We Made It...

...Through the first year of Pharmacy school. Two more years to go. It sure went by fast! Preston did great on his finals and now has a week break and then he will do a 4 week block of rotations at Basha's Grocery store, in their pharmacy and then he'll have a 4 week break and then another 4 week block of rotations. I'm just super excited to have Preston home in the evenings and not have to study all night or the weekends for a few months!

Summer is definitely setting in. This upcoming week, we'll be up to 105... and that's still considered "cool" here!

We had a fun party at our good friends Zach and Steff's house. They had a big group come over for good food, great company and games. It's always so fun getting together with friends and we have definitely been making some life time friends down here. Preston and I are looking forward to this summer and spending time with friends, parties, camping (in Northern AZ that is, not down in this Phoenix heat), moving and going to UT for a few days.

Life is great and we are very blessed. Preston is loving school, I love my job, we love our place, our ward and the area we live in and most of all our friends! We miss our families and UT though (don't worry mom, we still miss UT!)

Here are pictures of the party :)

Just an update...

Well, we've been up to a lot but not anything particular to blog about so I'll just give a little update on what we've been up to since the last post!

I am still working at an attorney's office and I really like my job. The girls I work with are awesome! It's nice to make some money to help any student loan debt that we're accumulating. We came here (to AZ) with zero debt and now the student loans will be plenty of debt to last us for quite a while. But I'm not to worried about it. Preston will have a great job with great pay that will make paying off the loans a little easier. I'm grateful Preston will be in a field that will always have job opportunities. Everybody will always need drugs, right?!

Preston is really doing awesome in school. He's been on the Dean's list the whole first year so far. He studies really hard, so hard that I never see him during the week except for bed time! But it's worth it and I'm so grateful to him for all the LONG hours he puts in at school. He is also tutoring a lady in his class who is from Iran and has a hard time with the language when it comes to medical/drug terms so she offered to pay him some money and he helps her out anywhere from 5-6 hours a week (about an hour a day, give or take).

I can't believe that in 2 weeks, we'll have been here a year already! It's flying by. We still love it here in good ol' AZ. We've been trying to do as many outdoor activities as we can before it gets too brutally hot to not go outside. We've been hiking and hitting up the driving ranges and tonight for our date night we're going mini golfing! Woo woo! This winter/spring weather has been amazing. Makes me NOT miss winter in Ut. I used to really enjoy winter (for Christmas time) but I think AZ has ruined that for me.

Preston has been called as the 1st counselor in the Young Men's presidency in our ward. He's way excited about it and has already gone to some activities and really thinks he'll have a good time getting to know the boys... (I mean MEN, in the program). As for me, I'm still in primary teaching the 10 and 11 year old's and I am still loving serving in the Activity Day's program.

In July, we will be moving into a house!! Yippee!! There is a couple in our ward who is going on a mission for our church and they will be gone for 2 years. They have asked us to "house-sit" for them. We are so grateful for this opportunity. We'll be in our same ward and we are just moving a couple blocks behind where we're at now. It's a nice home with a pool and nice yard and with really nice things. Since we're house-sitting, we'll be having there stuff also. We'll be storing up as much of their stuff as possible to make it feel like our home while living in their home. So if anybody ever wants to come visit, we'll have plenty of room :)

Well, as for now, that's about all that is new for his within the last month!

Life is good! We are very blessed!

p.s. sorry no pics! haha

Another trip down...

Over Preston's spring break, we had the awesome opportunity to go visit my grandparents, Grandma Bev and Grandpa Don. Grandma Bev is my mom's birth mom and Grandma Bev found my mom when I was just a baby so I have been so lucky and blessed to know her my whole life. She is one amazing woman with such a great heart. Grandpa Don is so great. He always gets the crowd laughing and is such a sweet man. The two of them are such a happy, loving couple. We spent 3 days with them and it wasn't long enough! We learned a new game (I'm racking my brain trying to figure out the name, it has totally slipped my mind) but take my word for it, it's so much fun. We had a day where we checked out a beautiful park with so much greenery and had a little farm there, later that day we went to Berkley Marina for lunch that looked over the bay and the weather was perfect. We also had a day where we spent the day in San Francisco with Grandpa Don and their friend Ernie who grew up in San Francisco so he was able to show us around. Preston had never been to S.F. so I was really excited for him to check it out. Again, we lucked out with perfect weather! One of the nights we went to dinner with my Aunt Treacy, her hubby Uncle Jay and my awesome cousins! We Skyped the ones we weren't able to meet up with. We spent a rainy day at their house playing that game I can't remember the name and enjoyed a great lunch at one of their favorite restaurants and even went along for the drive for the group they volunteer for, Meals On Wheels. Later that day it was still rainy so we spent the evening by the fire with a delicious home cooked meal watching American Idol. We made some more great memories with them and we hope to make it back to see them sooner rather than later!

Now for the pictures (Sorry mom it's taken me so long to get them up!)
Whats better than taking road trip than loading up on all your favorite junk food?! Nothing! Here is Preston pulling a Kramer and doing the cigar/beer trip except obviously with Sun Drop and a Slim Jim (gross!!)

I, of course had my staple snack, skittles!!!

At the mini farm. I love cow's I think they are so cute! This cow even smiled for this picture. "Happy cow's come from California"

Our afternoon at Berkley marina


We met a lot of these cute little guys! I know, I know... don't feed the animals, but they were just too cute and probably hungry. A few chips won't hurt, right?!
And to your left, you have the Golden Gate Bridge.
Dinner with the clan. What a great, great time!
Aunt Treacy and myself, she would be my mom's half sister! Resemblance? I think so!
My adorable and funny cousin Hollie. I love this girl!!
At the top of Lombard street (a very windy, narrow street)
At the bottom of Lombard street.
Coit Tower
Alcatraz (we'll be making that stop on our next trip)
The inside of Coit Tower have murals like this covering every space. Amazing details.
I shouldn't have to tell you what this is ;) (Grandpa Don, my hunk of a husband, myself and good friend, Ernie)
This is a replica of a cable used on the bridge. If you click on this picture to make it bigger, it has all the details of it.

This building was for watching over the bay for predators. Out of those window's used to be cannon's.
They had these all along the bridge with a phone to call for help..
Starting the mile walk across the bridge.
I collect shot glasses, this is my newest addition.
Sutro Bath House ruins. One of my favorite parts. This just takes me back in time for some reason. Google Sutro Bath House in S.F. Some cool history!

enjoying the scenery and breathing in the great ocean air!
What a view!! This is on top of Twin Peaks.


What a great trip. Sadly, it ended and school and work started back up so fast! We're so glad we were able to make this fun, fun trip! Thanks again Grandma Bev and Grandpa Don!

Oh how I am loving AZ.

Really, both Preston and I are really loving Arizona right now. The weather is amazing (for a couple more months atleast.. I hope..) It has been in the 70's for a few weeks and the next couple of weeks will be in the 60's. Perfect!

Preston and I were itching to get out of the house and do something active and enjoy the weather. We've never been able to say we can go hiking in shorts and sweat it up in January. Fantastic!

Hardest part of the hike. Almost straight up. It felt more like rock climbing but without all the gear.

Preston and I are feeling more and more like home here. We of course still miss UT and all our families and friends like crazy but we have found our nitch here and are making some amazing friends. We love that we're finding more and more couples and families to hang out with. We have been meeting life long friends and making great memories.

(Pause, The Bachelor is back from commercial)

And, I'm back!

Preston and I have been super busy between school, work, making sure there is time for just us two, and church stuff.

I am loving my job. The girls I work with are awesome and hilarious. Preston is of course doing great in school and keeping up on all of his work. We are both teaching the 11 year old's in primary. It is so fun and we love those kids. They are so much fun and they teach us a lot.. a lot of patience! But really, they are so smart and they really do teach us a lot about the gospel and they are just great to have in our class. I am also in the Activity Day's. I love the girls in that program. Such sweet, loving, smart, cute and funny girls. I had the opportunity to give a little talk at our ward's "8 is great" fireside. I talked to the girls coming into Activity Day's this year and what it's all about. They are all so excited to be joining all of the other girls. I am also in our ward Choir which I love. We sing some awesome songs! Our choir has been asked to sing in Stake Conference which is very exciting and I also have the opportunity to sing with a smaller group in one of our sacrament meetings coming up. It's all accapella and I have never heard the song before, so I'm a bit nervous especially because I'm singing soprano and we have a super super high note that I have to really work on. But it'll turn out great.

There is just a little re-cap of what we've been up to and our life in Surprise, Arizona! I love Preston and love how hard he works for us and I couldn't be any happier right now in our lives :)