Disneyland

Jason and I took a roadtrip to Anaheim, CA to visit Disneyland for Halloween weekend. Since deciding to relocate to Indianapolis in December 09, we felt we should take advantage of our season passes to the park while we can. The decorations for Halloween were really cool, especially at the haunted mansion, tower of terror, space mountain, and down main street. California Adventure park had a candy corn theme that was really neat too. It was beautiful and 85 degrees the whole weekend. Here are some of my favorite pictures from our trip.

Tinkhams Gone Wild

Gary, Ali, and Lauren came out to stay with us for the weekend! As usual, we had a full itinerary planned. We went to Westgate (an area of shops and restaurants close to our house) to eat at Margaritaville. Had the best cheeseburger EVER! We also took a roadtrip up to the Grand Canyon. Its about a four hour car ride. Jason and I have been there several times since living in Arizona but this was the first time we had been there on a clear, warm day. No hail, snow, rain, or fog.... so we actually got to see the Canyon and the Colorado River!
In front of the fountains at Westgate in Glendale:


Mr. and Mrs. Skinner


The Grand Canyon:










On Sunday morning we woke up early to go hiking a few minutes away from our house at Thunderbird Park.





Look how little Lauren looks!

Carving Pumpkins

It really doesn't feel much like fall here in Arizona (or any season for that matter, except summer) with it still being over 100 degrees during the month of October. Trust me, I'm not complaining though, I am the first one to go to the pool! We decided to carve some pumpkins to get into the Halloween spirit. Here is one of Heinz and I as I was gutting the pumpkin. I did not realize that he had ingested several pumpkin seeds at this point until we noticed his fur was orange around his mouth.


The finished product- I carved a saguaro to represent!



Dakota and Heinzy- Precious!!!

Sedona with Rob, Sharon, and Lily

Our good friends Rob and Sharon (and their little one, Lily!) recently relocated up north to Cottonwood, AZ while Rob finishes up his last clinical rotation for OT school. Jason and I drove up to meet them in Cottonwood and then we all went to Sedona from there. We had a fantastic lunch in Sedona and then walked around the shops and enjoyed home-made ice cream. Here are some pictures we took from the top of Airport Mesa Road. A storm was just rolling in!

Jason's Graduation

Jason graduated on Aug. 28, 09. It has been a fast two years. Jay's parents (Andy and Joyce) and his aunt and uncle (John and Sue) stayed with us over the weekend. Unfortunately it was one of the hottest weeks of the summer (115 almost every day!). still had fun! Here are a few pictures outside of our apartment before we left for Midwestern.
Dakota and Heinz. Perfect!!

The ceremony was about an hour and a half. We took a few pictures outside afterwards.

Us with Rob, Sharon and Lily.

We had a few days with everyone after Jason's graduation to take them out and show them around Arizona! We rented a 6 passenger van to drive all of us up north. We took the scenic route through Oak Creek Canyon up to Flagstaff, then back to Sedona to go shopping. We also stopped at the Holy Temple of the Cross church on the way out of Sedona to take some pictures.

Oak Creek Canyon:


Sedona:

Another night we went to Westgate in Glendale near our house and ate at Margaritaville. We also had a small three day addiction to Cold Stone ice cream :).

Hot Air Balloon Ride

My mom and Blair came out to visit us over the first week in March. One of the first days they were here, we went hiking at Thunderbird Park near our house in the morning. Afterwards we went to get a few things to make lunch, and we saw several hot air balloons taking off. Jason and I see these every morning and night by where we live and we've always talked about wanting to do it sometime. We decided right then and there that we should try to do a balloon ride while we were all together. We called and scheduled it for that same day at sunset. Once we arrived, we got to be a part of getting the balloon ready for take-off. There were about five other balloons leaving with ours. The actual ride wasn't as scary as I thought it might be. A guy in our balloon proposed to his girlfriend while we were in flight! On the way back down to land, we saw a coyote running by us. We had a rough landing (in a desert shrub) and everyone had to crouch down in the basket and hold on for dear life... its funny now but at the time I thought I was going to be thrown out. Once we "crash landed" in the desert, vans came to meet us and set up tables and candles for our dinner. We had champagne and really good appetizer and dessert snacks while out in the middle of nowhere with the scorpions. It was a great experience and I would do it again!