told me no and that he would rather do it over the phone later. He could tell my disappointment and I told him it would be lame to do it over the phone, but this was all just a part of his plan to throw me off. He had talked to my dad and already had the ring, but I didn't know either. I went to bed a little annoyed thinking Michael missed the perfect opportunity to talk to my dad, oh well. Sunday came and in between the two sessions Michael and I decided to go for a walk. There is this hiking spot we love to visit when we come up to Pinetop. It's a great trail that crosses a stream a few time. We got to the first crossing, which is a place we tend to stop, sit on the log and occassionally take some pictures. So we stop to look at the beautiful view. As Michael holds me in his arms he tells me about how much he loves me, how luck he feels to be with me, and so on.... then he gets down on one knee, pulls out a ring and asks me to marry him. Of course I say yes. It was so sweet and the perfect setting. I was so surprised and over joyed. We went back to the cabin where my Parents already knew the good news. We then called family to let them know. If I would have known I would have at least showered and dressed up for the picture :) Oh well.

So now I've been looking at weeding magazines, wedding dress shopping and so on. We set the date for Friday, February 12th. The reception will be that night in Mesa at the Regency Gardens. It's going to be beautiful. We hope you all can make it. Here's a picture of the inside:

NARHA Test

So in one of my last blog post I mentioned a NARHA test I was taking so that I could become a Certified Therapeutic Riding Instructor. Well anyway the test was last month and I passed!!! I was so nervous about it. There were two portions of the test a teaching part and a riding part. I felt confident enough about the teaching part, since I have been teaching similar lessons since March. But the riding part scared me. I never took lessons and we still learning all the basics. For the test I needed to know how to walk, trot, post trot, canter, change leads, change diagonals, transitions ect. All these moves had to be done in a specific pattern. I know that might not seem like much but for some one that just started learning to canter 3 weeks before the test it's a bit intimidating. As well as being nervous about just riding the pattern, I was riding some where I have never ridden, on a horse I didn't know, and at night. Anyway before the ride I was nervous, but as soon as I was in the arena I was calm and only thought about the pattern. It all went so well, thanks to the help of Bob the horse I was assigned and the ladies from my work there to cheer me on. Terra, my boss, spent hours with me the months before preparing me to take the test. I couldn't have done it without her. She's amazing and I am so grateful for her help. Here are some pictures from that day:

California Trip

So in August Stevie, Michael and I went to California to visit my Aunt Shelley and my friend Larisa. We were able to do all kinds of fun things...

Alcatraz

A view of San Francisco from Alcatraz

Krazy Hats on Peir 39/Fisherman's Wharf



Giants Game

Six Flags Discovery Kingdom

Muir Woods

The trip was a blast. Michael has never been to the Bay area so it was fun showing him around and I was able to do things I've never done before ever though I've been to San Fran many times. This was the first time I have ever gone over the Golden Gate Bridge. Other first for me were: Six Flags Discovery Kingdon, taking the train from San Fran the Sacramento, going to the Giants game at the new AT&T Park and seeing Muir Woods. I loved Muir woods it was amazing. The park is full of Redwoods and Giant Sequoias. These trees are amazing!!! I've never seen trees like these. the forrest was beautiful. I'm so glad we got to go there. I hope we can go back next time we visit so we can go on a longer hike.

All in all the trip was a success :)

Summer at Work!!

For those of you who don't know I have been working at Hunkapi Horse Programs since February. And I'm having a blast! I get to work with kids and horses, what could be better. Anyway, here is a little about what this summer has been like.... First it's been very hot and I am getting a wonderful farmers tan. June was a normal month and luckily not as hot as I thought it would be, but then came July...
In July we cut back on our lessons. So I only worked a couple early mornings and some evenings. And our barn was closed for August, it is just too hot and the horses needed a break. Even though the barn was closed in August I continued working on my own riding skills and exercise the horses occasionally. I've been learning to post-trot, canter/lope, and all that good stuff. Wow has this been a leg workout. I am preparing to become a therapeutic riding instructor through an organization called NARHA. There is a workshop/certification this September where I will have to past a lesson and riding test. Wish me luck! In July most of our horses went up to camp. We took 11 of our horses up on the Mogollian Rim. There we worked with Camp Colley, a camp for kids provided by the Phoenix Parks and Recreations. We had week long overnight camps all through July. I was able to spend part of one week up there. Camp Colley had a group of 17 kids from the city there and we brought 13 kids from our program that have special needs. The time I spent up there was great, but a lot of work. One thing I really enjoyed was seeing how welcoming and accepting the Camp Colley kids were to our kids with special needs. The interactions and fun they had together was great to see. I feel so lucky to be a part of a program that can help so many individuals. I don't have any pictures of camp right now, maybe later...

4th of July

Now that I got my owe camera I have been taking more picture. I just need to get better about updating my blog. So here are picture from 4th of July. We went up to our cabin in Pinetop. It was so nice to get out of the heat and into the pine trees. :) While in Pinetop we went hiking, played card games (mainly poker), went to a rodeo and I was able to meet more of Michael's family. It was a relaxing fun weekend.

Michael's cousin Jake was in the Eager rodeo. He did a fun event call the pickup race... here's the video.

Memorial Day Pictures

So I know it's now August and yes it has taken me this long to post Memorial Day Picture. This last Memorial Day was a ton of fun. We went down to Saint David to Stacy and Artie's house for a day filled with fun!!!!

We ate great food and homemade icecream, played on the quads, zipline and went shooting. What also made it nice was that Stevie came down from Idaho that weekend for Jacob's baptism. So my whole family was there and we talked Michael and the Bayardo family into joining us.

Favorite Bottled Root Beer

In my last post I told you about the Soda Pop Shop. We have been on a search for the Best Bottled Root Beer. My favorites so far are Buckin' Root Beer and Sparky's. The rest of these are also very good. It's crazy how all the root beers taste so different. Try some of these out and let me know what you think!

Also I found a website (www.delicioussparklingtemperancedrinks.net/rbeer/Beers.html) that did a root beer taste test and here is their rankings and what they had to say:

Buckin'- Not in the taste test. Too bad it's my favorite

Sparky's - Made by Knox Brewing Co. of Pacific Grove, CA. This brand is not available in the Midwest, but Kevin Knox kindly sent a bottle for us to try. This brand is sweetened with cane sugar and honey, but the "botanical extracts" and spices give the first sip a bitterness which initially put some of the reviewers off. "It has a lot of flavor, its just not a good flavor." "Has a goofy aftertaste, but the taste of vanilla, honey and molasses is pleasant." After the first sip, most of the reviewers warmed to the taste: "A very interesting combo of flavors with a minty aftertaste." "It smells great and its growing on me after the initial shock." Sparky's website. - Score: 3.14

Iron Horse - A train-themed root beer bottled in Edina, Minnesota. "Thick creamy. Very creamy flavor - not much intense flavor - this is a subtle brew," one reviewer wrote. The testers enjoyed the creamy vanilla taste, but some found it a little overly sweet. - Score: 3.52

Abita - Bottled in Abita Springs, Louisiana. The beautiful label features a stylized homage to Louisiana cane sugar, which is this brew's prime ingredient (also listed in the formulation is the secretive "root beer flavor"). Our reviewers wrote: "Pretty good punch to it, but I wish it was creamier." " Sharp on the tongue. I like this, a root beer that wakes me up with fizz & flavor. A bit bitter in the aftertaste, but just for a moment. A full, bold flavor." "Not very creamy. Contains a wider taste spectrum than it does root beer flavor." "Nice little punch, agreeable taste." Abita Brewing website. - Score: 3.43

Henry Weinhard's - Bottled by Blitz-Weinhard Brewery in Portland, Oregon. The reviewers found this brew flavorful and complex: "Nice appearance, interesting taste, complex, vanilla-y. Not what I would expect root beer to taste like, but still good." "Great full flavor. No initial sizzling burst of carbonation, but this one rolls over my tongue so easily I'm sad to finish the sample." Though some did not care for the flavor: "Creamy head. Subtle yet nasty aroma. Complex, subtle, conspiratorial." - Score: 3.40

Virgil's - Another old-fashioned style root beer with all-natural ingredients: anise, licorice, bourbon vanilla, cinnamon, cloves, wintergreen, sweet birch, molasses, nutmeg, pimento berry oil, balsam oil and oil of cassia. Our reviewers enjoyed the complex flavors, but overall found it a bit weak in taste: "Vanilla aroma, refreshing fizz, but I'm not crazy about the fruity taste which gets stronger with each sip." "Molasses-y but not a lasting flavor. Aftertaste is medicinal." "Cola flavor. Not much root beer here." "In the end, it tastes more like RC than root beer." Virgil's website. - Score: 2.69

Fitz's- Not in the contest, but very good.

All you Root Beer lovers ENJOY!!!!

Hello Again!

Like usual it has been a long time since my last post. I'm really not very good at keeping up with things. Well anyway, as you know I have been living in Mesa since January. I love it here, except the heat and not seeing my family very often. I think they need to come up to visit me more, hint, hint.

So the last few months have been filled with all kinds of fun things. First of all for those of you who don't know I am dating a great guy. His name is Michael. And here's a cute picture of us.

Michael and I have tons of fun together and like to stay busy. Over the last couple months we have done all kind of stuff.

FREE TICKETS- Some how we have been lucky enough to get free tickets to all kinds things. We have been able to go see the Diamondbacks play, unfortunatly they haven't been very good. We have seen the Phoenix Roadrunners, which was lots of fun for me since I had only been to one other hockey game in my life. My work gave us tickets to see Cavalia which was amazing. It is a Cirque du Soliel show with horses. The tricks and stunts they performed were so fun to watch. Check out their website http://www.cavalia.net/

OTHER NEW ADVENTURE- Michael likes to take me to do things I've never done so we've been busy...

One night we rode the light rail, which took us down town were we wnt to the Phoenix Science Center. We then took the light rail to Tempe were we hiked up "A" mountain. Then we walked down to Mill Ave. and ate pizza at Slices.

We've also been to:

Jesterz- an improv comedy place

The Soda Pop Shop- a fun store that sells bottled soda from all over the world. They have a whole isle just of rootbeers, so we have been trying all different kinds to try and find our favorite.

Tempe Impov- the other week we went to the Tempe Improv were we saw Iliza Shlesinger the winner of Last Comic Standing season 6. She was funny, but I think I was expecting better. Oh well it was a lot of fun.

We've also kept busy with other things like, going to the drive-in movies, playing games, going to the driving range, eating out, trips to Tucson, Pinetop, Eager, Saint David, and so on. Life has been pretty good to me this year :)

Trip to Idaho!!!

I went to Idaho the other week to visit Stevie! It was a great trip. My mom, grandma, aunt, Stacy, Kayla and Karly all got to go. We had a fun time hangin with Stevie and seeing all the hard work she has done at school. She made a beautiful cake that was displayed in an event show put on by the school. Her cake was for a New Years party with a Swing Dance theme. I'm not going to lie, her cake was by far the best one there and I'm not just saying that because she is my sister. See for yourself....
This was another cake she made for her mid-term. Check out her blog if you want to see more pictures. http://teeanngiggles.blogspot.com/

Since my last post I have done a lot, but don't have any pictures to prove it! (maybe I should get a camera)
Some of the things I have done/am doing:
Moved to Mesa
Started my internship
Making new friends
Cheering for UofA B-ball
Had a Birthday
Two visits to Chauncey Ranch
Went to the Match Play Tournament
and plenty of other things in between.

So far I love living in Mesa. I've been living here about two months and am having a blast. My roommates are all very nice (I have 5 of them) and my new ward has been fun.

For my internship I get to work with kids and horses, what can be better! Most of the kids we work with have special needs, we do some group sessions and some individual lessons. The kids seem to have a great time and I just love to see them smile! Everyday I go home with a different story. It is such a rewarding program. I am hoping to start leading groups and lessons in the next couple weeks!

I'll try to start taking pictures for my next post!

Skydiving

I got to go SKYDIVING again! And it was awesome! I think it was better this time, probably because I wasn't nervous at all. I was able to go with a big group of my friend from Tucson. We had so much fun.
This was our practice jump! This was another practice option.
This is ME! We got to do a backward sommersault out of the plane and then we did some spins during our free fall. We jump at 13, 000 ft, then free fall a little under a minute until we get to 5, 000 ft., I think they said we fall about 1,000 every 5 secs, CRAZY! It is so amazing!My istructor was awesome. He let me pull the cord to release the chute and he let me steer part of the time.

Snowboarding

So I tried snowboarding for the first time a couple weeks ago. It was so much fun and so exhausting! We went up Mt. Lemmon, which to my surprise had decent snow. I was on my butt more often than I would have liked and getting back up was not always easy. And since this was mine and Adam's first time our friend, Jeremiah, chose to take us down Black Diamonds (the hardest trails) for the first two runs. I will say for snowboarding the more difficult and steeper trails where actually easier, well easier to get up after falling I should say. I had a blast and was sore for at least three days. Ever muscle in my body hurt, but it was worth it and I'd love to try it again sometime!

I think a fell on the flat parts more than anything...don't I look great!

Jeremiah definitely has had more practice!