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.