Road trip, Seattle to Phoenix.

By now you know that the title of our blog is “Newlyweds in the desert.” (If you didn't know that, look up. See? Newlyweds in the Desert) Well, this is the story of how we got here.

When Mike and I were trying to decide where we wanted to live after we got married there was a lot of discussion but to put it simply and bluntly, we decided that we couldn’t afford to live in Seattle and we didn’t want to live in Spokane (where his parents live). I lived in Phoenix for 5 years when I was younger and always loved it so I made the suggestion, not really thinking anything would come of it, but I think it just felt like the right thing for both of us.

Although we have both been excited about this move for a long time, and even though a big deciding factor was our proximity to ASU, (where Mike hopes to attend law school in the next few years) as I sit here at my desk and look out at my beautiful, palm-tree filled view, I am once again reminded how lucky I am to have a husband who would move 2,000 miles from the place he lived his entire life, just to make me happy.

We got back from our Honeymoon on a Sunday evening and Monday morning we were on our way to Spokane, where all of our stuff had been in storage since we left WSU, to spend the night with Mike's parents and get things ready to go. While we were there we said goodbye to Mike’s college roommate, Justin. I am not a fan of goodbyes and Justin has been like a brother to Mike and I, so I’m not surprised to be getting a little teary eyed even just thinking about it now.

One of my favorite pictures. I stood there awkwardly not taking it for a few minutes just so that I could revel it it's cuteness.

We love you, Justin. Hope to see you again soon!

So Tuesday morning we set out, and we made it about 15 hours with mike driving all but about 100 miles of it. (I think this was 50% because he is a great guy and 50% because he doesn’t like my driving). We spent the night with my Grandma in Richfield and then decided that we weren’t going to make the rest of the 9 hour drive in one day because we got a sweet deal on a room at Circus Circus in Las Vegas and Mike had never been. There’s so much to do in Vegas that there’s no way to cram everything into one night, but we tried anyway.

The next morning we finished the drive, and arrived at our new home in Mesa.

It was beautiful the whole way. I think living among so much greenery for so long has really made me appreciate the beauty of the desert.

They gave us the wrong code for the lock box and we had some trouble getting in, which I found terribly amusing for some reason.

This is our (empty) home. We have been working on painting and unpacking but I don’t think I will consider us completely moved in until the last box is unpacked.

Living/dining/kitchen area

Master bedroom/bathroom

Aforementioned beautiful view

Finally, a side note to anyone who got us a wedding present, THANK YOU. We got so much really great stuff and are so excited to use all of it. Also a big thanks to my parents, who made the same road trip about a week after us, but with a moving truck and a Smart Car in tow. Mike and I are truly blessed to have such wonderful and supportive friends and family.

Honeymoon in Alaska

Hello all and welcome to our blog! We are in our new home and as of today are officially connected to the internet (yay!) But our moving van hasn’t arrived yet so we have been pretty much living off of the bare essentials for the past week (not so yay). But don’t worry, we have been passing the time by painting, assembling IKEA furniture, and painting some more. Mike has been especially busy, working hard at Costco and bringing home that bacon.

I was going to write my first entry all about our wedding day BUT, even though our pictures are up on the photographer’s website (http://galleries.always-focused-on-you.com/,password: Arizona), I don’t have my hard copies yet so I can’t upload them for all of you to see. This means that unfortunately, you’re just going to have to settle for an entry about our honeymoon.

Mike’s parents were kind enough to send us on a fabulous honeymoon which we had a BLAST on.

We got up ridiculously early to catch the train to Vancouver.

Then we boarded Holland America’s ms Zaandam for 14 days of Alaskan fun.

We saw the sites.

Hiked to glaciers.

Polar bear plunged.

Had crazy adventures 150 feet off the ground.

We even saw a few friends along the way.

And Mike’s favorite part: the delicious food.

All in all, I would say it was a pretty great honeymoon. If you’re in the market for honeymoons, I would definitely recommend a cruise. Waking up every morning at a new destination is the way to go. Two weeks of relaxation was just perfect for unwinding from all that wedding stress but by the end, we were ready to get back on land and start honeymoon part dos: road trip to Phoenix. But we will save that blog post for another day.