Scrapblogging

I made a digital scrapbook from our awesome cruise over Thanksgiving, 2009. It was the first cruise Jason and I have ever been on, and definitely won't be the last. We went with some of our great friends, Matt and Stacy. This type of scrapbooking is so much fun (and more cost efficient) than the cutting and pasting way. I made it into a book and sent it to Stacy for her Birthday in March. On this cruise we sailed from Miami to the Bahamas..... and made it without any sea sickness. Hmmm I wonder where our next one will be sailing to. :)

Nursing School

I'm really excited to say that I started nursing school in March. I just completed my 7th week of the program. To say that its been challenging is an understatement. I'm taking a class (BIO) in addition to the nursing program, so the first month has been rough taking a total of 23 credit hours. One of my classes is done next week so I will have a little more time. Yesterday I had my first patients and it was so much fun. I had all age ranges, from 81 to 8 months old (so cute!!). It was so exciting and now I can't wait for clincals to start in July. Our first block consists of full time classes and a lab to expand our knowledge base about anything and everything medical, and our 12 hour hospital clinicals start next block. Nursing is such an awesome field. Our class and instructors are amazing! Here is a picture of our group:

I'm really looking forward to my three week break in June/July. We have already planned a trip home to Indy to visit our friends and family and see our new little Niece :).

Our 3 Year Anniversary

To celebrate our three year anniversary (March 24), we went to California for the weekend. Its so great living out here when so many fun places are in driving distance. We dropped the Ruffies off at Camp early Friday morning and started our trip to LA. We went to Disneyland and had so much fun like we always do there. The weather was great. We almost ended up not going because I was just getting over a week long "stomach bug", but luckily I felt better. One night we ate at our favorite place there, Rainforest Cafe. I can't believe we've already been married for three years, and together for almost 8!! We feel so fortunate, and find ourselves looking back at old pictures often at our past adventures and memories. I now realize its not such a bad thing to be obsessed with taking pictures and documenting things... I think I get it from my Grandma Tinkham. :)






This is California Adventure at night.














Us inside the "C"



















Paradise Pier








Here is the link to all of our pics from our weekend:

http://public.fotki.com/caskinner/our-3-year-annivers/

Balloon Volleyball

Jason had decorated today when I woke up for my 26th Birthday. Heinz LOVES the mini balloons that were blown up around the apartment. He is amazing at playing "balloon volleyball" but we only got a short clip and then he got tired.


Here is another clip of Heinz and Daddy.

Christine's Christmas Gift

This is the book I made for Christine as a Christmas gift from our vacation in November. Heres to planning the next one!! ;)

Ruffies in Sedona

Our friend Emily (from IU) was out in Scottsdale for work last week and stayed a few extra days to see us. We ended up doing a lot of hiking since it has been around 70 here every day. I can't believe we are going to gain 45-50 degrees of heat in the next 5 months...hmmm lets not think about that right now!

One of our favorite hikes is the summit trail on Squaw Peak Mountain. It leads to the highest point in Phoenix. It was the first time we have ever hiked it at sunset. This is one of those hikes that NEVER gets any easier!!

Jill, Emily and I about half way up.

Us at the top.

View of the sunset on our way down.


Over the weekend we decided to take the dogs with us to go hiking in Sedona. It happened to fall on Dakota's birthday- she turned 4 years old, already! She still looks and acts like a little pup to us. On the drive up they were SO excited.

Just getting into Sedona, eating our picnic lunch before our hike.
Emily and I.

Heinz and Dakota

The Skinner Family
Dakota and Daddy!!

We had such a great time. The dogs were wiped out for two days after coming back home. February looks to be a busy month with school for me and work for Jay. I am currently only taking classes on Tues/Thurs. and anxiously awaiting for the full time nursing program to start in March. This weekend we are ready to see the Colts win in the Superbowl! We plan to head back to Sedona at the end of the month when my Mom comes out to visit.

Flagstaff

A few Saturdays ago we planned a trip up to Flagstaff to play in the snow with our friends. We had SUCH a fun time with Jimmy, Ahmed and Sarah. It was only a two hour drive to Wing Mountain in Flag where we put our $7 sleds to use!! There was a little over a foot of snow where we were. The guys packed a cooler to have a "snow picnic" out of the back of the car. Although Jimmy is from Phoenix, he has never seen snow before! So hard to imagine that, being from IN. We all dressed like we were going to live in igloos in Alaska. Turned out to be 45 degrees and we shed the coats pretty fast. While sledding down the largest hill, Jason's sled had a small crack that got caught on some snow, causing him to rotate and then flip over backwards down the hill. All of us saw it, but we so wish we could have his wipe-out on video!! (He is fine :) )

We made a snowman and then headed back to the car to start our trip back to 70 degrees in Phoenix. Another fun AZ adventure with great friends!! :)

New Years in Las Vegas

Over New Years we met Andy, Joyce, Joe and Emily in Las Vegas!! We had a nice 40 minute flight from Phoenix. We met up on Dec. 31st and stayed through Jan 4th. We stayed at Bills Gambling Hall, which is in the center of the strip next to the Flamingo. For dinner on New Years Eve, we ate at this amazing italian "hole in the wall" behind our hotel called Battista's. It is a lot of food, but sooo good. After dinner we walked to the Paris and rode to the top of the Eiffel Tower. It was so beautiful to be up there at night! We got great pictures of the Bellagio's fountain show too.



The actual night of New Years was INSANE and we almost got trampled by 400,000 people that were crammed into the road for the fireworks display. It sounds funny to hear the story but it was not funny at the time!! With Emily being 4 mos. pregnant, we knew immediately it was a bad idea and we tried to get out, however the crowd had turned into a mosh pit and we had no chance. Andy somehow managed to rescue Emily and got her to safety!! I jumped a cement ledge at one point and about got my glasses knocked off. Needless to say we did not see the fireworks display and we all had to take extra long showers after this to disinfect.

Andy ended up losing his cell phone. Long story short, a good samaritan actually drove back to the strip the next day to meet us and return it! Karma!!

We spent the rest of the three days walking around through every hotel and eating. One night we took a bus to downtown Vegas to see the "Fremont Street Experience". The light show was really cool.

My favorite part of the trip was seeing the Lion King at Mandalay Bay for Joyce's Birthday. It was amazing and I would highly recommend it!! The following are a few of my favorite pictures from the trip.






Here is the link to see all of our Vegas pics!!....

http://public.fotki.com/caskinner/las-vegas-for-new-y/las-vegas-jan-2011.html

A Look Back- Our Honeymoon to Mexico <3

March 26- April 1, 2007. Our wonderful honeymoon began the Monday after our wedding. We flew to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico for the best and most relaxing week of our lives so far! Stayed at our first all-inclusive resort, Golden Crown Paradise. The resort was adults only and included food at several different restaurants and drinks. The weather was great for March... around a high of 80 everyday and sunny. We had a great view from our balcony of the ocean and pool.


We spent a lot of time at the beach laying out, boogie boarding, and kayaking.
One day we took a day trip boat ride on The Santamaria to Las Animas beach. When we arrived there were tables set up and we had a mexican lunch. The day trip included snorkeling at Turtle Rock.




One night we took a cab to downtown Puerto Vallarta to walk around and go out to dinner. We ate at a place called Carlos & Charlies. It was so beautiful we went back during the day to walk along the Malecon (boardwalk) to see all of the artwork.





"Club Nitro" was part of our resort. Jason elected himself to compete in a beer drinking contest. The other guys looked like they have had more experience in beer chugging so Jay was out in the first round :).




The restaurants were great at the resort. Our favorite was a buffet called La Palapa. They had a grill there as well that would make anything you wanted. A few other places to eat were available with a reservation in the morning. At one of our nicer dinners, we were told to order the "sexy coffee". We aren't big coffee drinkers, but it was so worth it to see the show. The waiter actually lit the coffee on fire during the show at our table to prepare it.




We have all of the pics from our honeymoon posted in the link below...

http://public.fotki.com/caskinner/honeymoon!/picture559.html

Exciting Month!!

Although it was a very hard decision, Jason and I decided not to move back to Indianapolis right now. We both had a hard time finding jobs in Indy and didn't feel that we were making a good decision. To make a long story short, we decided to stay in Arizona. Jason had several job offers here that he was much more excited about (the facilities and type of therapy). He completed his national boards and officially took an OT position last week.

I have also decided to go back to school for my RN. I have been accepted into an accelerated two year Associates of RN program in Phoenix. (1st year is LPN, 2nd year is LPN to RN). I get to start in January with a few classes, and the full time nursing program starts in March. I can't believe I will soon be in school again after being out for 3 years but I am so excited and ready for a new, more challenging career!

We miss our families and are planning to come home more often in 2010- especially since Jay's sister Emily is expecting in June and we will soon be an aunt and uncle for the first time!!

Here are some pictures from the last month or so:

Decorating our Christmas tree and making home-made sugar cookies for the first time. Reminds me of being little and making them with Grammy every year!

Our First Cruise!

We finally took our first cruise together. We went to the Bahamas (Nassau and Cococay Island) and Key West. Jason and I went with some of our best friends, Matt and Stacy, over the week of Thanksgiving. Our ship was Magesty of the Seas on Royal Caribbean. It was around 80 the entire week and beautiful! The ship had lots to do like entertainment and comedy shows at night. We stopped in Nassau first and took our own tour of The Atlantis hotel. The center part of the hotel (arch) is actually a suite that is $30k per night, four night minimum. We relaxed on the beach and saw the water slides that plunge people through a huge aquarium of sharks. Very cool!! The next island we went to was Coco Cay. Royal Caribbean owns this island. It was gorgeous. While walking along the ocean, sting rays and reef sharks swam right next to your feet. Our last stop was on Thanksgiving day at Key West. We did a glass bottom boat tour (saw four dolphins jumping by the boat) and sailed right by the Bermuda Triangle. The picture of Buoy 13 represents the beginning on the Bermuda Triangle. We also walked around Duval Street. It was a great cruise and we would do it again!

Us on the top deck:


Pool side!






View of Miami as our ship was leaving.. next stop.. Bahamas!!






Stacy and I after we got ready for our first dinner on the cruise. We were in with the band!





The first full day of our cruise. We arrived in Nassau and in the background is the famous Atlantis Hotel!




















We had way too many great pictures to post on here! It was hard to choose. I think we took over 300 total. Check them out on our picture website-
On Fotki