A Little Behind the Curve

Josh and I started our Lord of the Rings adventure by reading the Hobbit. It was my first time into the world of JRR Tolkien and Josh had read it as a boy. Once we finished the Hobbit we were ready to move onto heavier things. We had many road trips planned, which include some of the posts below so we decided to listen to the Trilogy on disk. Although this process is much slower than reading, we enjoyed the narration by Rob Inglis. We have spent many a night hanging out with the rabbit and listening to Lord of The Rings. After we finish each book we watch the extended version of the movie and most of the extras (4 hours long!) pretty intense, we know, but we must see our task through. So now we are halfway through the Return of the King and and feel almost a part of the "fellowship". We laugh at ourselves because we know we are several years behind most fans. We also feel pretty nerdy listening to hour after hour of fantasy books on disc, but we are loving it.

Havasupai Falls: There and Back Again, A Bastian Tale

Upon moving to Arizona we saw a lot of pictures of these gorgeous turquoise blue waterfalls. When we finally figured out that this was Havasupai Falls, we decided we had to see it for ourselves. The falls are in the Grand Canyon drainage on an Indian reservation. It is about a 5 hour drive to the North of us, so we decided to make a trip of it. We were lucky to get permits as they fill up months in advance. The hike wasn't very hard, just long, which made it hard. It was 8 miles to the Supai village in the bottom. This a village that still gets their mail via a horse back rider. It was very odd to be in an isolated village in the middle of the good ol' USA. After the village there was another 2 miles to the falls and the camping area. We spent our 2nd day re-couping and swimming in the waterfalls. The water was cool and a beautiful blue color. Even I took a dip (I normally don't do cold water) and swam in the pool under the waterfall. That night we enjoyed a starry sky from our bug free zone (our tent). The third morning we packed up and set out on the trail just in time to see the sun coming up over Havasupai Falls, it was breathtaking. Coming out was a lot harder because now it was all up hill and we were pretty sore to begin with. The last mile and a half were particularly long, steep and hot! We just kept telling each other when we made it out we would find a chocolate malt somewhere. When we finally made it to the top, there was a sense of accomplishment to look down in the valley and see where we had come from that morning. On our drive home we stopped in the tiny town of Seligman on the old route 66 and found a 50's drive-in that made the best homemade chocolate malts ever. What a trip!

Family Fun in The Magic Kingdom

It has been 7 years since most of us have been to Disneyland and if you could picture it, we were giddy like school kids! We spent two wonderful days between the parks and covered quite a bit of ground for a group of 9. We were pretty impressed with the new California Adventures, and how could we not be? Disney does not disappoint. Some of our most favorite rides were: Space Mt, Indiana Jones, Thundermt Railroad, Screamer, Tower of Terror, Soar in Cali, OK actually they were all great. After two high impact days we took a day off at Coronado Beach and around Sandiego. It was an amazing day and believe it or not the water was a few degrees warmer than the air. Our last day in California was cloudy and a bit rainy, but we still enjoyed Sea World. The shows were amazing and we just shrugged when we got wet on the Journey to Atlantis roller coaster because it was already raining. Thus, we turned around and got right back on the coaster to do it again. Before going home the family came back to AZ to stay with us a couple days before their long drive back to Utah. It was a great family vacation and we hope to get back to the Magic Kingdom sooner rather than later.

Twilight & The Stephenie Meyer Book Signing

Well I have joined the leagues of fans who enjoy all things Twilight. The Twilight book series for those of you who don't know is written by Stephenie Meyer, a Mormon Mother of 3. She is an amazing author who writes gripping literature. I really enjoyed reading the Twilight series and can't wait for the 4th installment to come out in August! We can also look forward to the Twilight movie that comes out on December 12th!!

On Stephenie's book tour she had a stop in Phoenix so I thought it would be fun to go. I was just one of over a thousand people there! I waited for over five hours to get three books signed for me and Jessica, my sister. I actually had a great time and met some really nice people.

Before the signing, Stephenie answers questions from the Audience.

Stephenie in action, talk about writers cramp!

Bastians come to thaw out

It was great to have Brad and Spencer come all the way to Phoenix to see us on their spring break. We know better than most how long that road is. We had a great time and Josh got to go rock climbing with the bros at Camelback Mountain.

Brad and Spencer spent spring break with us

Summers

We had some new snow birds in town. Grandma and Gene came all the way to Glendale to see us. On the way here their flight was cancelled and they spent 6 hours in the airport. On the way home their flight left them and they spent another 5 hour day at the airport! But in between airport disasters we had the best time. I don't know if I have ever been so many places in so few days. It was all we could do to keep up with those two.