Arizona

Last weekend Aric and I went to Phoenix, Arizona. Neither one of us had been to Arizona before. It was only three days and it wasn't warm but we had business to do and we accomplished it.

Although I was looking forward to the trip for lots of reasons...alone time with Aric, sunshine, good food etc... the thing I was most excited about was hanging out with my friend Natalie and her husband Ryan.

See Natalie and I have been friends for over two years now. She has been with me through the ups and downs of C's adoption. She offered words of encouragement and comfort. Over the past two years she has become one of my dearest friends but we had never actually met in real life. How is this possible, to develop that kind of love for someone through emails, phone calls, facebook and blog comments?

I will answer my own question...

I believe it is divine intervention...Heavenly Father. He puts people in our lives at particular times for specific reasons. Think of all the millions of people that cross our paths in life, but only a handful actually find themselves into our hearts. Some are only in our lives for a moment, other for years but they leave such an impression that they literally become part of you, not just a memory. I am so grateful that Natalie and I found each other and that now she is part of me. (I just reread that and it sounds like a love story...funny) 

(Believe it or not we had the yogurt lady take three pictures and this was the best one!...After I cropped the heck out of it! My camera was on the wrong setting but still...why is it so hard to take a decent picture...fyi...if someone asks you to take a picture for them, make sure there is more of them in the picture than the wall and ceiling behind them.)

Although the weather wasn't all that fabulous, Arizona made up for it by having so many frozen yogurt bars. I couldn't get enough of them...speaking of things I couldn't get enough of...Natalie's sweet baby, Major! He is the sweetest, cutest, yummiest baby ever!

I also got to meet the lovely Christy, another blog friend who has stolen my heart. We had the best time...at least I did. Our time together was way too short and I can't wait to do it again! (Can you believe Natalie had a baby ten days before!? Yeah, totally not fair to be hanging out with such gorgeous ladies.)

Aric and I got to have lunch with a missionary that served in Liberty Lake. Elder Abaroa...or Jordan, which we get to call him now. He's been home for a couple of years and it was so great to catch with him. We love him to pieces and look forward to seeing him when he comes to visit us this summer. BTW...he is available and awesome, any single ladies out there...I can hook you up!

We were only there for barely three days. It went by soooo fast. The only bad part was our creepy hotel that I booked through travelocity. The pictures and descriptions weren't exactly accurate. I got over my disappointment, but I will be sure to do a lot more research the next time I book a hotel!

Thanks for the fun times AZ. I will try not to be offended by the weather you gave us while we were there. You have so many other amazing qualities that I will forgive you. I am crossing my fingers that our investment property will turn out to be everything that we hoped it to be...xoxo ~j