What happens in Vegas...? Absolutely nothing!!!

I am writing this from my 550 square foot suite at the Signature at MGM Grand. No joke. It's too bad I've only been in my hotel room to sleep (and that's not been much). I'm out here working and it's crunch time so I've been working late, which means late dinners, which means late bedtimes. I get to head back tomorrow morning so I can go to the Phoenix holiday party for my work, but I'll be back out here on Sunday night...

I can't wait until my month of traveling is over! We just found out that Shane is going to be able to meet up with me after work on Friday in Vegas so we can finish our drive to Salt Lake on Saturday morning. I'm so excited to get back up there to see everyone! It's been a very, very long time.

On another note, Shane got his truck back on Monday. I haven't seen it yet, but he seems very happy to have it back (and to get rid of his little girly rental car...). He's also been busy fixing up the house for when my parents are in town in January. It's fun to see things coming together.

I feel I've neglected the blog lately, but hopefully we'll be able to update it better once my busy season is over next month... I'm looking forward to it!

Hello from ABQ!

It's been a while since we've posted, so here's an update on life...

We loved our Thanksgiving break! I had Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday off and Shane had Thursday and Friday off. I went out and visited Emma on Wednesday. They're moving soon so it was good to get in some more time with her while we still live in the same state (a dream we've had our whole lives that she has to go and wreck!!).

On Thursday Shane got up early and played in the turkey bowl for three hours!! Then we had Thanksgiving dinner at Tom's house with all of Shane's family (except Bart and Ashlee, who joined us for dessert) and some of Ashley's family. We had a fried turkey, which was definitely a new experience, but it was really good! Shane and I brought the strawberry pretzel dessert that we eat as a side dish. I made it with extra pretzel crust so it was extra good.

After dinner, the guys and Ashley stayed at Tom's to watch the ASU/USC game and the rest of the girls and the grandkids headed over to Shane's parents' house to watch Ratatouille. Then the rest of the family came over and we all watched Hairspray. I really really like that movie!!

On Friday Shane was ridiculously sore from his hardcore football playing so we just hung around the house all morning. We did brave the shopping crowds to buy a birthday present for Harrison and a few other Christmas presents at Target. Then we were hosts at the Mesa temple lights with Tom and Ashley. It was actually really cold outside, but it was fun to see the lights. Then we finished the night with a sandwich and zuchinni from Uncle Sam's...yum!!

Saturday we had the Bakers over for breakfast. It was so fun to see how far Andrew has come since we last saw him. He's walking and everything!! Then we went to lunch with some of Shane's friends from high school and then headed out to Emma and Kendall's for Harrison's first birthday. We had a little party for him with just us and Emma and Kendall, but Harrison didn't care. Then we stayed out there and watched a movie with them.

On Sunday, Shane got called as second counselor in the elder's quorum presidency. Tom is the president so now it's a family affair. That means that Ashley and I are now ward mission companions so it should be fun...

Other than that, I'm now in Albuquerque on a client. I'll be here for two weeks and then I'll be in Vegas for two weeks and then Shane and I will be driving to Salt Lake for Christmas!! We're really excited to come home and see everyone.

We also found out that Shane's truck is officially not totalled, so that's good news I guess, but the truck won't be done before Christmas so Shane is learning to make friends with his sweet red cobalt that he's driving... At least he has the Honda now that I'm gone!

Also, Shane just informed me that his desert rose bonsai trees are sprouting, but we're now down to only five surviving bamboo sprouts... We'll take pictures of their progress for those that are interested...

That's it for now. We'll post more later!

Is no news good news?

So we were going to have pictures to accompany this post, but we didn't take them so I'm just going to write it without them...

Last Tuesday (yes, we're a little behind) Shane was rear ended in Scottsdale. He was driving home from work and a car pulled in front of the car in front of him. The guy in front of him stopped just fine and so did Shane, but when he looked in his mirror, he saw an Explorer still going 40 so he just put his brakes on hard. She hit him without even touching her brakes and he ended up hitting the guy in front of him.

So our pretty, new truck was very mangled... The spare tire under the bed stopped the damage from reaching the tires so it was still drivable, but the initial impact bumped the bed up into the back of the cab (denting it) and basically bent the tailgate in half. Also, something caused his hood to become a little warped and his front bumper is a little dented. The guy in front of him only had a little damage to his trunk so that was good.

The lady that hit him admitted that she was looking out the window for her daughter (they were driving by a high school) and the police determined that she was at fault for all damage. So now it's just a matter of getting everything fixed.

Shane dropped the truck off at the shop and got a rental on Monday. The guy told him that just the external damage would cost about 50% of the value of the truck. So basically, if they find enough internal damage to increase the cost over 70%, then they'll just declare the truck totalled... We're hoping they can just fix it since we really like this truck, but I guess there are other trucks like it out there... So we're hoping that since we haven't heard anything for 4 days that the truck isn't totalled...right?

Also, Shane's been going to a chiropractor for his whiplash. He felt fine after the accident, but it got progressively worse as the week went on so he finally made an appointment on Tuesday. The guy he's been going to is a cousin of a friend and they highly recommended him. So far, he's cracked every joint in his body and taken a lot of x-rays. Today they analyzed the angle of his neck and determined that he does have some whiplash so he's starting treatments to fix the curve.

Anyway, that's the news for now... Other than that, we're just working and trying to have fun. We're looking forward to the Thanksgiving break. I get three days off!! It'll be good to have some time to just relax and spend time with Shane's family.

Bamboo...

I know, this is my third post today (the other two are below...), but I had a lot of things I wanted to blog about and it's hard to do any other day of the week, so here it goes.

Ever since we put down our bamboo floors, Shane has been very interested in it. He researched all different kinds and we started talking about planting it in our backyard to replace some of our less-loved plants. Then he found a bunch of information about people who grow bamboo from the seed and bought some seeds online. Then he did even more research about the best way to get them to germinate.

As soon as the seeds came, Shane went out and bought everything he'd need. The first week or so, we didn't see anything. I was beginning to worry that nothing would happen, but then one day we opened it and there were 4 shoots. Then, by that evening there were 6! And by the next morning, some of them even had leaves.

We now have 8 visible shoots and the first four have reached the top of the container they've been growing in.

I'll admit, we all kind of made fun of him at first, but it's been fun to watch their progress. The first thing we do in the morning and when we get home from work is check on them to see how much they've grown. I actually took these pictures last night, and they've visibly changes since then.

This could be a fun hobby for Shane. Once they're big enough, he's going to transplant the shoots into individual containers. It should be interesting to see how it all turns out... He also wants to try other types of bamboo (the stuff growing right now is Himalayan Candycane Bamboo).

I was also surprised to find that some bonsai tree seeds arrived in the mail yesterday, so we just might be starting a nursery!

Yard work!!

I'm a little behind on my blogging, so here's another one...

I think I mentioned this before, but Roy and Tom helped Shane put in our winter lawn. I didn't know we needed one, but now that it's here, I love it! They cut our old lawn as low as it would go and then spread the new seed. Here's the result!

Here's another one from a different angle. You can see our ugly cedar tree. Shortly after taking this picture, Shane cut off all of the branches halfway up. We're going to get rid of it soon and hopefully replace it with something else (Shane is voting bamboo...which I like too).

Shane's parents' company bought a house in our area on a huge lot and tore it down to build a few houses there. The old house had some nice rock in the yard around it so Shane and Tom decided to use it in their yards. This sparked some planning for the future of our front yard. Next thing I knew, the rocks in our yard were raked up, moved, and there were two large holes in our yard. It stayed this way for a while (and I just hoped our HOA didn't get mad at us). Then one night we went and bought some pygmy date palms to fill those holes.

These little palm trees grow in clusters and take a long time for them to get very tall (which our neighbors were happy about). Our next goal is to get a few groundcover plants and then to move the rock from the other house over to cover the dirt.

Roy also suggested we make a little garden area where we can plant real flowers! I was excited because Tom found some beautiful flowers that grow really well here. The only problem is, to plant the flowers where Roy suggested, we need to get a petition signed by our neighbors to move the mailbox out of our yard. We don't think many people will care, but it should be an interesting feat!

Other than that, I just hope to get all of the boganvia under control!! We have five of them (three in the front, two in the back) and they grow like crazy...but it's really pretty when it blooms. You can see one of our bushes fighting with our neighbor's in the last picture above. Here are the other two in our front yard. As you can see, we have some work to do!

Happy Halloween!

We had a fun Halloween. Shane and I realized that this is the first Halloween we've actually dressed up for since we've been married. We never had any parties or anything to dress up for before, but this year we had a ward party, another party at the Guthrie's, and then we dressed up for Halloween night. We didn't really dress up elaborately...we did halloween on a budget. Here's some pictures from halloween night:

I was a sheriff and Shane was a bandito... You can see that the hat we bought me for $2.00 was made for someone a little smaller than me, but I guess it worked.

Paige was Violet from The Incredibles.

Mason was a Storm Trooper.

Brody was Bob the Builder.

Hilary was a vampire.

Tom was Eric Byrnes.

Sarge was a fireman.

Bart and Ashlee were a nurse and a patient, but I didn't get a picture of them before they left, but here's Bart and his caramel apple.

And the best of all was Roy and Connie, or should I say Shrek and Fiona.

Our House

So, here are the pictures I've been promising. To see what our house looked like before, see our post called "It's Official" from July.

Here is our new red (or rust) wall in our bedroom. The other walls are now a light taupe. They were originally supposed to be a sage color, but the sage was too dark and everything ended up looking like Christmas, so we decided to settle with a light brown.

Here is my new piano! We bought it from Emma and Kendall because they needed to sell it to move. It was made in 1908, so it's almost 100 years old. It's so nice to have my own piano. Now, I just need my piano books...

These are some pictures of our front room. We're hoping to get our couches to match someday soon...hopefully with slip covers or something. But look at our new wood floors!


Here's a picture of our kitchen. The walls in here are the same color as those in our room. We haven't done much else except put out all of our stuff, paint the walls, and put in the ceiling fan. Eventually we'd like to stain the cabinets a darker color.

This is our office. Again, we put in the wood floors. Shane gets to decorate this room with all the Peru souvenirs he can.


Here is a shot of our hallway. I just wanted to show my wood floors again...

That's it for now. We did put in our winter lawn last week and Shane has been changing our front yard, so we'll put pictures up when they're done.

Halfway there...(and why I hate LAX)

So, I actually took the pictures I promised on Saturday. The house was nice and clean right before Emma and Kendall showed up so I quickly took some. But, because of the craziness of that day and the fact that I had to head to LA on Sunday, they aren't uploaded. I'll upload them on Saturday when I get home... We did have a fun day Saturday. Emma and Kendall came over with their kids, then Piper and Matt and their kids, then Michael and Karla Roush (Shane's friend from when he was younger). Then, when everyone was leaving after the ASU game, Tom and Ashely, and some other friends showed up at 11!! It was quite a long day, but it was good to spend time with some friends...

In other news, I officially hate LAX. Every flight I've flown into LAX in the last month has been delayed at least an hour and every flight out has been delayed about 30 minutes.

My flight this week was delayed 2 hours, but I was afraid to leave the airport to eat some good pizza at the Guthries because one of the Delta workers told me that they could bump the time up at any time if something changed. So, since I'm a stress case I decided Shane would have a much more enjoyable time if I wasn't there checking on my flight every five minutes. Luckily, I had Jack Bauer to keep me company :). I watched two whole episodes in the airport and one on the plane.

Now, that's not all... Every time we landed in LA we had to wait for at least 20 minutes (sometimes 45) for an open gate!! Then once I got my bags, I had to wait at least 30 minutes to get a taxi.

Anyway, my flight out of Phoenix at 6:30 on Sunday didn't leave until 8:30, and I didn't get to my hotel until 11:30. Basically, a trip that should take a little more than 2.5 hours (from taking off to getting to the hotel) ended up taking a lot longer...

That's just my venting for now. I'll post the pictures this weekend!

Still no pictures.

If you didn't know this about me by now, you've probably learned that I take a while to accomplish things. I just sent a thank you note to my parents this week for our graduation gifts. How sad is that?? I'm trying to get better...I think I just have a problem with prioritizing.

Anyway, the whole point of this post is to again promise that the pictures are coming. We'll see how that goes. We're having a few people over tomorrow afternoon so there's my motivation for cleaning!! Now I just have to remember to take the pictures. After reading what I just wrote, it sounds like we never clean our house. This is not true. Although my cleaning skills and routines don't match those of my mother, I think I do alright...

Because I can't give the pictures I promised, I guess I'll just give an update on life.

First, I have officially worked my first over 12-hour work day. It was quite an experience leaving for work at 7:30 and not getting home until 9 last night. We had things we had to get done by today so we worked really really late. Surprisingly, the time went by quickly because we were so busy. I was so busy again today that I didn't realize I hadn't eaten lunch until 3:00 and by then I didn't care. Luckily I got to come home at about 5:30 today because I got everything done.

Second, we went out to eat, just the two of us, for the first time in a while. When I got home tonight I was quite hungry but I really didn't feel like cooking. I asked Shane to make some dinner...and next thing I knew we were deciding on what restaurant to go to. I like it when Shane cooks! We went to Uncle Sam's. For all of you non-Arizonians (or non-North Phoenixers for that matter) Shane says it's like the Hire's for their area. We had fried zucchini and cheesesteak sandwiches. Healthy, huh?

Lucky for Shane, the Diamondbacks have been able to fill the void in his life created by my work schedule. It seems like there's always a game to watch. As I write this, he's hoping the dbacks will pull ahead...

Shane's liking his new job. His boss got back in town this week so he's had more work to do. He mentioned that he'll have a project to work on next week so that's exciting for him. In other news, whenever his boss discusses the future, he mentions "you three" meaning Shane, the girl he's replacing while she's having her baby, and this other guy. This means they are serious about keeping him on even after the girl comes back from having her baby. As you can see, I haven't had the opportunity to learn the names of Shane's coworkers. I just know them by certain attributes right now.

I don't have any funny stories to share this week. Maybe I'm just too tired to think of them, so if I do, I'll be sure to post them.

There isn't much else to tell right now. Oh, we did get cornered in our new ward... In between meetings the other week, a member of the bishopric stopped to say hi to me. This wasn't so unusual, except he showed quite an interest in how life was going and how work was going. Then I noticed that he was hovering and watching Shane talking to someone. As soon as Shane finished he put his hands on both of our shoulders and again asked how we were doing.... That's when we knew we'd been caught. We're speaking next Sunday. This should be an adventure! We made it 2 years in our BYU ward without having to speak at all, but we only lasted 4 months here. Oh well, it'll be good for us I guess. I'll let you know how that goes.

I'm leaving for LA (again) on Sunday for a little bit more training. It'll be nice to understand the theory behind what I've been doing for the last two weeks. Shane gets another week as a bachelor. Hopefully there'll be some more games for him to watch while I'm gone.

I realize I write a novel every time I write, but I've decided you all enjoy reading this. I mean, who wouldn't? I figure if I only write once a week, I should make it worth my time. So, I hope you enjoyed this and I'll try and take the pictures tomorrow!!

Stories from my life...

So, I decided our home wasn't clean enough to take pictures just yet, but I'll get those taken this weekend (hopefully) so I can get them posted. I started my first week of real work today. I've been working 8-10 hours a day and I'm learning fast because I've kind of been forced to. The girl I was supposed to be learning from has been out sick since Monday so I've had to step up and figure out how to do the work. It's been fun actually getting started, but it's been a hard adjustment after my long summer of absolutely nothing.

Now, on to my stories... I figured I'd share with you some of the funnier moments of my life in the last week. They aren't so funny for me, but I try to laugh to make them easier to deal with.

The first one isn't really a story, but more a problem. We can't find our iron. Seriously, how do you lose your iron?? I went to iron some clothes last night after doing laundry (I actually got off work at 4 yesterday so I had a few more hours to get things done around the house) but I could not find it. I looked everywhere that made sense...the laundry closet, the hall closet, the closet where we're piling everything we haven't put away yet, the shelves in the garage. I've looked in every logical place but I still can't find it. I'm sure I'll find it as we finish unpacking, but until then we'll just have some very wrinkly clothes.

Next, I planned everything carefully for my first day on a client (Monday). I packed a lunch the night before, I laid out my clothes, and I packed up my computer bag. I know, I know, it sounds a little excessive but I just wanted everything to go smoothly. I swear I had thought of everything and I had gone over the list in my mind. Well, as soon as I got to the client in the morning I realized I didn't have my wallet (that's a big one) or any form of paper to take notes on (and I'm supposed to do client interviews and stuff like that). Luckily, the people I were working with were very understanding and were able to compensate for the paper and I ended up not needing my wallet, but I was just shocked at how I could forget such a big thing when I worked so hard to be prepared.

Okay, this last story is a little funnier (at least probably for you). So yesterday I wasn't assigned on a client so I went downtown to the E&Y office to spend my day catching up on smaller personal items (like goal setting and expense reports) and doing training classes. Well, we have to pay to park downtown and the garage only takes cash. I actually thought that morning that I needed to grab some cash from our secret stash because I don't carry cash because I spend it too easily. Well, I ended up leaving without the cash and realized as soon as I got to work that I'd have to find some somewhere. One of my very nice coworkers offered to lend me some but since we don't see each other much I was afraid I'd forget that I owed it to him and never pay him back. I looked up the closest ATM and discovered that there was a Wells Fargo on the same block. I ended up working through lunch so instead of a lunch break, I took a bank break with another coworker who needed to go as well. When we got to the bank she went inside to make a deposit and I walked to the ATM. I slid my card in, as usual, and then looked at the screen. Now I swear this part happened in slow motion--as my fingers released the card into the machine, I realized that the screen said (in red letters I might add) "OUT OF ORDER". As I read this, I tried to pull my card out, but the machine pulled it in. I waited for a minute to see if it would come back out on its own, but it didn't. I hurried into the bank and up to the counter. The manager heard me explaining my problem to the girl at the desk and headed over. He said they didn't have control over the machine and that all cards taken into it while it was out of order would be shredded when the machine was serviced. So, they had to issue me a temporary card and are now sending me a new ATM card. I was so embarrassed until I realized that another man at the counter had done the exact same thing just before me and was going through the same process... Moral of the story: read the screen before you put your card in!!

Well, those are my stories. I hope you enjoyed them... I'll get the pictures up as soon as I can, but until then enjoy a laugh at my expense!!

Home sweet home...

I am finally back from my three week long training in Los Angeles. I get a two week break and then I head back out there for yet another week of training. I guess I can't complain since they're making sure I actually know what I'm doing... On Monday I get my first client experience, which is kind of scary, but I'll have two helpers who are about a year ahead of me in the job so they can answer all of my questions.

I guess I never made an announcement, but Shane ended up getting the job! He is now an employee of Medicis Pharmaceutical. Actually, he is technically a temp until the end of this year but it's all the same in the end. He started on Tuesday and has been receiving on-the-job training from his coworkers. So far, he really likes it and I hope it's just what he was looking for. Plus, it's in Scottsdale so he doesn't have to drive in the same rush hour traffic I get to deal with!!

While I was gone Shane went to work around our house! My job for today is to take pictures of the many new developments in our house so I can post them here. Because I'm going to be putting pictures up either today or tomorrow, I'm not going to mention what we've done so I don't ruin the surprise... I'll get the pictures up soon!

Happy Birthday Mom!!

Today is my mom's birthday. I won't mention how old she is turning because I don't think she'd appreciate it, but I just wanted to make a big deal of it since I won't be there to celebrate with her....
Also, because I'm at work and on my work computer I only have access to the pictures I've posted on picasa web. The only ones I have of my mom are from our wedding, but I guess they'll have to do.
So Mom, if you're reading this...HAPPY BIRTHDAY! We're really sorry we're not there and we hope to see you soon. To everyone else who is reading this and knows my mom, tell her happy birthday and give her a hug for me!

A quick update...

We're on a lunch break and I actually have a little time to update our blog!! I'm still in LA and will be here until next Friday for more training. After that I start with a client and then have more training in LA in the middle of October. They're definitely keeping me busy!!!

I want to make a quick apology to everyone who has been calling me (my family in particular) and haven't gotten a response back. My phone was dead almost all last week and I don't have much free time between training and dinners and such. I know it's not an excuse, but I'll figure out a way to return everyone's calls as soon as I can.

In other news, Shane has his third interview today with a pharmaceutical company in their market research department. They seem to like him and today he gets to shadow some employees to see exactly what he'd be doing. Hopefully he'll like what he sees today...

While I've been gone Shane's been filling his time with working on the house. He's been painting, moving furniture, and staining our cabinets. I'm starting to think I should leave town more often! Just kidding, he works hard all the time...

We also have Aden and Tamir visiting with us while they look for a place to live in Phoenix. I'm excited to have another friend around so hopefully they won't move too far away!!

Well, lunch break is ending. I'll write more later!

Welcome to the working world!

So today was my first day of work. It was really just an orientation day where we just talked about everything and got our schedules and such.

I leave in a few hours for LA where I will be spending the next three weeks (I'll come home on the weekends) for training. I guess we get our computers, our ID cards, and our business cards out there. It's crazy that I'm actually working! It's not just a summer job or a job to get me through school, it's my career... It's very strange to think, but it's exciting as well.

In other job-related news, Shane has been interviewing with various companies trying to get his foot into the door of the marketing world. He would really like to end up doing market research, it's just a hard industry to get into. he actually got called back by the company he interviewed with yesterday to spend a whole day with an account representative so that seems promising. We'll post more news as we move along.

As you can see, I didn't get the Hawaii pictures uploaded before work started. I guess I'll just have to do that on Saturday. I'll try and get it done soon...

The newest Hatch family additions...

This may be a misleading title, but really our two newest additions are Shane's new truck and our wood floors!

Shane has been looking for his own car for a while now because we both knew we'd need a second car once my job started since we'll both be working in different places all the time. He wanted a small truck and spent many hours pouring over the classified ads and cars.com. Luckily, Labor Day weekend happened to be at the same time so there were tons of good deals on cars all over the valley. We actually ended up finding a smoking deal! The salesman was shocked at the price they were offering in the paper. We got it for about $4,000 below the sticker price and almost $2,000 below blue book. Enough about the numbers, here's the truck:



It's a 2006 Chevy Colorado. Shane broke family custom and bought a Chevy instead of a Ford, but they aren't giving him too hard a time. It's a really light silver (they call it pewter) and I kept calling it pretty until Shane said it made the truck less manly when I called it pretty. We've been very pleased with the truck so far. It's got five seats so it's really roomy. The only drawback is that it was owned by a smoker before, but they're doing a free treatment to remove the odor so that should help.


The other exciting development is that our wood floors are officially done!! Except, of course, for cleaning the extra glue off the wood and for caulking along the walls and the transition pieces between the tile and the wood.
So maybe we still have some things to do, but it's so exciting seeing the floors down! I don't have any pictures of the final product yet, but here are some pictures from the process.

Other than the work on our house, I'm just trying to drag the days out as long as they can go because I start work on Tuesday!! I'm excited for it to start, but at the same time I'll never have another summer quite like this one so it's sad for it to be over. I guess there's not much else I can do. I'll be getting on a plane on Tuesday and spending the next three weeks in LA for training!

I'll try and get the Hawaii pictures and some newer pictures of our house posted before I start work...

Pictures, pictures, pictures!!!

I finally took the time to get the pictures organized and online. You can find them all here. They are organized by area and by time. There are tons of pictures, so we hope you enjoy them!!

We also created an overview album for people that don't want to spend all of their life looking at pictures from our trip. Those pictures are in the slideshow below... My next task is adding pictures of Hawaii and of the progress on our house!

Hello world!

I am writing this from what will eventually be our computer room in our house. Right now it's an empty room with no AC, but it's got promise. We're waiting on our wood floors before we bring in the furniture, which means Shane gets to convince his wonderful brothers and father to spend a day working at our house!

The significance of all of this is that we now have internet and cable at our house! This means that I have no excuse for not getting the pictures posted as soon as I can. It's nice having access to the outside world again. We were getting a little sick of watching the movies we owned over and over again.

Watch for updates soon with links to the pictures!

Home again, home again...

Well, we are now officially home from all of our summer vacations! We got back from Hawaii last Wednesday morning (after another overnight flight that we didn't sleep on) and were able to spend two days in Salt Lake with my family. We also got to see a few friends that we hadn't seen in a while which was good.

We headed up to Logan on Friday morning for a luncheon for Shane's cousin's wedding. We spent Friday and Saturday helping set up for the wedding and spending time with all of Shane's family that we haven't seen in a while as well. Then we came back home with Shane's dad on Sunday.

I must say we've enjoyed this summer a ton! It was a great way to celebrate before the real world of work begins. As we were heading home on Sunday, Shane and I realized that because of our trips, babysitting, and moving we've been living out of a suitcase since August 5th!! It's nice to be back at our house, but there's plenty of work to do around there until we're completely moved in.

That's an update for now. We're working on getting internet to our house this week so I don't have to keep mooching off of Shane's family members. Once that's set up, I'll post all of our pictures...like I've been promising for over a month!!

This time I mean it...

A week in paradise...

Shane and I are now relaxing away in Hawaii with my family. We were invited to come to celebrate my dad's 50th birthday, which also happens to be our second wedding anniversary so we're not complaining at all!! We are staying in a beach house on Maui in Lahaina. The house is called Sharkpit, but we've been assured that the name doesn't allude to anything. We each have our own room, except for Sheri who makes a comfy bed for herself on the couch each night and we have an awesome beachfront view!! It's actually owned by an artist named Christian Riese Lassen. If you bought a cool ocean scene folder as a kid, chances are he painted it. The picture is the view from our back porch. That's the edge of the infinity pool (which makes us feel like we're in the OC).

We're here with my parents, Jared, Jessie, baby Vera, and my aunt Sheri. We got here on Tuesday and we leave next Tuesday. So far we've gone snorkeling, ate a lot of good food, taken many walks on the beach, and done a lot of swimming. Those who are certified are going scuba diving tomorrow morning and then I think we're going to go on a hike somewhere. We don't have many things planned, but it's nice having the flexibility to do whatever. We're just loving relaxing after our nonstop trip in Peru, the babysitting, and moving into our house!

I've been working to remind Vera of who I am. She still gets a little worried when I hold her, but I'm sure by the end she'll know who I am, just in time for me to leave again.

I was going to post some more pictures, but it took so long to upload the two I already have over this internet. I guess I'll just have to add more when we get back, along with the rest of the Peru pictures...

Home sweet home!

We got the keys to our house on Tuesday evening and have been working hard on it ever since. Shane already has all of the ceilings painted (even in the closets) and has painted all of the front room and kitchen. He's also installed two new ceiling fans (including a new wire that he pulled through the attic and came out sopping wet) and two new light fixtures. We've got the kitchen all set up and also our bedroom, so we're living in the house, but we're still waiting on the wood floors (probably until after Hawaii) and fixing up the extra bedrooms for now. It's been so fun getting everything fixed up!

My mom was here until Thursday night and she was a great help. She helped us re-stock the fridge and furnish a second bathroom. We also set her loose with the vacuum and she cleaned every corner of our house!

Because of all this craziness, we have been out of touch with the technological world. Basically, that's my excuse for not finishing the Peru pictures and not posting any pictures of our house yet, but we'll get them up soon so you can all enjoy them. Another good excuse is Tom's internet isn't working and that's where all of our computers are...

We'll get pictures up soon!

Halfway done...

I've posted pictures from about half of our trip here. They're from the first half of the trip when it was just me and Shane. I divided them up into different albums by area.

I'll post again once the rest are up. Enjoy!

It's Official, Part 2

Yesterday we spent about an hour and a half signing our lives away for our house...but we've done all that is required of us and should be able to get the keys on Tuesday! It's crazy to think it's finally ours, but we're definitely excited.

Shane already found a great deal on paint (thanks to a hardware store going out of business) and on bamboo wood floors (which I had only dreamed of having until then) so as soon as the house is ours, he's getting to work. The house itself isn't bad at all, but we want to make some changes eventually so we figured we'd get some of them done before we had all of our stuff in the way. We'll add pictures as we make the changes...

Also, for an update on the Peru pictures... It's going to take a little while longer since the computer I use to get on the internet right now and the computer I use to organize my pictures are different. I'll try and work on it tonight.

We are going to spend the next four days babysitting the children of Shane's sister, Amy. We are very excited to spend some time with them, especially since Shane likes to retain his position as "favorite uncle". I'm sure he'll do fine... Also, my mom is coming out tomorrow and staying with us through Thursday to help me get things moved into and organized around our house! It should be a fun week, I'll keep you updated.

Cusco, Machu Picchu, Puno, and back again!

So, I tried to write this part of the blog from our hotel in Puno, but was cut off and it didn't get saved, so I have to write it all again...

We met up with Roy and Connie on Sunday, the 15th at the Lima airport. We spent the night there and then caught an early flight to Cusco. The flight was quite an experience because Cusco is in a very tight valley so the planes have to descend quickly and land at a very fast speed...it was kind of scary, but the pilot knew what he was doing.

Upon arriving at our hotel, we were presented with tea made from coca leaves (the plant used to make cocaine) because it's supposed to help with altitude sickness--just to clarify, Cusco is around 11,000 feet above sea level. The tea was disgusting, but I choked it down (after the bishop's approval) so I wouldn't get sick. I didn't drink it anymore after that! We found Cusco to be much more of a touristy town. It was cleaner, prettier, and there were so many more tourists (and other blonds so I wasn't being whistled at all the time). We also ended up in a very nice hotel in some of the nicest rooms.

On Tuesday, we went on a tour of the Sacred Valley, which is the valley below the city. There is mostly farmland around the area, but there are tons of Incan ruins throughout it as well. We stopped at a city called Chinchero and we saw old Incan roads, water canals, and old walls which now serve as the foundation for Spanish colonial buildings. Then we went to an old Incan fortress called Ollantaytambo. It was huge! There was terrace after terrace climbing the mountain and then finally temples and other buildings on top. The Inca Trail also passes through this site. We climbed all the way to the top (gradually given the altitude) and got to hike part of the Inca trail.

On Wednesday, we left very early in the morning to catch a train to Aguas Calientes, the town below Machu Picchu. Then we caught a bus up the switchbacks to the actual site. I must say that it was surreal being up there! It was amazing to see all of the buildings, the terraces, all nestled in the middle of tons of huge, beautiful mountains! We went on a guided tour for about two hours and then found a nice quiet spot with a view to relax for a while. We were lucky enough to be staying the night in Aguas Calientes (most tourists catch the train back to Cusco the same night) so we got to stay at the site much longer than everyone else. After the crowds started to clear, we went and explored some more and found some amazing views. It was a beautiful, sunny day and we were dressed way too warm so we went to the market that night to find short-sleeved shirts for Shane and Roy in the market in town.

We got up early the next morning to return to Machu Picchu. It was cloudy and misty and completely opposite of the day before. It was still fairly empty when we got there and we set out on a hike up to Intipunku (Sun Gate), the point where the Inca Trail enters Machu Picchu and exactly where the sun rises during the summer solstice. The hike took about an hour but it was worth it. The view would've been even better if the clouds had lifted, but they blocked a lot of our view. We hiked back down and spent a while longer there before we had to head back and catch our train back to Cusco.

On Friday, we went on a tour of Cusco city and some of the closer archaeological sites. We saw the city cathedral and an old Incan temple that is now a monastery. Then we headed out to Sacsaywaman, more Incan ruins. This site had HUGE rocks that were moved and fit together into perfect, huge terraces in zigzag shapes. We were told it was a sacred place used for festivals and such, and it was cool to see.

During all of this, we were working to confirm our travel to Puno (Lake Titicaca) and we discovered that the trains weren't running because of teachers' strikes that were going on throughout the country. The protest moved throughout the country and while they were in Puno, they ripped up some of the train tracks and burned areas around the train station and airport. Luckily we were able to find room on a bus line that was traveling there. We checked with locals to make sure that it was safe to go, which it was, and bought our tickets.

We rode the bus all day Saturday to Puno and returned again to normal Peru, not the pretty, clean touristy city Cusco was. Puno is on the shore of Lake Titicaca, which crosses the border of Peru and Bolivia. The lake is at about 12,500 feet and is the highest navigable lake in the world. Our hotel was just off the main plaza and close to a pedestrian street that was full of shops and restaurants.

On Sunday, we took a tour to Sillustani--a funeral ground for the pre-Incan people in the area. They built circular tombs to house the remains of important people. We were able to see the progression of architecture over time and also to see the Incan influence once they joined the Incas. On our way back to town, we stopped at a living museum, where a family demonstrated daily life. They let us look in their adobe huts, showed us how they ground their grains for flour, how they built their stoves, how they farmed, and many other things. It was amazing to see that people still lived like that! It was probably the highlight of the day, along with petting a few llamas and alpacas.

On Monday, we got on a boat and headed out to the Uros (the floating reed islands). The islands have all settled into an opening amongst all of the reeds and most are now anchored down. There are about 35 islands in all and about 3,000 people still live out there. We stopped at an island where they showed us how they built the islands and their houses and how they got food and cooked. Then they divided us up and took us into their houses where they proceeded to dress us up in traditional clothes. The girl I went with even braided my hair and added in the pom-pom things they wear in their hair. We took a bunch of pictures and the old ladies on the island laughed at me because I apparently looked funny. We then bought a few things from them to show our appreciation for welcoming us and then they took us on a ride in one of their reed boats. It was like going to a whole different world!

After our trip to the Uros, we continued out into the lake for about 2 hours to Taquile island. We hiked up to the top of the island (which was quite a hike). The people are known for their weaving so we bought a couple bracelets and hats and then we went to a local restaurant to try local cuisine. The food was actually really good and none of us got sick! Then we hiked back down the other side of the mountain and got back on the boat to head back to shore.

We left the next afternoon to head back to Lima to prepare to return home. We stayed in the J.W. Marriott (thanks to Connie's Marriott points) which was a complete change from where we had been!! We went an saw a few sites in the city and then spent the afternoon wandering around the shops by the Marriott and we even saw Ocean's 13 to kill time since our flight didn't leave until 11:30 pm!

We flew home Wednesday night and got to Phoenix at 8:30 am today. We didn't get much sleep on the flight and so we've been pretty loopy today, but we'll sure sleep well tonight!

I'll write more tomorrow reflecting on the trip as a whole and we'll get some pictures uploaded soon...

Our last day up north...

It's been a while since we wrote, so here are some updates:

On Tuesday we went back to Tuman to visit more families. We first visited Rosa, the daughter of the woman Shane lived with, in her little restaurant. Then we went back to La Valentina's house for some cuy (which is guinea pig in case you were wondering). She made me some beef too in case I didn't like it. Shane loved it, and I can at least say I tried it... After lunch we visited some other families that Shane knew. Then we headed back to the house of the Sandoval family because we promised we'd stop by again. We got there at about 4 and stayed until about 8:30! They're a hard family to leave! They made us flan, we played computer games, and we took plenty of pictures. It was very sad saying goodbye to them...

On Wednesday we went to Lambayeque where the museum for Sipan is (see our last entry if you don't know what Sipan is). The museum, El Museo de Tumbas Reales, was huge! According to the guide, it's one of the top 10 museums in the world. They had tons of pottery and adornments from the various tombs as well as recreations of the tombs and the real bones... We also went to another museum that had artifacts from all of the ancient civilizations here and showed the progress from one time period to the other. We also ate at a nice restaurant there. We decided that it is now my mission to try Lomo Saltado everywhere we eat to notice the subtle differences. So far, the one in Lambayeque wins!!

We left for Trujillo on Thursday. It's about 2 hours south of Chiclayo and about 8 hours north of Lima. Our bus ride took about 3 hours because in Peru you can get on the bus whenever you want and you can get off whenever you want (even though it's a big, nice charter bus). Once we got to Trujillo, we headed to the main square to start the city tour in our book, but we got mobbed by tour guides. They kept offering us lower and lower prices for various tours around the valley.

A quick side note about Trujillo: it's named after Trujillo, Spain, where Pizarro was born and is quite beautiful. It's a colonial town and I LOVE all of the old buildings. It's also surrounded by ruins of two different pre-Incan tribes: the Moche and the Chimu so there's tons to do and see here (hence the mob of tour companies).

We decided to do a tour of Chan Chan, the largest city made entirely of adobe and of the Huaca de la Luna (temple of the moon) and the Huaca del Sol (temple of the sun). We had a tour guide and transportation and they were all awesome! We'll add more information and pictures about them later because time's almost up on the internet!!

Last night and today we got to see some awesome old colonial houses that have been restored by banks in the area. I wish the whole town looked like that! We'll post pictures of those houses as well.

We're heading out to the beach today to watch the fishermen on their reed boats and to eat some lunch. We leave tomorrow for Lima to meet up with Shane's parents and continue our journey southward!

That's all for now...

We have arrived!!

We made it to Lima after about 9 hours on a plane (2.5 from Phoenix to Houston and 6.5 from Houston to Lima). We got in late, but found our taxi and made it to our hostel which was BEAUTIFUL!! It actually looked better than the pictures on the website (which is quite a change from our last experience with hotels on the internet...). We have plenty of pictures and will post them once we're back home.

We spent Saturday in Lima taking in the main sights. We saw the main plaza and the governmental palace. Then we went in the catacombs under this old church. Over 75,000 people are buried there because it existed before the first cemetery in Lima. We went down in them and saw all of the bones. In some places they had been moved to make more space for new bodies and placed in geometric designs...kind of creepy!! Despite this fact, it was actually quite peaceful down there. After that we went to a museum that showed the torture methods and prison cells used during the Spanish Inquisition. That was also quite scary, but interesting. We wandered around Lima the rest of the day and had our first Peruvian food which was great!

On Sunday we travelled to Chiclayo, which is where Shane served his mission. As soon as we arrived, we got on a "convi" which is like a VW bus packed with about 5 rows of seats to Tuman which is where Shane spent 8.5 months of his mission. We visited the woman whose house he lived in for that time. She was so excited to see him!! We had called her the day before to let her know we were coming and she told us that we had been an answer to her prayers because she had been sad because her children had all moved away and she was feeling lonely. She made us some very authentic soup and a dish I've come to be very comfortable with, Lomo Saltado.

Next, we headed to the home of the Sandoval family, who Shane converted while he was here. They had 4 daughters when he left, now they have a son (who is named Shane, no joke) and another daughter. We happened to arrive about an hour before they were leaving to baptize their daughter and invited us along. We traveled to another town where there is a chapel with a font and then we had to wait about an hour for the person with the key to show up. Shane explained that it was in Peru that he really learned patience!! Once it all started, it was beautiful. There was another couple getting baptized and another girl. After the baptisms, they asked me and Shane to bear our testimonies. That was quite difficult considering I never really learned those words! After the baptism, the Sandovals came back to Chiclayo with us and we bought them a pizza from Pizza Hut, their first pizza ever!! And they loved it. They said that had wanted to try it, but were afraid to buy it because they would be wasting their money if they didn't like it. Then they bought us some ice cream and walked with us all the way back to our hotel. We had a great day and are so glad we happened to visit at that time!

Today (Monday) we went up to Sipan, which is the site of two large temples (like pyramids) of the Moche people, who were a pre-Incan tribe. They are excavating the burial sites all around there and have found some crazy things! They've found tons of copper, gold, and silver ornaments and clothing and a ton of pottery. It's crazy to see skeletons just lying in the ground, but it's interesting to see the customs that they had.

This afternoon we visited two other families around Chiclayo that Shane knew while he was here. We spent quite a while with them. They were all very excited to see Shane and everyone remembers him. I was worried before that he would be disappointed if the families didn't remember him, but apparently that's not a problem! We had a great day and were sad to leave them, but we don't have much time here.

That's the update so far. We're heading back to Tuman tomorrow to eat cuy (which is guinea pig by the way) and visit a few more families. On a side note, I'm starting to wish I would've heeded Shane's advice and dyed my hair brown before we came. We can't go anywhere without everyone staring, children following us, and men whistling! At the baptism, this one girl took about 20 pictures of me and Shane!! It's just strange getting so much attention when I look so average in the US. Also, I'm realizing how much I do understand spanish, and how hard it is to understand natives! Shane lets them know that I can understand if they speak slowly, and they try for a few minutes and then speed back up, but I can generally get the gist of the conversation.

Well, that's really all for now. We'll update again soon!!

Peru, here we come!

We leave for Peru tomorrow morning and Shane might explode with excitement. He's been secretly packing for months, but now it's very obvious he can't wait to go.

Originally, Shane was very worried about us pushing the weight limit for baggage. We weren't worried about the flight to Peru, but for the flights from different cities within the country, you can only have 55 pounds total. I wasn't so worried about this, but Shane was packing as little as he could. Finally, Connie gave us a scale that has a hook to weigh the bags. After packing almost everything we'll need except toiletries my bag ended up weighing 26.5 pounds and Shane's weighed 27 pounds. I don't think we have a problem. Since then, he's been a little more willing to pack a few more things.

Once we get to Peru we won't have our phones, but we will be checking our email as often as we can and we'll be posting updates as often as we can so be sure to check back and see how it's going! We'll also post pictures once we get back.

Independence Day

I hope you all had a fun day yesterday! Ours was a marathon celebration...

We began the day cleaning Tom's house in our Che shirts (they were given to us by a boy in the ward after his trip to Guatemala). Tom was very upset with us wearing these shirts given the holiday we were celebrating. Really we just didn't want to clean in other clothes, but it was funny to bug Tom (who also has a Che shirt, along with a Ho Chi Minh shirt, and a Mao shirt so he can't talk).

Because Tom has a pool we now celebrate all parties here, so everyone gathered about noon and we went swimming, then we had some hamburgers and hot dogs (how American is that?), and swam some more. Then someone decided we should go see a movie but the kids wanted to see Ratatouille and the men wanted to see the new Die Hard movie. We ended up finding showings that started 10 minutes apart so the guys and Ashley went to see Die Hard and the rest of us saw Ratatouille. We ended the evening with swimming, pizza, classic Nintendo, and root beer floats. I don't think we would've swam as much as we did if it weren't for the kids. They really like being in the water, so it makes it more fun for everyone else.

On another note, this week really introduced me to Arizona heat. It was in the triple digits all week, mostly around 110. Yesterday it got up to 117!!! I don't really know how to describe that heat. It's just hot, really hot. Luckily Tom has a covered porch and Roy brought over an extra canopy to cover more of the patio so we didn't get too hot!

It's Official!!

This is kind of a double title I guess.

First, I spent the afternoon at the DMV and we are officially Arizona residents. Thanks to a lot of money spent on postage by my father, I was able to get all of the information I needed to get the car registered here as well as a new license for me.

It's kind of crazy! Here are some pictures of our car with its new plates...




Second, we're closing on our house on July 31 and we've been approved for our loans so it's pretty much official (until we sign everything and get the keys). Shane's already planning everything he wants to do to the house (paint colors, new flooring, etc.) which is funny since it's a relatively new house, but I'm not complaining.

I've promised to post some pictures, so here they are:


The outside of the house


Another shot of the outside (the garage sticks out so that's mostly what you see from the street).


Our kitchen


Our family room (that's the front door behind Shane)


The view of our front room/kitchen from the front door


The master bedroom. I refused to take this picture, but Shane refused to leave until I posed for it.


The master bathroom


The grapefruit tree and the backyard. I'm very excited about this!!

There are also two other bedrooms and another bathroom, but we haven't taken any pictures of them yet...

We'll give out our address once we move in and we'll keep adding pictures as we make changes.

Let the summer of Hatch begin!!

Although my entire summer thus far has been a vacation, Shane is just starting his summer of fun. We leave tomorrow to drive to Salt Lake to fly to Alabama with the family for the reunion.

Once we get back from Alabama (on Monday), we basically have a week and a half before we leave for Peru. Then we get back and are in Phoenix for about a week before we head back to Utah to head to Hawaii.

All I can say is it'll be hard to return to work after all of our vacations!!

We'll keep the blog updated with stories and pictures from our adventures.

Happy birthday to me!

Yesterday was my birthday. I woke up to a decorated house (thanks to Tom and Ashley). Then, I went to lunch with Hilary and Connie at Olive Garden. Then Shane came home from work early and we went to the mall to buy me new shoes for my birthday. Then we ate dinner at a 50's type diner and then we saw Ocean's 13.

Then this afternoon we had a party with the whole family at Tom's house. We went swimming, ate some ribs, swam some more, and then we had cake! Shane got me a Harry Potter cake (complete with a toy of Harry riding a hippogriff) and Harry Potter glasses that he made me wear while they sang to me. Hilary and I watched all four movies in the last week and are gearing up for the new book and movie to come out in July (while we're in Peru), so Shane thought it was only fitting to celebrate. He even pre-ordered me a copy of book 7!!

It was a great birthday, but I still missed my family and friends in Utah. I do appreciate the calls and notes I got from everyone. My parents even sent me a ton of cookies since they couldn't be here.

All in all, I had a great weekend! We didn't take any pictures, but we have some great video of the swimming and the kids being funny. Maybe I'll get some of it up...if I can figure it out...

Lambert the Sheepish Lion

This is very random, but for the last couple of days Tom and Shane have been singing this song so last night Tom looked it up online and actually found the full movie!!

It brought back great memories of watching this when I was little.

I hope this brings back great memories for all of you as well.

Enjoy!!! Lambert the Sheepish Lion Video

New news and old pics...

Here's a quick update on life in AZ so far... We're living at Tom and Ashley's. They were kind enough to loan us two bedrooms and a bathroom for the time being. Tom and Shane are working for the family business and Ashley found a part-time job for the summer so I spend my time with Sarge, the dog. I've done quite a bit of reading lately. I'd forgotten how nice it is to read for fun! If any of you have suggestions for books you've loved, I'm game!

The most important news is that Shane and I found a house!! We decided it wouldn't make sense to move to Phoenix and then live 45 miles away from his family (in Mesa or Gilbert) so we started looking around here for a house. Shane's family, his parent's ward, and Tom's ward quickly started looking for us too. We heard through a ward member about a house in a newer development (they were built in 1994) that the family was trying to sell without a going through a real estate agent. He set up an appointment for us and we looked at the house. It's perfect for us to start out! It's newer so we don't have to do any work to it (except for the new paint job required by Shane, of course), but it's still in Tom's ward so we're near family. We made an offer, which they accepted so now we're going through the craziness of qualifying for our loan and the other many steps required to buy a house. We won't move in until July 31, after we get back from Peru, because we can't close until within 2 months of my job starting. We'll give more updates and eventually pictures once the move-in date gets closer.

You'll also be surprised to discover that Shane and I have taken up tennis as a hobby. Shane's brother, Bart, and his new wife, Ashlee, took a tennis class together last semester and asked us to play with them, so we took a trip to Target, bought some cheap rackets and a can of balls. We play tennis at least once a week, if not more. Although we're not the best players, I can tell you that we're definitely progressing!! We'll have to take some pictures in our tennis garb (Shane even has a Wilson sweatband that he wears every time we play)...

The only other news is that we got called as ward missionaries, which is quite a calling for me!! Tom and Ashley have the same calling so I guess they thought we'd feel comfortable having them around while we got used to the ward. It'll definitely be a new experience!

Finally, the reason I added old pics to this post is that I wanted to post some pictures from graduation since most of you weren't able to be there. It's crazy to think we're all done, but it's exciting at the same time. Although, from what I hear, I'll be wishing I was back in school instead of working every day in a couple of years...



Our families together at Tucano's the night before.





This is my new favorite picture!

Hello!!

Welcome to our blog! We decided this is the best way to keep everyone up to date on our lives. We'll try and keep it updated regularly with news and information.

We're new to this, so bear with us as we figure it all out.