Leaving Prescott

We stayed in Prescott, AZ with some crazy vegan bus-loving hippies for a couple of days but didn't take any pictures. Haha, and my spellcheck didn't recognize the word Vegan. It's very pretty there with the hills and pines and red rock, but I didn't feel at home. Our drive from there to California was also pretty. I COULD NOT BELIEVE THE VIEW OF JOSHUA TREE NATIONAL PARK. We came in from the east on Highway 62. It was ridiculously beautiful. It looked like a fake back drop to an old western movie. The prairies were long and flat and then the mountains just shot straight up into this big jagged mystery. Our camera couldn't capture it, so if you get the chance you should take a trip out there. Most people just punch through the trip from Arizona to California on Interstate 10 but you won't get the insanely incredible and untainted view that you would from the old ghost highway. I guess it's a rock climbers destination, and a Volkswagen baby haven. I apologize ahead of time for my awkwardly posed picture. I don't remember what I was thinking about.

We see some odd stuff on the back roads and this time we ran across a shoe corral. Once upon a time we saw a shoe tree just smothered in thousands of pairs of shoes when we were driving across the loneliest highway in the nation, so this fence wasn't all that impressive. Still, it's interesting that so many people would dump their shoes in the middle of the desert. We also noticed this GORGEOUS full moon in front of us. It was a beautiful pink color and it looked ENORMOUS coming over the mountains. Then as we looked behind us we saw a beautiful sunset that was perfectly paralleled with it's opposite. It was one of those special reminders that life is a gift and it was another manifestation that God is a perfect scientist.... or mathematician.... or geologist.... or something.... or everything.

Snowflake/Taylor

After visiting "the valley" of the sun we went north to Taylor, AZ to visit my folks. There's not a whole lot going on in the middle of Northern Arizona.... so we found some stuff to entertain ourselves. A long time ago my mom once mentioned that she thought it would be fun to have a red bathroom door. So when people visit the house and ask where the restroom is we can say, "down the hall, it's the red door." People need to realize that I don't have a bad memory, just a selective memory and I'll remember the little stuff, especially if you say you like something-- you might get it as a gift five years later. So while my mom was at work, Jake and I took the door off the hinges and just started painting it as a surprise. Luckily, my mom liked the bright red color. As it turns out, when she was a young girl she had painted the bathroom door in the house she grew up in--- bright red. So her mom had a red door and now my mom has a red door.... which kinda fits the black & white movie star bathroom theme.

Then after battering up some chile rellenos, I had a pan full of non-reusable flour left over. It was a windy day, so of course I wanted to go throw the dust straight up in the air and watch it fly across the desert. Jake thought I would come back covered in flour so he had the camera ready, but it was a success. This is my 'told ya so' face.

Then my mom found an old pie tin so that meant it was time for target practice. Our men are pretty handy with sling shots. I don't know if their skills could catch us some dinner, so maybe we'll stick to using the pie tin for pie instead. We had a fun visit and once again, my mom offered an extra bedroom in their house to us for as loooong as we would like to stay. She even asked around town about some jobs that Jake and I might qualify for. Hmmm, you think my mom misses her kids just a little?

OHHHH, and I can't believe I almost forgot this part of our visit. We just happened to be there over Valentine's Day which meant we were able to attend the infamous Valentine's Party that my Mom & Dad throw. There's a lot that goes into the planning of it and if you've never been, well I'm going to let you in on a few of the secrets. One cute feature of the party is the Sweetheart Tree where the men get to "carve" their initials into the bark along with their sweethearts name. This is the carving Jake left for me that everyone else at the party got to see...

*SPOILER ALERT* Then the women left the room to make Valentine's cards for their hubbies while the men drew a picture of our first dates together. After the women guessed which drawings belonged to whom, the men recited a personal poem/borrowed poem/song or whatever they wanted to present to their wives. *SPOILER ALERT*

Let me set the scene for you: Jake and I are visiting from out of town. My parents have invited approximately ten couples (or 20 people) to the party, most of whom I don't know, all of whom Jake doesn't know. Some of these couples are from my parents church, some are work friends, and some neighbors. It's pretty difficult for some of these old guys to read a poem to their wife in front of a bunch of strangers. Somebody gets the ball rolling-- the wife sits in a chair in the middle of the room and her husband stands in front of her and reads aloud the words to a country song that reminds him of his wife. She gets teary eyed. It's cute. Another man takes the stage and gets down on one knee in front of his wife to recite the poem that took him weeks to write. Then my dad goes.... a poem he wrote about the different logos on multiple T-shirts that my mom owns (silently referring to the area of her body that is underneath the logo on her shirt. Men....) It was funny.

Eventually it comes down to Jake's turn and he leaves the room to return with a guitar. If you know Jake, then you've already realized that you can never know what to expect. In front of all of these people that he didn't know he begins playing a tune that seems familiar to me. Then the words start and I recognize exactly what song he's performing. My smile gets big but my face gets red. Some people in the room have heard this song before and some never have. Either way, he has the crowd laughing hysterically. People are literally holding their sides and close to rolling on the floor. I've never seen my dad laugh so hard-- tears were streaming down his beet red face and he couldn't catch his breath long enough to even make a laughing noise. It was a classic moment that I'm still getting comments about on facebook. My mom caught a short video of it but I won't embarrass Jake like that over the world wide web. So what was the song?

Tucson/Phoenix

I REALLY wanted Jake to write a post about New Mexico.... and I think he will. It's just taking a while so I'm moving ahead with our trip documentation because I've gotta get some of this blogging out of the way. I remember visiting Tucson once with my family when I was about 22 years old. It must have been the hottest day of the year and I thought to myself, how could anybody live here? We tried to sit outside but there was no shade, so we sat on a big rock. A brown rock, surrounded by brown dirt and brown houses. The air was dry and dusty and as far as the eye could see, well the eye couldn't see that far because of the heat distorted light waves, but there was no plant or animal life in the vicinity. Maybe it was a new housing development out in the middle of nowhere, but it seemed like a very depressing place.

However, this trip to Tucson was surprisingly pleasant. The weather was perfect and the downtown area had plenty of old trees and good mexican food. "Old" Tucson was very charming. We also just happened to be in town when the Gem Show was there and we were able to appreciate some million year old fossilized dinosaur eggs. Our couchsurfing hosts were also very cool. They met each other in the Peace Corp and she is about ten years older than him. He works at the University of Arizona and was able to give us a tour of the Pottery Preservation Collection. It was very impressive.

Jake also walked up to and met his first Saguaro Cactus. Seeing cactus covered hills on the side of the freeway is one thing, but to get up close and personal is a whole other experience. Jake didn't realize they were so ENORMOUS. The desert definitely has it's own kind of beauty, sunsets usually produce some lovely colors. We also saw a couple of really pretty coyotes crossing the highway, honestly, their coats were white and fluffy and gorgeous. Tucson certainly made a better impression on me this time around. I think I could actually live there.... but if I were to live in the middle of a sandpit, I think I'd choose a beach over a desert.

We saw this guy "driving" his horses down the street somewhere between Thatcher and Tucson. I think he had just ordered from the Burger Kind Drive-through. I guess crazy gas prices are making some people try crazy things. I'm glad my camera was handy because this was just too ridiculous of a photo to pass up.

The next stop we made was in the gigantic city of Phoenix where we hung out with our awesome friends Travis & Angela for a week. We played ourselves some frisbee golf and had a blast at the super cheap farmers markets. While Jake and I were riding in the back seat of their car I didn't give them any warning up front I was going to take their picture. I just said SMILE and tried to snap a very candid shot-- but they vogued it up so quickly it was like second nature to them. Look at how weird these two kids are! That's why Jake and I get along with them so well. I like the reflection of Angela's mouth in the mirror. This picture couldn't have been more well unplanned.