AZ State Fair

I have many fond memories of going to the LA County Fair while my family lived in CA. I remember seeing a cow (or a lamb) giving birth and I remember eating my very first cheese on a stick. delish. So when I saw the AZ State Fair setting up shop I decided that Matt needed to experience all the wonderfulness that comes along with the state fair.

We went on a Friday because it's half price and all of the games and rides are a dollar each and also some of the food is $1. We began our experience by viewing the livestock exhibit. There we saw tons of rabbits; baby rabbits, big rabbits, fluffy rabbits and red eyed rabbits. We also saw llamas, sheep, chickens and roosters. Then we went on a ride called "Peep Show". It normally would cost $3.50 per person to ride this 15 second car around in the dark with random mummies lighting up in the corners.......We rode some other fun rides like the ferris wheel and the haunted house. The best ride was the one that takes you up to the very top and then drops you all the way to the bottom. So scary, especially when you realize that the ride is collapsible and fits into a truck! But so very fun when you make it off alive.

We also saw some shows; we saw the hypnotist act, which was very interesting. We saw the Hot Dog Pig Races, which featured piglets running an obstacle course and wiener dogs running the same course with little hot dog costumes on! We also saw the worlds smallest horse and a 1000 lb pig. We played a lot of carnival game and ate lots of good greasy fair food. We had funnel cakes, pizza, frozen lemonade, and candied nuts. We planned on staying for a couple of hours but as we were leaving we couldn't pass up the Demolition Derby! That was surprisingly enjoyable. It's fun to watch cars smash into each other! We ended up staying for 8 1/2 hours and I'd say we got our $$ worth!

Time Out Again!!!

When I heard a few months back that Time Out for Women was coming to Phoenix in October, I knew I had to go. Two years ago I was able to go to Time Out with my mom in Philly and it was a great experience.

This year Time Out was on Friday night from 6:30-9:30 pm and Saturday 9-3:45pm. My SIL, Cynthia, and my friend, Alexa joined me. Friday night the line up included, Virginia Pearce, Sheri Dew and musical guest, Dallyn Vail Bayles. When we arrived they announced that Wendy Watson Nelson was going to make a special appearance! When you think about all of these wonderful women and man :), you can just imagine how awesome the night was. These women are so hilarious and real, it was fun to see them in such a casual setting.

Saturday the speakers included, DeAnne Flynn, Amanda Dickson, Merrilee Boyack, Mariama Kallon, and Brad Wilcox. The musical guest was Mercy River. Saturday was equally amazing. Time Out is really something all women should attend. The best part is that Time Out comes to Phoenix every year so I get to go whenever I want!

When It Rains, It Pours....

literally!

When Arizona gets a storm it means business. Last Tuesday it was raining off and on and when I left for class from LDSFS (in Glendale) it wasn't raining too hard. However, as I got closer to downtown the rain started up again and the traffic slowed waaayyy down. By the time I got to the parking lot it was pouring cats and dogs; I couldn't even get out of my car because I would have been soaking wet after 2 seconds. Finally it stopped raining and I was able to get to class but our professor was stuck in traffic because they closed down 2 highways due to flooding! I waited along with 10 others and when he got there an hour later he decided just to cancel class, I think he was super frazzled. Meanwhile Matt was still at work because the rain had flooded the Hyatt and almost every employee was helping fill buckets of water and dumping them outside. It was perfectly timed because when he was done, I was done and we caravaned home on the side streets. That took forever because everyone else had the same idea! And it was scary to drive thru the scary parts of town late at night.....when we got home the ground was dry and there wasn't a drop of rain in our trash can that had been left out all day. So there was a huge storm 15 miles away from us which included hail the size of golf balls (or the size of baseballs and tennis balls in some areas), flooding, 2 closed highways and two tornadoes and we didn't even get one stinking drop of rain! and that my friends concludes my story of the super storm Arizona style.

Downtown Phoenix, you can see the Hyatt. It's the brown building with the round cap on top (looks like a hat)

I still have a social life....

I've really been trying to think of things to blog about but my mind is mush. September is a complete blur to me...literally...I can't remember anything I did, besides papers and driving back and forth from home to internship to school and back again. School is apparently my life!

I've decided that once in awhile school work can wait and I need to get out of the house and party! Well a couple of week ago Groupon had a deal to go see Rascal Flatts. I called Matt and asked him if he would want to go and he begrudgingly agreed to take me. Let the record show that I have seen The Moody Blues, The Doors and Dennis Deyoung and Matt has never had to go to one of my concerts. I've tried to go to some but they are always on Sunday. So then our friends Alexa and Steven said they were going to go too! Yay So we got there early enough to be in the front of the lawn seats and we rocked out to Chris Young, Kellie Pickler (who might I add is the only reason matt agreed to come in the first place!) We watched her on American Idol and both like her. Rascal Flatts performed a ton of their songs and were up on stage for a good 2 1/2 hours. It was their 10th year anniversary together so they put on a great show. This was my first country concert and it was fun to see many a cowboy hats and boots and not so fun to see the shortest bootiest shorts ever known to mankind!

Matt even had a great time when Rascal Flatts started playing Journey!

Matt and I really liked it when RF said they are a good family band and then they had these scandalous girls dancing on the screens!

At the end they had Kellie Pickler and Chris Young come out again and they all sang a song together. Might I add that Kellie Pickler was SO good and I really feel the need to go buy her cds.

sweet 16

My little sister Jenna turns 16 today :) She is super excited because now she can date and get her permit. What a great age haha. The other day I told Matt that Jenna was turning 16 and he couldn't believe it. We always talk about how my smallest sister, Hailey can't remember life without Matt because she was 5 when we started dating. Matt made a comment along the lines that Jenna probably doesn't remember life without him either because she was only 9 when he came along. I let him know that at 9 you usually have some memories! He was pretty proud though.

Happy Birthday Jenna! Here are a few things that make jenny so unique: She loves to film movies and saved up her money to purchase her own video camera. Her latest film titled, "Bride Stalker" is an hour long and is quite impressive! She is on the color guard team at school and practices almost every week day and all Saturday. She plays the piano and violin. She's feisty, especially if she doesn't have a good nights sleep! She's a good girl and a good sister. Love you Jenny Ju Ju Bee!