Good Idea Bad Idea

Good idea:  Watching a movie at a drive-in  theatre.

Bad Idea: Watching a movie at a drive-in theatre in Arizona

So we went fully equipped with what we thought we needed: pile of blankets, pillows, and popcorn.  Typical stuff to bring right?  WRONG!  What we failed to bring were FANS and our car instantly became a life size oven!  It was still pretty rad.   It's hard not to enjoy a drive in theater, even if you become drenched in sweat.  We watched Pirates of the Carribean and loved it.  Matt was so stoked that he wore his pirate striped shirt.  Fun times in the desert

Its Always Sunny in Arizona

It's always sunny in Arizona.  There hasn't been one day here where I've woken up to a cloudy sky.  So there are pros and cons here.

Pro: killer tan year round like this one.

Con: ..no more bare feet.  Shoes must be worn everywhere you go because A. the concrete is too hot and B. it is so dusty here that your feet get ridiculously dirty.  Say goodbye to these beautifully callused feet.

Pro: gas station slurpies.  Consider this slurpie capital.

Con: car is harmful to the human flesh when sitting out in 100+ weather.  You must enter your car with caution.  I don't know when I will learn this lesson.  

Pro:  to cut costs on the electric bill, we have rigged up a clothes line on our balcony.  Time it takes our dryer to dry clothes: 30 min. Time it takes the Arizona sun to dry clothes: 10 min.

Con: even the shade is no good anymore.  The heat just follows you like an annoying person following you around with a blow dryer.  

Pro:  5 words for ya: Wet and Wild Season Pass

Con: Freak dust storms like this:

I actually love these storms:)

Pro:  annnd best of all the heat doesn't scare away the ducks!  Probably the best thing you can do here in Arizona is picnic with the ducks. 

Home Sweet Apartment

Can I tell you how fun it was to move into a 3rd floor apartment?  Well I'm not going to say. Anyone who wants to find out has to come over the next time we move.  I think I grew an extra muscle on my arms.  Matt.. he grew lots of muscles. And now every time we buy something we can't help but think what goes up must come down.  

Anyway we are in the process of painting bedroom furniture so really the living room and kitchen are the closest to being all put together.  So thats where the tour begins and ends as of now.  So sit back and enjoy the journey through the estate.

Before shot #1 -Living Room

After shots

Matt's wall

Before shot #2 - Kitchen

After shots

Cline staples.  Cereal shelf.

Richardson staples.  Blue Bell shelf.

Welcome to our home

In the next couple of blog posts we will be giving a tour of the Cline residence as it slowly comes together. But in the mean time,, here is a failed attempt at a thank you card picture. The idea was to give everyone a lil peak at what their gift cards have bought us to start our little home.. but due to technical difficulties this is as good as it gets. So it may not be printable but its still “postable” More pictures to come

Dear Photograph

This is my recent favorite new discovery.  These are pictures from this new blog started only a month ago where people "take a picture of a picture from the past in the present." 
Check it out here: dearphotograph
And needless to say this has just been added to our to do list in Idaho.  A-ma-zing!

Happy Fathers Day!

Happy belated Father's Day!! Especially to this Dad, He's my favorite:          

   

                                     

                           

[So Matt and I have been adding details to this post here and there, so the perspective might change every now and then..dont be confused.]


Welp, in case you haven't heard, Matt and I are MARRIED!!! And I'm happy to report that 1 month has gone by and we are still married. whew!


It's been a jammed packed couple of weeks that I wish we could re-play over and over again. The wedding was a blast! I hope it was for everyone else as well. All of the months of preparation paid off. I did the math of it all and got the following equation:

Fantastic decorations - rain - mosquitos + family + friends + CAKE BALLS = Perfection!!

Matt's family flew down friday night and got a good taste of Texas. They LOVED the humidity!:) It was fun seeing them all again. The last time (and first time) I met Matt and his family was Thanksgiving 2005. Matt had just gotten back from his mission and invited Brett and I to come have dinner with him and his family in Shelley. I was just the homesick tag-a-long sister at the time, but I still remember that day and what a great bunch of people I had met.


We had lots of family fly in from my side as well. All of my siblings were able to fly down plus many aunts and uncles.. it was all so special to me:) And then of course we had many of our friends come as well. We had a fun little crowd of people we love:)


My family had to put up with my bridezilla craziness as I was trying to finish all the decorations. Its amazing how much there is to do when the day arrives, no matter how prepared you think you are. Everyone pitched in though and we got everything together. Annnd long story short, wedding and reception went smoothly.

   

                     

Then there was that cruise! It was the greatest vacation of our lives! It had a rocky start, the airline lost our bag and Allison almost didn't make it on the boat because she had a copy of her birth certificate (not the real thing). But the airline got the bag to us in time and I made the cut regardless of the birth certificate ordeal and made it on that stinkin boat before Matt left without me! It was a 7 day cruise with 4 destinations - Cozumel, Roatan, Belize, and Costa Maya. It was perty cool. We ate so much pineapple and ice cream.. mmmm..


We rented a scooter in 2 of our destination cities. Definitely recommend it. It was cheaper than a one way cab ride and we got it for the whole day and could go where ever we wanted. Roatan was our favorite place. It wasn't as touristy as the others and was just so beautiful. we bought and ate the most delicious bananas and mangos from a girl's fruit stand she had set up out of her house, we saw a monkey!, and just had fun riding around and seeing the sites.


In the other cities we snorkeled, saw some ruins, kayaked, ate delicious Mexican food, drank THE BEST Horchata, and did some shopping. Man, the locals attacked us like we were walking money signs. They had "everything we needed" at "the best price" and then would NOT stop hounding us until we told them NO! :)

Our last day we arrived back in New Orleans where we had the day to roam around until our flight left that evening. So we walked around French Quarters, checked out Bourbon street, looked at some art, listened to some jazz, and ate some alligator and jumbaylia. Cool architecture and culture, but dirty, smelly city.

And that was it in a nut shell! Thank you to everyone who came and celelbrated with us, and helped in any way! And to all our friends and family who were not able to come but sent us their wishes, it has meant a lot to us! Thumbs up to marriage!

                                                             ciararichardsonphotography