Wednesday, December 31, 2008

White Christmas


This year we went to Utah to spend Christmas with Alisha's family. As you can tell from the picture we had a white Christmas. In fact, it snowed almost every day that we were there. We were lucky enough to have clear roads when we drove there and back which was nice. For Christmas Alisha got me a nice digital SLR camera so i can take lots of nice pictures now. Stay tuned to our blog for more of my handy work.
Here is the Christmas tree at the Hamblin house.Here is Chloe the Hamblin puppy. I will add some more a little later.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

I've been tagged!

Here are the rules:
1. Post the rules on your blog:
2. Answer the six "8" items
3. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.

8 Favorite TV Shows
1. 24
2. Heroes
3. Office
4. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
5. My Name is Earl
6. Prison Break
7. Arrested Development
8. King of the Hill

8 Things I did yesterday
1. Went to Work
2. Went to Costco
3. Read a Book
4. Talked to Daniel
5. Watched the debate
6. Made Dinner
7. Talked to my Mom
8. Watched TV

8 Things I look forward to
1. Coming Home from Work
2. Seeing Daniel
3. Relaxing
4. Buying a House
5. Have Children
6. Christmas
7. Seeing my Family
8. Going to bed

8 Favorite Restaurants
1. Logans
2. Texas Road House
3. Mattas
4. Costa Vida
5. Paradise Bakery
6. Golden Gate
7. Olive Garden
8. Red Lobster

8 Things on my wishlist
1. A baby
2. A House
3. Daniel done with School
4. To be a stay at home mom
5. A new car
6. A Massage
7. New Clothes
8. To learn to play the piano

8 People I tag
1. Melinda
2. Tim
3. Stephanie
4. Dave
5. Carrie
6. Lauree
7. Dallin
8. Daniel

And Anyone else to wants to join in the fun!

Sunday, September 14, 2008

ASU vs. UNLV


Yesterday Alisha and I invited Justin and Tanya to go to a football game. We figured it would be a blowout game with ASU dominating the entire game. Boy were we ever wrong. From the start of the game ASU did not look great. The first drive they were held to only a field goal. The defense didn't do any better letting the Rebels run against almost at will. Even with all the bad playing ASU managed to stay ahead at the half but only barely. After the half things went from bad to worse as UNLV came back from ten points behind to tie the game with 28 seconds left in the game. At this point ASU had 2 timeouts left so we figured, they can still get some decent yards on a couple passing plays followed by timeouts then kick a winning field goal. To our horror, this did not happen, but instead we got to watch one short gain running play that sent the game into overtime. During overtime ASU held UNLV to a field goal and UNLV, in turn , held ASU to a field goal which they were able to block giving them the win and devastating the crowd in attendance.

Other then the awful game it was a very fun game to go to. College games are always a blast to go to. Hopefully some day we will be able to get some season tickets. We are now looking forward to next year when ASU will meet BYU at home. Hopefully we can get the Hamblins (my in-laws) to come down and go with us to it.

Friday, September 5, 2008

The Arizona Monsoon

The rain is something that you learn to appreciate when you live in a place know as The Valley of the Sun.

Every year from July to September the monsoon makes its way into this arid no-man's land to give some well deserved relief to the parched landscape. This year brought some of the best storms that I can remember. Last Thursday brought one of the most exciting of these storms. The lightning from last Thursday's storm lit up the night sky like a strobe light in some swanky, Scottsdale dance club, while the thunder rumbled like the massive jets of an airliner.

The storm also produces wind gusts reaching 100mph in some areas. The wind was so strong that is toppled trees all around and in the ASU campus. It also tore down a brand new, climate controlled practice field that ASU football used to practice out of the scorching heat. The wind also knocked a tree over onto our apartment. It did not fall very hard and it is still leaning against the side of our complex.

Here is a video of what the storm looked like that night after the wind subsided.



Sunday, August 31, 2008

Sudoku

The other day we had the ferrets on the couch with us and found out that they have a real awesome talent. They are great at sudoku. They were able to help Alisha through some of the very hard parts. Alisha attempted to finish it on her own but Bubba would have none of that and came back to help some more.
After seeing that our ferrets have great talents we are excited to see what they can do next. We are thinking of taking them to Vegas next time we go to see how good they are at counting cards then maybe we can hire them out to companies to help them streamline there business.

Thursday, August 14, 2008

The Joys of Living on Cicero St

So last night around 5pm Alisha and I were sitting in the apartment watching TV when we started noticing that the A/C wasn't blowing cold any more. I checked out the fuse and the filter and everything looked fine so I figured that i would go outside and see if anything looked funny out there. That is when i came upon this sight.

I have seen things get stolen before but never an A/C unit. I couldn't believe that someone actually stole our A/C. Well if anyone finds an A/C unit on craigslist let me know so i can go punch them in the face for taking our wonderful A/C unit. At least our landlord was good enough to get us a new one the next morning so we are now enjoying the wonderful convenience that is known as air conditioning.

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Campin' with the Hamblins

This past weekend Daniel and I took off work on Friday and went a camping with my parents. We ended up meeting them at Mormon Lake near Flagstaff Arizona.

We didn't get there until about 9:00 P.M. so we had fun trying to put up the tent in the dark. It was nice to finally get away from work and get reacquainted with nature.



On Friday we visited Jerome, a mining town taken over by Hippies. We checked out the shops and then the local ghost town. They had a few old original buildings like a dentist, shoe repair shop, and even an old sawmill that still works.



Pretty much the place was an old dump. It was a place that the locals would dump their old rusty vehicles. We saw an old police car, a delivery truck, fire engine, etc. I wouldn't suggest paying the $5.00 per person to get in but we made the most of it!

The best part of Jerome was the FUDGE! They had a little store that had homemade fudge. It was yummy. I even converted Daniel into liking the plain vanilla fudge that has been my life long favorite flavor.

Later that day we visited Montezuma's Castle and the Tuzigoot ruins. We were able to climb up to the very top and look over the valley. There was no question of why the natives chose here to populate. There was a beautiful river running by and a spacious valley for their gardens.

On Saturday we visited the Sedona area. We went on a hike in the cottonwood canyon. I it was a nice easy hike but the sensory was great!

As we were driving down past slide rock on our way out of the canyon we hit a little traffic. We saw that a dog was running back in forth stopping the cars. The poor thing looked so scared. People were trying to catch the dog but that just scared him more. He ended up jumping over the medium. To our horror we realized we were on a bridge and the dog just jumped over the edge. =( Poor thing!

We then visited Cathedral Rock and Sunset Crater. We got the opportunity to walk on the lava flow which was really cool.

In the evenings we played cards and roasted marsh mellows. On Saturday night we were sitting around the campfire talking when all of a sudden a skunk found it's way into our camp. My Dad jump up and startled the skunk who turned around and lifted his tale and............... ran away. We were so lucky he didn't spray.
We had a blast!

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

The 4th of July Weekend

This last weekend Alisha and I were able to drive to Utah to see Alisha's family.

We drove up the Las Vegas the first night and we stayed in the New York New York hotel. It is always nice to split up the that long drive by staying there and it was a pretty nice hotel.

The next day we drove the rest of the way to Draper and got in town just in time to help Alisha's parents take there 6 week old puppies to the vet for there shots, all eight of them. They were a handful but very cute.

The next day was the 4th of July and we went and saw Hancock in the theater. After seeing it, i would give it 2 1/2 stars out of 4 for those of you wanting to see it. After the movie, we had a BBQ with Alisha's family and her grandparents came over and joined us. We had a good time and it was nice to see family. We then went to the fireworks in Sandy and took two of the puppies with us to see if we could find them a home. It was a good 4th and i think we found a good home for at least one of the puppies.

The next day we started the day by hiking up to Timpanogos Cave with Alisha's family. It had a long time since the last time I had been there and i forgot how steep a hike it was. It was still fun to go up to the cave and through it.

After the cave Alisha and I went to go pick up a u-haul trailer so we could take a washer and dryer and table back with us that Alisha's parents gave us. When we got there we had to wait an hour before someone would help us, then when he did help us he got the trailer all hooked up loosely and one of the blinkers on the trailer didn't even work. Instead of fixing it he sent us miles down the road with a loosely connected trailer and no blinker to another u-haul place. In all it took us 2 hours the get a trailer. By the way, thanks to Alisha's parents for the washer, dryer and table.

After we got back we were able to go out and visit our niece Katherine's grave. It was nice to be able to go see her grave since I was unable to make it to her funeral. When we got there it took a while for us to find the grave but eventually we found it, cleaned it up and left some flowers.

After we went to the cemetery we had to rush over to the theater to see Wall-E. I would give this movie 2 1/2 stars out of 4. It was a decent movie just not great.

The next day we headed back to Arizona. This was my first time towing a trailer so it was a new experience and it was a long trip because we had to drive slow. The truck did well and got us here with the trailer with out any problems. I was proud of my trailer backing when we got back. I had never backed a trailer before and i backed it in right were i wanted it so i had to take a picture.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Washington D.C.

A couple weeks ago we were able to go to the capital with Alisha's family. It was a good trip other than the rain.


When we first go there it was pretty clear but muggy. We got landed around 4pm and decided to go to the national mall on the way to Manassus, VA, where we were staying.

These first few pictures are from the first day we were there.





Below is the WWII memorial.














This is the Lincoln Memorial.




















We stayed on the mall until after it got dark and we were able to see some of the monuments at night which was pretty cool.

This is the Jefferson Memorial.















The Lincoln Memorial.















The next day we went back to the National Mall and it rained almost the entire day. Alisha and I were glad we bought umbrellas and rain coats for the trip, but it wasn't enough to keep our feet from getting soaked.

Alisha and I ended up being dropped off on the west side of the mall so that we could wait in line for tickets to the holocaust museum.














This mean that we had to trek through the elements all the way to the east side of the mall when Alisha's parents found out that everyone need to be together to get tickets to the capital.















After we got the tickets we went to the Library of Congress and the Supreme Court while we were waiting to get into the Capital building.































This is in the Library of Congress.

Sorry about the rest of this blog, this program is so hard to use that i am just sick of it.

From the Library of Congress we went to the capital and then the next day we went to the old post office and the smithsonian museums and the national archives and fords theater.

The next day we went the mt vernon and arlington national cometary.

The last day we went to the national cathedral and then flew home.
























Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Why men love trucks


Have you ever wondered what it is about a truck that makes men love it? Is is the color? The tires? The lack of hair on there head?

The answer to this deep perplexing question is one that every man has to sit down and contemplate and come to an answer for him self, but there are some incites that come to mind when thinking about this very topic.

First, and the major reason for men to love a truck is: What if I need it at some point? I mean, what if I'm stuck in a parking lot and my only way out is a two foot high curb followed by 2 miles on intense off road trails followed by and person stuck in the mud needing to be pulled out? Things like that happen all the time right?

Second: You just look cooler in a truck. Think of all those guys you see riding down the road in there huge lifted truck with some 2Pac or P-Diddy blaring from there open windows. You couldn't be any cooler than that, right? I mean, who wouldn't respect and admire you as a 5ft tall balding middle aged single man if you were in a huge lifted truck cruising the mean streets of Mesa, Arizona.

Men love things that make them feel manly. Ever since the dawn of time, men wanted to feel manly. From ancient man's large club to more modern man's remote control, men have always wanted to feel in control and able to do what they want. The truck gives men the ability to go where ever and take what ever they want with them. Who knows when that situation will arise when you are stuck in a jungle with a large piece of cargo that needs to get through some really rough roads in order to save the lives of those starving kids in Ethiopia. At that point, you will be wishing you had a truck.

Sunday, March 30, 2008






Alisha and I went out to the Superstition Mountains last weekend and I was able to take a few pictures of the spring time flowers.