Phoenix Zoo

Last weekend RJ and I did a zoo trip with his parents and his grandma. The weather was sooo nice, a perfect day to go.

We started on the Arizona trail (I always start on this one for some reason). Spring is just the best time, all the animals are out and fighting and mating and doing neat stuff.

Probably the coolest thing all day was the javelina exhibit. We got there right as the zoo opened so we were some of the first people on the trail. The took out all the javelinas and the zookeepers were hiding the food, then they released them and the javelinas charged out every where looking for food.

I wanted to do the Africa trail next because I thought it would get hot later on during the day but it was beautiful all day. The zoo just finished the orangutan exhibit and they are now starting on a new or upgraded tiger exhibit that I'm really excited about so if you go you can donate to it!

Normally I never see the big horn sheep but they were right in front of us and they were head butting eachother!! None of them got hurt or anything but it was cool to see.

One thing I really miss is where they used to have the alligators, now they turned it into a flamingo and pelican exhibit which is ok but it STINKS so badly I couldn't even walk into it without gagging, I hope they bring the alligators back one day.

By the time we were leaving some of the animals were napping like the monkey exhibit you can walk through. But I loved the new orangutan enclosure, its much much bigger and it has real grass and a bunch of jungle gyms, the old concrete one was kind of sad.

I always love the zoo, I've never had a bad time there and it was fun spending the day with family!

Tombstone

On March 20th I did a road trip with my best friend Sara. We decided to go to Tombstone together while I had a day off and she wasn't student teaching because of spring break.

Sara drove us which I'm super happy about because driving isn't my strong suit. Of course I had to get a shot of us while we were on our way up there

Tombstone is about 3 hours away so we definitely had a long time to catch up since we don't get to see each other very often!

Once we got there it was sooo cold so we made a beeline for a place to have lunch. We ended up going to Longhorns (not the chain version down here in the valley). The decor was cute, very old west with mining pictures on the wall and old baseball team photos in black and white. Our table had mug shots of the gang at the ok corral and had the place they died. This restaurant is the oldest continually running restaurant in town and used to be called the bucket of blood saloon because Virgil Earp was shot on the second floor. I will admit I wasn't crazy about the food though, so it's worth a look but we were told Big Nose Kates Saloon is the place to go.

After we ate we headed to the civic center to get some brochures and decide what we wanted to do. There was a really nice old man in there that knew all the happening spots and will mark them on a map for you for free. Theres also an old telephone booth I couldn't resist getting some pictures in.

We wandered the historic buildings along the main street for a while. There are a lot of cool old buildings that are mostly original from the 1800's, apparently so are the floors because someone fell through one while we were there I guess so if you go, watch your step! We stopped in a wine shop for a tasting that just started in November and is getting local wine from Elgin, but they are planning on making their own wines there soon. We also went into an old brothel/burlesque house that doubles a s a museum now, they had some cool stuff and a museum but we didn't do the tour.

After exploring for a while we decided to take a stagecoach ride through town where they showed us where the ok corral was and all the historically significant buildings in town, I would definitely recommend that.

All in all I had a great day, It's kind of a wash though because it's far enough away and so much to see that you almost need to spend a night but not enough for a whole weekend so I think if I go back I would stay a weekend and do Bisbee and some mine tours.



Renaissance Festival

Today RJ and I took my niece Saedra to the Renaissance festival in Apache Junction. It was her first time and we all had so much fun!! Right when we got there she got her face painted because she wanted to get her face painted 3 weeks ago at Turf Paradise and never got a chance. It looked really really good!

Saedra loved checking out all the different booths, we looked at Henna tattoos and magic wands and we even watched the end of a juggling show. Then RJ and I forced her into watching a glass blowing demonstration. Haha she wasn't into it but we both really wanted to see it and she ended up kind of liking it.

After that we took her for some Steak on a Stake and Ye Olde Soda before heading to the afternoon joust.

We sat in a section with Sir Anders of Denmark, a knight who doesn't speak English and apparently doesn't joust much, he ended up losing but was by far the funniest. This is my favorite part by far but Saedra was really excited to buy a toy bow and arrow! After arming my niece with a murder weapon we headed out, not before meeting a woman on stilts and getting a chocolate covered s'more :)


P.S. we got to take our new car!! We got a 2012 Nissan Versa yesterday and it's so great, I looovvvveee it!

Pinterest

Ok so I still don't totally get the point of pinning but I'm hooked, it's kind of fun. So far I actually have done a few things!

Today for valentines day I made a "Bubbly Love Potion", here's the pic from pinterest

And here's mine:

It turned out just like the picture and tasted pretty yummy!

And this weekend we went to the Tempe Improv for RJ's mom's birthday and I made this outfit:

It;s not exact, that damn scarf it like a few hundred bucks, yeah right.... but I already have some similar bootcut jeans and I have a hair bow just like the one in the picture in white. I bought some similar shoes and bangles at Kohls and the shirt, scarf and nail polish at target. The hardest part was the purse, I didn't find something just like it but I bought a pinkish coral colored bag and it worked really well, loved it!!

Happy V-day and happy pinning!

2012

Remember me? Haha it's been wayyy too long since I made a post!! We got a new laptop after we got married and my camera won't connect to it...also we kind of broke both cameras in the ocean on the honeymoon, lol.

Well I got an iPhone for Christmas from the hubby this year so that will be great for taking pictures.

Since the wedding we worked like crazy to get out all of our thank you's and wrap everything up. I still haven't changed my name...I'm not being a feminist, just lazy, I absolutely hate driving in Phoenix.

This year I have some new resolutions,

1.) Be a better wife. I just started so I don't have a bad track record but I just want to make RJ as happy as he makes me. More cleaning and cooking and better conflict resolution are my main aims here
2.) Get the house organized. I've already made progress here, I've started on our garage to get two cars in there and now I want to do our hall closet (wrapping paper hell), the linen closet, and below the bathroom sinks
3.) Get a new job, something closer to home at a place with benefits and retirement, I've already applied to Pinal county, working on J.O. Coombs school district, and keeping my eyes peeled for Banner Ironwood
4.) Consolidate our credit card debt
5.) Get the grill into the backyard and some kind of landscaping out there

Wish us luck and here's to keeping up my blog finally!

Wedding Pictures are in

Finally got my wedding photos back from the photographer, here's the link

http://www.collages.net

user name: Chelle & RJ's Wedding
password: 35520

it's case sensitive so be sure to type it just like that.

also I got a new laptop and can't sync my cameras to it so once i get that squared away i will make more posts

HoNeYmOoN

Our honeymoon kicked ass :)

So Sunday after the wedding I was awoken at about 6:30am by my *husband* and my now non-bastard chihuahua jumping on me on my mom's pullout. It was all good though because I was so excited to go to Cali!!!!

Our first night there we were so hungry from our drive and decided to find a casual restaurant like Applebee's or something. We drove around the beach cities for like 30 minutes before we ended up in Irvine at a (wait for it) Melting Pot! Lol, definitely not Applebee's but soooo delicious and romantic, it was meant to be :)

Day 2:

I was desperate to go to Disneyland the day after we got there BECAUSE... It was Halloween and they have it all decorated for the holiday, and my favorite holiday is, you guessed it, Halloween. RJ and I had fun there, there was a big pumpkin Mickey in the center and they changed haunted mansion to be nightmare before christmas themed. Plus we saw Jack Skellington. We had just gone there for my 20th birthday so the novelty had worn off a little bit, plus RJ has really bad motion sickness so teacups and startours were out. The weather was beautiful and RJ getting DRENCHED on splash mountain made the day totally worth it though!

Day 3:

RJ and I got breakfast at a restaurant overlooking the ocean. The view was fantastic, the food was super fancy and overpriced but still yummy. Ocean front dining is my new favorite way to dine. I forgot our Seaworld tickets and Mike was kind enough to bring them when he went back to Cali for work, but he ended up in the hospital! Poor guy, we went and saw him and my mom and picked up the tickets. It made for a nice drive down the coast and when we got back we had some super good milkshakes <3

Day 4:Seaworld day! Right when we got there I got my picture done with Shamu! That was awesome. Then we checked out a few exhibits before Dine with Shamu. Dine with Shamu was the very coolest, I recommend it to anyone who goes. It's this really good buffet lunch right next to a whale pool, and the whales swim right next to you and do all kinds of tricks, it's so neat. We had a blast with the dolphins and at the sea lion and otter show, and I finally got to see a polar bear which I was so excited for.

Day 5:

RJ and I played on the beach all morning. We walked back to these tide pools but the water was really high and we didn't see any animals, but rj got splashed big time. Then when we were walking back there were a bunch of waves and we got soaked but it was so much fun and not too cold. The ocean was probably my most favorite thing we did.