Early to Rise

Alisha says: Our mornings usually start before the sun comes up in order to try to beat the heat a little bit. We have been mixing it up with both road and mtb riding. We have met some members of our ward and community to ride with and have been on a few group rides which has been fun.

Good morning sunshine

Mountain biking in Usery Park

Road riding along the Salt River

In the water

Dave says: Phoenix is fun but it can be hot this time of year. We've been waking up most days to exercise at 5 am (usually mountain or road biking). However, we've also taken advantage of the heat to do a few fun water-related trips.

The first was floating down the Salt River which is less than 15 minutes from our house. We rented tubes and got dropped off at the top and made our way down for about 6 miles to the take out point. The Salt is a pretty lazy river with only occasional small rapids to keep things interesting and speed up the adventure. Along the way there are lots of birds and wild horses to look at. The river is also one big party, even on a weekday. Even with tons of sunscreen on we managed to cook ourselves a bit over several hours. It's pretty cool to be in the middle of the desert and have a giant river not too far from your house.

Our second water adventure was a fun canyoneering trip with my dad down the Salome Jug. I was almost a mean husband who kept Alisha from going but she persuaded me and it turned out to be a good time. It was really hot on the trail which made getting in the creek and even doing some swimming feel great. The water temperature was perfect for a hot day and there was lots of wading, sliding, and swimming on this hike. At the end there is one big rappel down into a pool so we brought ropes and harnesses. On the way back to Phoenix, we drove the Apache Trail past all the lakes and stopped at Tortilla Flats for a bit of wild west ambiance and some good food.

A Decade of Love

Alisha says: Yesterday Dave and I celebrated out 10 year wedding anniversary by hiking 10 miles, one mile for each year that we have been married. That sounds cheesy and we originally only planned on hiking eight miles but when Dave saw that we could make it a loop instead of an out and back he just couldn't turn it down. We tried to escape the heat a little and headed to the higher elevation around Payson. We hiked up Horton Creek to the spring and then made it a loop by going across the Highline Trail and back on the Derrick Trail. There's nothing I love more than going on an adventure with my love. Actually the past 10 years have felt like one big adventure. I love Dave so much and am so proud of all that he had done and become.

The Biggest News of All

We are finally expecting a baby and are so happy! I am currently in my 15th week and am due on December 3, 2015. Getting pregnant turned out to be much harder than it should be and it was quite the journey for us, in the end we had some help from science through the amazing process of in vitro fertilization. I was lucky and didn't experience much sickness during the first trimester and have been able to stay really active which has been nice. I'm starting to get a little baby bump although right now it just looks like I am a little pudgy around the middle.

I didn't post anything about this while we were going through it because it is very personal and we wanted to keep it to ourselves until we had a bun in the oven but I've uploaded and backdated a few blog entries about our journey.

IVF Part 1: Waiting, Miscarriage, IUI, and Finally IVF
IVF Part 2: Egg Retrieval
IVF Part 3: Waiting
IVF Part 4: Transfer Day
IVF Part 5: Blood Test Day
IVF Part 6: Ultrasounds

Arizona Livin'

Alisha says: We are getting all settled in here at our new home. We have been getting up at 5 am everyday to beat the heat and go riding, either mountain bike or road bike. We have several mountain bike trails really close to our house that Dave has really been enjoying and we also have access to good road riding right out of our neighborhood. Then we have been unpacking and finding everything a place in the new house which is pretty easy since we now have way more space than stuff to fill it. We have been enjoying an afternoon swim in the pool to cool off and relax. We had a couple cloudy days and a few rain storms to help ease us into Arizona life but recently it has been about 105 degrees everyday.

We have already enjoyed being closer to family and have had several dinners, birthday parties, and outings together.

Tough Goodbyes

Alisha says: It is hard to know exactly what to say or be prepared for the emotions that come with saying goodbye to someone when you know it is the last time you will get to see them. On our drive to Mesa we stopped in the tiny town of Central, Utah to visit my mom's parents, my Grandpa and Grandma Christensen. Around the end of April my grandpa was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and basically given six weeks to live. I am so glad that we had the opportunity to spend a few hours with them.

At first it was hard getting the sad stuff out of the way but then it was a really great visit. He looked thin and walked with a cane but other than that he looked good and his smile was still the same. We ate a yummy lunch together that my grandma had prepared while visiting and having my grandpa tell us a few stories from his life. Some fun ones were of him doing a little boxing in his younger days and another when him and his buddies hitch hiked all the way to Salt Lake City for the days of '47 Pioneer Celebration at Salt Air and then how they couldn't get anyone to pick them up on the way back until they came up with a little act to do on the side of the road. They soon had not only a ride but the guy was towing a car that he was taking to Provo and decided that he would just let them deliver the car for him. That would never happen now days! The next ride they got the guy ended up liking them so much that he went out of his way to take them all the way home and even bought them dinner on the way.

We talked about how my grandpa taught me to toast bread, butter it, and then sprinkle sugar on it. I thought this was awesome when I was a kid and only had it when we got to stay at grandma and grandpas house.

My grandpa is a farmer and has about 500 acres of pasture land that he has put a lot of hard work into. He spent hours and hours, clearing trees, spraying thistle and tending the cows out on the pasture. The pasture was a family gathering spot at Easter where we would have a fun picnic. Dave has never been to the pasture and when we got talking about the pasture my grandpa's eyes lit up and he wanted to know if Dave wanted to go for a ride out and see it. So we loaded up in the car and went for a drive to see the pasture and the farm where my grandpa grew up continuing to talk and hear stories the whole way.

Moving Day

Alisha says: Moving day is always a big day, we had everything packed and our rental house mostly cleaned so that when the movers showed up all they had to do was load and we would do some last minute cleaning when the rooms were completely empty. They called and were apparently having some trouble with the truck so they ended up being over two hours late. It sucked but it gave us a chance to take one more walk around Ravenna Park and have some lunch before they showed up. They finished loading everything and we had the final inspection from our landlord just in time to start our 23 hour 1,500 mile journey to Mesa during Seattle rush hour.

 I felt bad for the driver having to get his huge truck in front of our house on a really narrow street. He wasn't very happy about it and said that they should have used a shuttle but he did some tricky driving and got it in there.

 Goodbye Seattle! One last look at the Space needle.

 And now we're stuck in traffic.

We made it down the road a few hours before stopping for the night. The next day we drove all day to Salt Lake City where we got to visit with Richard, Brittany, and Arley and meet my new niece Olivia.

The following day we drove to Richfield, Utah where we stopped and have a nice visit with my grandparents before continuing to drive for the rest of the day finally arriving in Mesa at our new home around 11:00 pm.