Things Learned in Our First Week in Arizona

We have officially been Arizonians for a week now. We are starting to feel more settled and are learning where things are. We can even venture to a few places without the aid of the GPS! We are incredibly spoiled with where we live. We have often said that our ideal location would be within a 5-10 minute drive of a Costco, Winco, and Target. We have that... AND a Sprouts, a mall, Trader Joes, Hobby Lobby, Culvers, two Wal-marts, and a Cheesecake Factory. After living in Spanish Fork for 5 years, we feel like we have died and gone to conviently located shopping paradise. We have learned a few things in our week here and I thought I would share those with you :)

#1: Arizona is hot (ok, I may have known that already). And right now it is unusually warm. As in record breaking. And as in record breaking, I mean 115 degrees. Charlotte still thinks that she lives in Utah and has been getting up WAY to early. After she woke up at 6am one morning, we decided to go for a walk before it got too hot. (yes, you read correctly, a 6am walk). It was quite pleasant and Charlotte was happy to play at a park for a little bit. We got home and and commented on how much cooler it was. We then looked up the current temperature and it was 95. Apparently we have started climatizing already!

#2: When it is this hot, you go to desperate measures to stay cool! Charlotte has claimed the kiddie pool in the backyard as her method of choice. She has even gotten in with her pajamas on! I have resorted to carrying a towel around in my purse to lay on Charlotte's car seat when we come out of a store. Trust me, it is the only way to prevent her from running away from the car screaming when she sees the car in the parking lot. We went to an aquarium on Thursday, which was fun, but we decided to extend our "cool" time by walking around the mall the aquarium was in. It was seriously the most bizarre mall ever. It was a weird combo of outlet and regular stores. And once we started walking, there was no hallways to connect us to the other side of the mall... just a perfectly large square of never ending stores that you had to walk down because you kept thinking, surely the exit by our car is close. But it just kept going and going and going... at least it was cool though and not so blistering hot.

#3: Haboobs are real. A haboob is a dust storm and we got to experience our first one last night. We got text message warnings and everything. It cooled the air down immensly, for which we were grateful and I thought it was kind of cool to watch it come in. From the safety of the house of course. I should of popped some popcorn...

#4: For being the 6th largest city in the country, Phoenix is missing a couple of things... mainly a dedicated computer store (we can't find any!) and a decent alternative music radio station. I never thought  I would say this, but I miss x96!

#5: Go to Backyard Taco, but DON'T go on Taco Tuesday. Unless you like waiting for over 30 minutes for your tacos. Then go. It was mighty tasty though!

Despite the fact that we kind of feel like we are on vacation (since Bill hasn't started school yet) we are getting adjusted and are happy that we made it down here safely (we are NEVER driving our own moving van again. EVER!!) and have enjoyed spending the week with our friends the Nelsons. We have plans to start visiting other friends and family that live down here this weekend, so we are excited to do that.

    (Charlotte's crib is the cool place to hang out these days!)

We love and miss all of you!

Mariah