Memory Lane

I was organizing some files on my computer and came across these old pictures from college. So friends, walk down Memory Lane with me. And if you're slightly embarrassed by any of these pictures, rest assured that I have worse in my possession. You should thank me for not posting those ones. I'll email them to you instead!

Good ol' Fugal Hall

I took this picture with me on my mission, and people found it especially funny because when you want to call someone ugly in Korea, you call them a pumpkin.

Emily & Darth Vader (I mean, the Blind Illiterate Hunchback/Cataract the Cat/Tom)

Do any of you remember Cami, the cutest girl in the world? She must be 11 or 12 now.

I was too short to participate, so I took pictures instead!

Me & the Hobbits

Homecoming 2003

Halloween 2003

I think Ebbie was actually on the phone, and the rest of us were just making fun of her!

Halloween 2004

This picture is especially funny to me, cause 5 years later we actually WERE pregnant together.

Ahh... the Testing Center.

Ebbie, has Andrew seen this picture? (P.S. do you guys remember our Peaches/Boyfriends video? I sure wish we still had a copy of that!)

The Fireplace!

Ebbie's creepy black gloves.

Heather Heights

This pretty much sums up every night of our Junior year.

You can't stay mad at a Pancake Mouse.

Coolest Ice Sculpture Ever.

Thanks for indulging me! I had a lot of fun looking at these pictures, and I hope my old roommates don't mind too much.

Cooking Mama!

Cooking Mama. My favorite Wii game AND a great description of my life recently.

Being a stay-at-home Mama has its perks! I get to make all of the recipes that I've always wanted to, but never had time for. Like bread. I made rolls and breadsticks for the first time in my life!

I'm no food photographer, so please excuse these poor photos. I just wanted to share these awesome recipes that I've discovered lately.

Flat Bread Pizza with Caramelized Onions and Feta

http://www.ourbestbites.com/2010/07/flatbread-pizza-with-spinach-caramelized-onions-and-feta/

Only, I made my own pizza crust instead of using flat bread. I'm so domestic.

And here's a great recipe to help stave off the heat:

Fresh Mango Sorbet with Pineapple

http://www.ourbestbites.com/2008/06/fresh-mango-sorbet-with-pineapple/

This tastes exactly like Mango Melon Starbursts. SERIOUSLY. GOOD.

So if you're stumped about what to make for dinner this week, here are some ideas for you!

We just discovered Funny Faces!

Flagstaff

I knew it would happen. And it did. I fell in love with Flagstaff.

My sister and her family just moved to Flagstaff this past weekend, and we drove up to help them unload the truck and get settled.

Ellie and Ada were so fun to watch! They're both walking, running, and dancing now so Ada is definitely keeping up with Ellie. They also both share a love for Yo Gabba Gabba, and got their groove on.

So Flagstaff was about 30 degrees cooler than Phoenix. These next pictures were the view out their windows. All we can see out our windows are parking lots and cars. You can see why I fell in love with the place!

And this is what we saw at IHOP. Who drives this to an IHOP? That's just the way they do it in Flagstaff, I guess.
It was very depressing to watch the temperature rise as we drove the 2 hours back to Phoenix. But we'll see who's laughing in a few months, when they've got snow and we're sipping pina coladas by the pool!

Valley of the Sun

After talking about law school for years, the time has come to begin this adventure together! The move went well. No major mishaps or injuries. Just a small bout with heat exhaustion while unloading the truck, but at 108 degrees that's sort of to be expected.

The apartment itself is really nice. 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, and a killer deal. Can't beat that. The location, however, is interesting. We live in a big city now, which I'm having to get used to. And apartment complexes tend to attract an interesting crowd anywhere. The day we moved in, our neighbors were moving out. Mike was talking to the family and it turns out they'd only been living here for 7 days and their apartment had been broken into. Not really something you want to hear on your first day in a new place. But we haven't had any bad experiences so far. And after talking to several people, including a couple in our ward, it sounds like this rarely happens and it was just bad timing to have it happen right as we moved in. Oh! And the power went out the night we moved in. So it was like 90+ degrees in our apartment. Not very conducive to sleeping, but luckily the power came back after a few hours.

This is the new play mat we got for Ellie's room. With all hardwood floors, we had to invest in some rugs/mats. Anyways, she loves running around to all the different letters and saying, "A says Ah! The B says Buh!" She's pretty smart.

So I finally understand why they call this the Valley of the Sun. It's cause it feels like you're actually walking on the Sun. That should give you a vivid picture of what it's like to live here in the summer. Or, it's like that rush of hot air that hits you when you open the oven, but it never stops. I'm blogging at 9:39 pm and it's still 101 degrees outside. Bleh!

Here's Ellie eating a free Creamsicle at Costco.

Mike on his first day of school. Here stands a future lawyer!

Mike's school gave us free passes to the Children's Museum and Ellie had a blast!

This part of the museum struck my heart with absolute terror. The Noodle Forest. Kids screaming all around you, limited visibility, darkness, claustrophobia... it was like walking into a horror movie. I was just sure a chain saw-wielding clown was going to jump out at us. Neither Ellie or I enjoyed it very much.
To commemorate Mike finishing his first week of school, I took him out to dinner: Alice Cooper's Town, owned by the heavy metal rock legend himself. Mike was watching the Phoenix episode of Man vs. Food and saw Adam Richman eat a 2 lb. 2 ft. hot dog. Mike, an avid hot dog lover AND an avid food challenge lover, decided he just HAD to try this. The restaurant is actually quite close to his school, so we went after his last class. Mike enjoyed the challenge, and it seems like it was a popular dish because about 5 other people ordered it in the hour that we were there. Every time a waitress brought out the dish, they rang a big bell and everybody yelled.

We also witnessed our first Haboob. Excuse me? That's what I first said when I heard Mike use that term. Anyways, it's just another term for an intense dust storm.
Not the best pictures of it, but it was neat to see. We were driving towards downtown when we noticed it, and found ourselves walking around downtown in the middle of it. But it wasn't that bad. Just irritating to the eyes.
Dowtown Phoenix is beautiful! Ellie loved these fountains. Anything to cool down and wash the dust off!
So far, our experience in Phoenix has been great! I think I'm going to like it a lot more come October when it's supposed to cool off.