Missing Chris

Chris is gone on a school trip for the next few days. The last I got to talk to him was this morning. Now he is out in the wilderness having adventures without cell phone service. Not gonna lie, it is hard even being at work while he's gone. Usually he'll give me a couple calls through the day. It is sucky when I know I'm not going to hear from him. This will be the longest we've been apart since we've been married: 3 nights. But the worst part is that it is 3 nights "in-comunicado".
So while I am missing my wonderful husband, I thought I'd list some the ways he's wonderful.
and in no particular order...

• He kills all insects for me. He knows my spider scream/squeal and will come running immediately even if he was just in bed, which in that case he might have to get over his head-rush first.
• He takes me on walks almost daily. I love walks, but I only love them when he is with me. Walks by myself are boring... and lame.
• He insists on me never taking out the trash or cleaning the toilet. That is his self-proclaimed chore 100% of the time. Enough said.
• He calls me at work. Sometimes even twice in one hour. I miss hearing from him when he's gone. I don't even know what he have to talk about, but he calls "just to hear my voice".
• He makes the bed (usually right before I get home) not because he cares that the bed is made, but he knows I love the bed being made.
• He forces me to sit down after work and snuggle on the couch and talk about our days.
• He loves Zoi yogurt with me.
• He yells encouraging things across the field at me when we are playing sports.
• He tells me I'm beautiful constantly... like really all the time.
• He lets me be creative, even if my creativity is getting out of control.
• He is super cute with kids. He loves them and they love him.
• He lets me be with him all the time, even if it is just a short trip to the store to grab something quick he comes with me just so we can be together.
• He looks good in all jeans.
• He wants to have fun with me. He'll even remind me when I'm getting stressed out about life that he is having fun and wants to continue having fun living life together.
• He helps me relax a little more and have a positive attitude even when we have no clue what is going to happen in the near future (prime time for Sommer to freak out)
• He will do anything for me, especially if he knows it is important to me. He'll even do things he REALLY REALLY does not want to do. And I make him do that all the time.
• He is so snugable.

I MISS MY HUSBAND

Fountain Hills

 On Friday (our last day) we took a drive out to Fountain Hills for the morning. Rain had come in over night and it was quite the site in the morning. Clouds were laying all over the crazy cool mountains, and the dirt only gets more red when it gets wet. It was a really fun drive.

The fountain goes off every hour, we got there right at 11:30, so we sat in the car while it rained on us and waited. It was rather nice just spending time talking in the car waiting for the fountain.

Desert Oaisis

The place we stayed at was called the Desert Oasis, and it wasn't too shabby. It had a little kitchenette, so we did some grocery shopping so we wouldn't be eating out the whole time. We learned later that the hotplate didn't work as well as a stove, so some of our meals took twice as long to cook. But overall it was a very nice, fancy place and we enjoyed it a lot.

There was a small pool just outside our room. It was more private and didn't allow alcohol so the partiers stayed away. (not like there were any partiers anyways)

One night they had a movie night at the pool. I made Chris take me down just for a few minutes to see.

We spent a lot of time at the pool during the day to cool off.

The larger pool had a giant waterfall into the pool.

There was also a roof-less cave where the hot tub was. There were cactus's up above, that was kinda funny.

We brought our swim shirts for good measure. We DID NOT want to get sunburnt, and we were successful. 

So... The place was wonderful. But one night, after crawling into bed (Chris was still walking around) I noticed THIS on Chris's side of the bed! I couldn't even speak well enough to tell him what it was. I was FREAKING out. He obviously noticed something was wrong (I had already flown out of the bed by this point) and he started walking towards the bed. All I could say was "don't touch the covers!". The scorpion was kinda hidden between folds, and I didn't want him to get stung. Chris didn't really want to squish it with his fingers and tissue like how he usually kills bugs, so he cut it in half with scissors. My scorpion-killing hero. I definitely had scorpion dreams that night.

As You Wish Pottery

Chris is so good to me. I love ceramic places! We went a couple years ago (here) and I loved my pitcher. So Chris found this place to take me to for our anniversary. We had hiked Superstition Mountain that day (here) so I had lots of inspiration. Chris got to help with the base coat, which was white all over, then I got to work. 

Super Hot Temple Visit

Before church we took a visit to the temple grounds. It happened to be a very warm day that day. (A lot like the other days of our trip)

 This was Chris's motto for the trip. That is really how he felt inside when it was 114 degrees outside.

Before we left we snagged some tasty limes.

Movie Studio Grill

One thing we did during our trip (and I'm so glad we did) was go to a dinner movie house. It was one of Chris's favorite trip activities. He wanted to go back for another movie, but there weren't any good movies to see, other than the one we just saw.

We parked right next to another Fifi. I also think Chris secretly loved that I took pictures of him non-stop, especially when I was waiting for him.

So this place was awesome. The theater seats are large and spaced out. The isles between rows were about 7 or 8 feet wide. At your chair you have a little red button you push for service. Then your waiter comes (very sneakily) to you. They where all black, and literally duck and sneak around the theater. This is me trying to look ritzy with my menu.

 

Chris loved that he got refills on his soda as much as he wanted and didn't miss any of the movie.

 
This was our dinner. It was a brick oven pizza that was really good. Like I'd go to a restaurant for that pizza, let alone a really cool theater. It was super fun.

Water Park

One day on our vacation we spent at a water park. It was a ton-O-fun! We rode every slide the park had (except the baby ones). It was a huge park, and took all day. The one thing we didn't think of was shoes. Everyone was wearing shoes because the concrete was SOOO HOT. We were running from shadow to shadow everywhere so our feet didn't burn. I really thought I was going to have blisters... but I guess I was just being a baby because our feet were fine afterwords.

Superstition Mountain

Somehow in over 100º heat I convinced Chris to take me hiking. I also took an annoying amount of pictures while he was gassing up the car (that he named fifi, since it was a little fiat)

Superstition Mountain was about an hour drive out. On the way we passed "Meridian" road. The very next road was "Idaho". It was meant to be!

This was the last water fill up before we left.

We went right up that canyon-y part of the mountain.

This is me being scared. Mom had watched a "I shouldn't be alive" episode where they got lost in the Arizona desert, so we were joking the whole time about getting lost and almost dying. Chris even narrated some of our hike as if we were in the episode. (we watched the actual episode that night)

We found a trickle of water. I'm glad if we ever did get stranded in the desert that my husband would be so cute when/if we found water.

We found a little spot where the wind rushed up the canyon. Here we sat for a while. It felt so incredibly nice. We were also putting on sunscreen about every 100 feet. We didn't get burnt at all, which is amazing.

This looks decently steep in the photo, but not as steep as it actually was. I was practically crawling up it since when I put my hands out while standing I was touching the ground.

This was my favorite plant. I used it the next day when Chris took me to a ceramics place.

Of course Chris had to climb the little chimney thing. It was like 4 stories down to solid rock on the other side.

There was a little spot under a rock about 1/3 of the way up. Here we stopped on the way up and down to put on more sunscreen and enjoy the shade that felt about 20º cooler than in the sun.

Afterwords we went to Jamba Juice to cool off. Chris's favorite motto of the hike (or of the trip even) was "I am going to expire in the desert". He almost did hiking superstition mountain. But we made it and it was so much fun.