AZ Monuments Trip

A couple weeks ago my parents came for a visit and I used that as an excuse to take a few days off work.  Since I didn’t really get a vacation over the Christmas season, I figured I could use some time off.  The week was even better than I imagined and the time off was much appreciated.

The best afternoon was one spent playing cards outside while enjoying the beautiful weather.  Sometimes the simplest moments are the best. 

I was in desperate need of some arts and crafts time so one afternoon my mom and I went to a local pottery place and painted some pieces.  I planned for more pics, but apparently we were so into our painting that it slipped my mind.  We had the whole place to ourselves which we both loved!  My mom made a couple cute little ice cream bowls for Mr. C. and I to be used when we enjoy our homemade ice cream (almost daily in the summer) and I made a big polka dot popcorn bowl for myself.

Later in the week the four of us drove up north for a little sightseeing.  We stopped at Montezuma’s Castle where Montezuma never really lived and isn’t really a castle.  The castle is a 20 room dwelling built by hand in the side of the mountain between 1100-1300.  Visitors aren’t allowed inside anymore, but the castle still stands and is doing pretty great for its age and being built by hand.  A very friendly guide took our picture and spent awhile telling us about the castle’s history and the everyday lives of the people who lived there.

We then arrived at the Grand Canyon and were welcomed by lots of wind and much cooler weather.  My dad told us it was going to be cold but we tend to not always listen to him.  Apparently he was right.  It was so windy that it was hard to get any pictures of us not looking crazy with our wind-blown hair.  The upside was that the unpredictable weather came with some beautiful clouds which made for beautiful pictures.

Although we didn't see any big wildlife this time, we did see 2 bluebirds.  They weren't very accommodating about posing together but I did manage to snap some photos of them separately.  

At one point we got out of the car and were welcomed with sleet.  A piece made it into my eye and that was about the time I decided I was over that lookout point and we headed to the tower.  

The tower is one of my favorite spots in the Grand Canyon because it offers so many vantage points from a bird's eye view. 

It was a great week off work spending some time relaxing with my parents and Mr. C. and we’ve been talking about taking my mom to the Grand Canyon for years so I’m glad we finally made it this time around!

Phoenix Botanical Garden

I'm back!!!  I took a bit of a hiatus from blogging (hopefully you noticed!).  Life got really busy and as more time passed blogging was pushed to the backburner, but I really missed it an I'm back with some updates!  Today you just get a lot of pictures with minimal rambling :)

 

Once upon a time there were days that existed in Phoenix that weren't incredibly hot.  Although it seems years away, a little over a month ago we enjoyed one of these days at the Botanical Gardens.  It was a cloudy day and we had a cold-front in Phoenix which meant I could wear a light sweater outside which was just amazing.  That seems like an eternity ago.  If only I could have bottled up this weather!

 

We went to the Botanical Gardens once in February to check out the location as a possible wedding venue.  We got in free that time and were relieved because we were both super not impressed and were mad enough we gave up our time to go.  The "garden" was full of bland plants a whole bunch of cacti (imagine that in Arizona).  We hightailed it out of there pretty quickly.  I was later told that the gardens were really beautiful in spring.  A few years ago I saw (or noticed) my very first cactus flower.  I didn't even know they existed until I moved here (I must have lived under a rock or something) and even then it took a couple years.  Anyhow, this made me realize that cacti can actually be pretty instead of just scary pokey green things and I decided to give the Botanical Gardens one more shot in spring and I'm so glad I did. 

 

I got a groupon deal (first one ever!) while the butterflies were still out at the gardens.  It was so pretty, such a nice day, and a great date!  We took a TON of photos once we finally figured out a few new-to-us settings on the camera.  Here are a few of my favorites....I have problems limiting myself so when I say "a few" I really mean a lot :)  Enjoy!

New Year, New Look

Happy 2012! We rung in the new year with my parents and one of my oldest friends by playing games at the house and watching the ball drop twice. Yes twice…we wanted to make sure they didn’t change anything the second time around ☺ We watched the ball at 11 and then looked for a channel showing the guitar (is there still a guitar that drops?) but couldn’t find it so we went back to the ball again. That gave us two chances to ponder what the heck was going on with Lady Gaga’s ensemble? I guess I could ask that question for every event she attends though….

In honor of the new year, my blog has a new look! I figured it was about time to update our wedding pic since it’s been about four years now (HOLY COW!). My mother was our photographer during our time home and took the new blog photo as well as some wonderful pics for our New Year’s photo cards. The first shoot we only took “holiday” photos (thanks to pinterest for the photo ideas!) and then I realized I needed some “normal” ones for the blog and for us, so we went back and took more - at 2 locations that time because the sun was messing up the lighting that day. I got home and realized I wasn’t too happy with those so we went back AGAIN. My mom stood in the cold this whole time and took a ton of pictures. I’m so happy with them though and so grateful for our photographer!

For those of you who get the emails and don’t come directly to the blog, please head over to In the Centner of it All, check out the new look, and let me know what you think!

Just Passed a Quarter of a Century

Last week I turned 26.  Somewhere over the course of the past few months I’ve been realizing that I’m getting older.  Not old, but older.  I'm closer to the end of my 20's than the beginning now!  Apparently I’ve been driving for over 10 years now, out of high school for 8, living in AZ for 8, and working at a “real” job for almost 5 years.  These numbers are scary!   They are scary because they mean it’s been awhile since I graduated, since I lived at home, since I was a teenager.  The numbers all lead me and others to believe that I’m an adult.  I guess I assumed that by 26 I’d REALLY have it all together.  I’d know who I was, what I wanted to do with my life career-wise, and of course I’d be raking in the dough!  My life is pretty darn good, but I thought I’d have life all figured out by this point!

Sometimes, I feel like an adult.  I pay bills, I rush out of the house every morning to make it to work early, I get really, really excited about awesome cleaning products, and I even am willing to touch raw meat now instead of waiting for Mr. C to get home (that’s pretty big for me!).   I’ve realized that while money still isn’t everything, my father did have a good point when he argued that I’d care about it more than I did when I was arguing that happiness was the only thing that mattered in life.  I don’t have much room in my life for people who aren’t positive influences or those who don’t make me genuinely happy.  I’ve realized that feeling guilty doesn’t get anyone anywhere.  What’s done is done, and all that matters is what you do from here on out. I’m happier than I’ve been, probably because I’ve figured out so much about myself.  I still don’t have a clue about a million things, but I do know what’s important to me, and I fight for it.  That’s the wisdom I’ve acquired in my 26 years.

There are other times when I, and others, doubt that I’m really an adult or capable of thinking rationally.  I still think sprinkles are one of the best creations EVER.  Disneyland is still, and will always be, the happiest and most amazing place on earth and I have not yet grown out of running around like a little kid when I get there.  It’s simply not possible for me to not act like an excited six year old when I see Mickey.  If I thought people would show up, I’d totally have a birthday party at Build-A-Bear or As You Wish.  I am most definitely afraid of the dark.  And sharks.  Just thinking about being in shark-infested waters in the dark is enough to make me want to climb under my desk and hide (with the lights on of course).   My favorite part about eating at Bennihana is not the food, but really when they arrange the veggies, fill the stack with water, and make train sounds while flashing the lights.  In fact, there may be more things that point to me NOT being an adult than the ones that do.

Growing up has its perks, however there are days I’d love to be 6 again and my biggest worry to be that I couldn’t find my purple crayon or what flavor ice cream I was going to pick.  Some days my worries are purple-crayon sized, and I love those days.  In general though, as we grow up we have a lot on our minds, and a lot of legitimate worries, as well as a bunch of irrational worries.  I’m not sure that anyone has it together, although those 90 year -old people seem to do a good job acting like they’ve figured life out. 

I’ve always been lucky to have family and friends who made me feel extra special on my birthday.  Whether it’s a phone call, the familiar handwriting on a piece of birthday mail, or a thoughtful surprise, my birthdays seem to be very full of love.  This means of course that every year I expect the day to be amazing!  It seems that every year is better than the one before so this is working out pretty well for me.

This year I spent my birthday with my wonderful husband and parents.  It’s been quite awhile since I’ve seen my parents on my birthday, although my dad makes a point to call me on the morning of my birthday and sing to me in his not-so-amazing voice.  He has done this without fail for as long as I can remember, waking me up with the singing when I lived at home.  This year I got the song in person once again.  My mother’s card actually made me tear up (which is pretty hard to do to me), and Coconut and Oreo both got me cards as well, strategically placed near my makeup so I’d discover them that morning. 

The day began very well.  We had doughnuts for breakfast.  Mine had sprinkles (heart sprinkles) and it was crazy good.  It was the beginning to a great day.  If I’m ever eating a donut at 9am on a Friday I assume it’s going to be a pretty relaxing day. 

The four of us drove to Sedona, one of my favorite places.  The weather was amazing and it just felt like the beginning of fall.  We started out at Tlaquepaque, a very cute area with artsy shops and restaurants.  The grounds are beautiful, with bright flowers, old walls covered with ivy, and sculptures nestled in the trees and between buildings.  Unfortunately I enjoyed the beauty so much that I may have forgotten to take photos!  On the car ride down, we taught my parents to pronounce Tlaquepaque which we soon regretted because they just kept saying it for the fun of it.  We had lunch at the Oak Creek  Brewery and Grill on the patio and enjoyed the breeze and the amazing food.  At the end of our meal, our server brought me the most delicious apple crisp (sorry, no picture again!) which of course was homemade and topped with homemade vanilla bean ice cream with a lit candle.  It was simply perfect.

On the way to the car we walked by a fountain surrounded by flowers and spotted the biggest butterfly I’ve seen in years.  I then proceeded to take a million photos.

After lunch we drove down 89A to a spot Mr. C and I found last time.  It took awhile to get there but was so worth it.  It’s a spot a bit off the road, and with a bit of walking you run right into a beautiful creek.  The water was a lot higher than the last time but we still enjoyed the sound of the creek while we wandered around.  We saw minnows and water bugs and even some raspberries.  It was so nice out and so peaceful to just watch the water.

We shopped a bit downtown before boarding the trolley right after it began raining.   I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE rain so this was just great.  I’m not sure what I was expecting from the trolley ride but it was even better than I expected.  It was so nice to just sit and enjoy the scenery while learning a bit of history I wouldn’t have known otherwise.  The trolley drove outside of town and stopped for a couple photo ops.

Afterwards we headed out of town, but not before stopping at the Chapel of the Holy Cross.  I’ve been here before (thanks to a wonderful friend who knows all things Sedona) but my parents hadn’t so I was excited to take them.  The chapel is built into the rocks and offers pretty great views at the top. 

I most definitely slacked on photos for the rest of the night, but the day ended with a birthday dinner with more singing and candles, and some very thoughtful gifts.  And then, we all put some chairs together.  As in assembled chairs.  Yes, really.  It was horrible in the sense that we were all confused, did multiple things wrong, and wanted to quit.  But, it was also great in the sense that we had help, they looked great, and at the end of my 26^th birthday we finally had a grown-up table with chairs to fit our semi-grown-up lives.

Frozen Moments

There’s no way to really capture nature, sometimes a picture just doesn’t do it justice.  But other times a photo can single out a smaller scene, something left unnoticed or unappreciated, or freeze a special moment in time.  The Grand Canyon will never be the same in a photo because it’s just too large to get perspective from a picture, no matter how great the photo or the photographer may be.  On the other hand, there are moments and details that may be appreciated even more when a photo focuses on these things such as the look on a man’s face when he looks at the woman he loves or a flower in the morning dew.  Photos give us the chance to dissect a moment and to hold onto it.  This is why I love photography.

Our SLR camera purchase was a big decision for us, but something I haven’t regretted for even a moment.  It was something we had wanted for a VERY long time and it was even on my 101 in 1001 list…something I’ve been neglecting a bit lately.  Another item on my 101 list was to get a nice camera bag.  When I wrote that I knew exactly which bag I wanted, even before I had the camera.  Apparently a million other people also wanted that same bag because after I ordered it I had to wait another 2 months to receive it!  Waiting was so worth it though!  So, here’s my bag, the one that makes me feel like I should be a real photographer. 

I was so excited to begin a 365 photo challenge, however the challenge would entail me taking a photo every single day of the year.  That’s a very big commitment and between wanting to actually spend time with Mr. C, keeping up with the zoo we have at our house now, my cooking adventures, and the everyday things like laundry and cleaning and bills, I’m not too confident in my ability to take a photo EVERY single day.  So, instead I’ve decided to do a 52 week challenge.  I’ll pick a topic for that week and take a single photo.  Well, knowing me I’ll take a ton of photos but pick just one!   I’ll be posting these weekly with a little bit of rambling to go with each one.  You’ll also be able to see a running post of these on my new photography page under the Pages box on the right (if you subscribe to my blog emails, you’ll need to actually go to the site to access this page).

I’m really enjoying the camera, when I take the time to use it.  I’m amazed that my photos are finally turning out the way I want!  Apparently a SLR camera has the ability to do that!  I’ve begun editing my photos a bit more but I haven’t touched many, mostly because I have a lot of nature photos and nature doesn’t need editing!  I’m not too confident in my skills at this point with anything other than nature, although I’d love to start taking more people shots.  I guess I should look for volunteers for this!  (If you want to volunteer, please let me know!)

For now, I’ll share a few of my favorites with you.  Most of these were taken in Sedona, a place that seems to have an abundance of beauty.

I didn't want to tell the tree or weed what it was.  I wanted it to tell me something and through me express its meaning in nature.  ~Wynn Bullock

The bear I found in the woods.  Just joking!  We were safely inside our car at a wildlife park.

This photo I of course did not take, however I really fell in love with it after I edited.  Those are my grandparents on the left, looking great as always.  They've been married for over 65 years!