Livin'N'Lovin

Pearson Michael Sackett

2010-07-21T15:19:00.004-07:00

Here is my baby! Pearson was born on July 12 at 6:58 PM. He was 8 lbs 7 oz and 21 inches long.
He had a tough time getting out but he came out with hair! Lots of it and stark blonde!
Luckily that cone head of his has gone down.
Lookin out at me in the hospital...
Bundled and Beautiful...
Daddy showing him off on Skype...
Long fingers and toes! So glad he got Michaels hands and feet and not mine!

We are so grateful he came out healthy and my own recovery is going well. He is the best baby in the whole world. He hardly ever cries, he eats well enough, and still sleeps the majority of the time, and at night! Michael and I are adjusting well and love being a mommy and daddy! He is most precious!

Love from the Sun

2010-05-07T14:31:00.005-07:00

I wish I could tell ya'll I've been like this this weekend...but that'd be a downright lie and I could go you know where for that.

This is probably a little more accurate representation of how I'm feeling. Like somewhat of a beached whale.
Or Randy from a Christmas Story....getting out of bed in the morning is so reminiscent of this poor sap flailing on the ground whining "I caaan't get uuup!"

This is what I'm actually looking like. Most of you are probably scoffing and thinking that's nothing. And I do know you're right. I'm not half as large as I potentially could be. As a first timer I'm trying to embrace this pregnant body of mine, but it does not help one indulge in feeling sexy. Who doesn't like to feel sexy every once in a while?

The sun is finally shining warm enough that my pool is bearable to be in. I decided my body needs a little Love from the Sun and maybe getting some color will help me feel the tiniest bit desirable.

I feel that pregnant women would come out with the same result. This pregnant girl would anyway. Here is to a happy sunbathing summer!

The day suits the mood.

2010-02-28T14:36:00.003-07:00

Today...is a rainy one. I'm glad. It makes me feel like Heavenly Father is understanding our pain and he's sad too.

Because some days, we all have pain. Some little, some great. This has been a weekend of great pain for me.

The grayness outside makes me feel like its okay to be sad for a while.

But I know the sunny days will be coming again. No matter how long the rainy days last.

Pearson...in the making...Sackett

2010-02-22T21:15:00.008-07:00

Here is our smallish boy who is kick kick kicking away right now! Oh how I love that feeling, even if it does get tedious after an hour of a party going on. But I still smile and poke back.

For those that are ultrasound retarded, such as myself, he is upside down in the above picture. Poor guy. His head is there on the bottom right, with his body curling up the right side, and his ridiculously long looking leg stretching out across the top. He is a full 12 cm long and 9 ounces.

Sorry for the nudie pic, but who could resist?? Immediately the tech told us, Ope, you've definitely got a boy! And he is not shy about it! If you're like me, you won't see the little boy part until about the 10th time looking at the picture.

Here's his little face looking at us. Kind of creepy in a cute sort of way. He looks like he's getting ready to punch me. Oh ya, I felt that.

And a close up of his profile with his little nose and lips.

I am so excited to be a mommy. I was a little unsure when we decided to go for it, but now I can't imagine not being pregnant and wanting to wait any longer. And I am so excited for Michael to be a daddy, because even though his family thinks it will be interesting, I know he's going to be an amazing father. Thank goodness I'm still skinny enough that he can already also feel the baby moving because I love the look he gets on his face. I thank Heavenly Father for sending me a little boy, because that is what I wanted (I'm afraid of raising a girl). But I hope for one of those someday too :) I can't wait til he gets here!

As of late...

2010-02-22T11:08:00.006-07:00

I'm going to do a quick run through of the year...since thats how long its been since I've blogged! Sad! I will make an effort to do better. Real Quick....

We took a weekend trip down to Mexico, we even DROVE with a few of our friends. This picture (above) will forever be my motivation to be skinny again post-baby. *Sigh* You should have seen how many times I had to jump around like a freakin idiot to get this shot. Then you should have seen the old lady mocking my jumping around like an idiot. Seriously. Totally unprofessional.

Took a week trip to Israel with Michael's parents. Even got to sit Envoy on the way there AND back. Totally worth it. This is us floating in the Dead Sea. Probably one of the COOLEST things I have ever done.
Michael and I took a little trip to Lake Tahoe. It was so beautiful but unfortunately the water is freezing cold year around. What good is the lake if you can't get in the water...
Went to the big island, Hawaii with Michael's parents. The water here was not cold, thank goodness. This is on Green Sand Beach. Yes, the sand really was green. I will probably show you pictures later. But this was by far the best picture of the trip. Debbie is completely oblivious to the rogue wave that is about to WIPE. HER. OUT. I don't think Michael and I made it out alive either.
I went to England for 1 week without my hubbie. I had the week off...he didn't...so I said meh, why not go to England? My moms cousin lives there so I stayed with her and we had a jolly time! This is one of my favorite pictures of the London Eye. I didn't ride it but I loved photographing it. My other fave place was York Minster and the whole town of York. Breath-taking.

There are a couple more things I would like to show you here soon if blogger would stop being so irritating...

Belize ~ Part II ~ Xunantunich

2009-06-20T20:18:00.005-07:00

SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG!
But I would still like to share with everyone the beauties of Belize! The first place we went was a ruin called Cahal Pech, but because I'm awesome, I pushed the wrong button on the camera and deleted all the pictures thus far. Luckily it was at the beginning of the trip and not the end!

Our stop after that was Xunantunich- across the river and up the hill from San Ignacio.

Imagine standing up top of this mighty ruin and hearing something loud and strange. Like a sawmill in the distance. And then having someone tell you they are howler monkeys going crazy in the afternoon. These long skinny ones are panoramic so make sure to click on them to get the full effect.

Here's a "winding staircase" inside the temple. I thought it was adorable.

Some of the carvings on the sides. They made every carving symmetrical.

The other side, symmetrically with the same carvings.

Truly beautiful and amazing.

A long shot of one whole side. The carvings are not only symmetrical on the building, but the actual carving goes in the pattern of CBABC. Radacooooool.

Michael at the tippy tip top. Imagine walking up there in 85 degree weather with 80% humidity. Talk about death.

That is why you will see very limited photos of me. Because I looked SICKNAST the entire trip due to the fact that I was a puddle of sweat the entire time.
The main temple in the back with smaller structures on the way. All the living quarters. Indescribable.

Belize ~ Part I

2009-05-05T13:12:00.009-07:00

Belize! So much to say, so much to show! What a fun trip this was, especially because it lasted a whole week and not just a weekend! I'm going to have to break the trip up due to the amount of photos. Also, to give me time to search for my small camera that has additional photos-don't know where it is! Ack!

Most people give me a bewildered look when I tell them I went to Belize, so here it is for anyone who may be lost-Part of Central America on the Caribbean side.
A few bonuses to Belize-
1. Official language is English! Yay! What a blessing.
2. Exchange rate was ALWAYS 2:1. VERY easy math.
3. The People: Oh so friendly and wonderful! All they want to do is help you-not rip you off.

Getting there:
A.) Flew to Indiannapolis then to Charlotte then to Belize.
B.) Had to sleep overnight in Indiannapolis. It was VERY cold in the airport and we had not a single scrap of anything warm. (You wouldn't either if you were headed to 85 degree weather with 70% humidity) AND the lights were BLARINGLY bright. We're talking Super Bowl Stadium kind of bright. From 1 AM to 5 AM. ARE YOU JOKING ME? How is anyone supposed to get some shut eye in that kind of situation? They can't. We didn't.
C.) Arrived. Got our absurdly expenisve rental car. $60 a day! Say WHAAAAT? And that was for the cheapo POS that sounded like an earthquake was happening under the hood. Golly.

D.) Learned the hard way that it was so expensive due to the fact that only the one main highway was paved. The rest of the roads....well. I would have been happy with dirt. But noooooooo. It was something like this:

EVERYWHERE. Oh man it was rough. And the car was manual. Luckily Michael was driving. But still. It was Puerto Vallerta all over again. Oi Vey.

Okay. I've decided I can't go on until I have the rest of my pictures. So stay tuned for more on Belize! Starting with Xunantunich!

Government Morons...

2009-03-19T23:07:00.003-07:00

I am non-too pleased with the situation of our government at this moment in time.

I could spew- no - RANT about how disgusted I am with

Obama and some of his new, not-so-hot policies.

But it wouldn't get me anywhere.

Except to a pathetic party in the back of my mind

Where a gazzilion of my brain cells silently fume.

I think its unhealthy.

So I like throwing humor into the equation.

Maybe help balance things out.

Give my poor brain a break.

It works pretty hard.

Enjoy.

The Heaviest Element Known to Science

Lawrence Livermore Laboratories has discovered the heaviest element yet known to science.

The new element, Governmentium (Gv), has one neutron, 25 assistant neutrons, 88 deputy neutrons, and 198 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312.

These 312 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons.

Since Governmentium has no electrons, it is inert; however, it can be detected, because it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact. A tiny amount of Governmentium can cause a reaction that would normally take less than a second, to take from 4 days to 4 years to complete.

Governmentium has a normal half-life of 2- 6 years. It does not decay, but instead undergoes a reorganization in which a portion of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places.

In fact, Governmentium's mass will actually increase over time, since each reorganization will cause more morons to become neutrons, forming isodopes.

This characteristic of morons promotion leads some scientists to believe that Governmentium is formed whenever morons reach a critical concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as critical morass.

When catalysed with money, Governmentium becomes Administratium, an element that radiates just as much energy as Governmentium since it has half as many peons but twice as many morons.

The Dig

2009-03-18T10:53:00.004-07:00

Why do we get these funny sensations sometimes?

I've noticed a couple people confessing to nose picking on Lauren's Blog.

C'mon.

I'm 99.99999999% positive that every single person on this planet has picked their nose.

No. Has DUG up their nose.

At least once.

I know I have.

Sometimes I wipe them on the side of the seat of the car.

And my husband yells at me.

And I laugh like a maniac at him.

It's a natural thing people. (Picking your nose, not laughing like a maniac, thats only for the crazies)

So here is tribute to all, who so boldly pick their noses.

No matter how old you are :)

What kind of a sick person.....

This ones my cousin....I'm so proud of him. During wedding photos!

PICK IT PROUD PEOPLE!!!!!!

Pond Stop

2009-03-16T13:10:00.004-07:00

This weekend we went up to Show Low with another couple and on the way back we stopped at this little pond. It was super cute and I decided to go a little crazy and have fun with a couple pictures.

The happy couple. We adore each other.
We were pretty much trying to find every different possible way to break the ice. A not-so-brilliant idea by Michael here. He didn't get very far.
No, he's not yawning, He's posing.
Here is one way.....Throwing rocks into the ice. VERY entertaining.
Michael finishing up his Bizzness not so discreetly.

Lavishing in Lavender.
Sunburst.
Green with Envy.
Flaming Phoenix.
This is my pic of the trip. I snapped a picture of some ordinary clouds from the car, hoping it would capture a cool rainbow I could see. The rainbow didn't show, but I got a whole lot more out of this picture than a rainbow.

Oahu II

2009-03-12T14:32:00.013-07:00

Once again we took the excruciatingly long plane ride to Hawaii for a 2 day trip. Gotta love it! But hey, its free. I'm really not complaining. However, I did get excited to lay out on the beach....but apparently someone is in the works to keep me from getting some tanage. We had a cabo repeat aka NO SUN! Completely cloudy the whole trip, windy, rainy and actually a little chilly! So no awesome beach time for us but we went on this awesome hike to Waimano Falls!
This is my pic of the trip. I seriously can't get enough of it. I still sigh and get this dreamy look on my face when I see it. My husband doesn't know whats wrong with me. Little does he know...

This is what the hike looked like. We were basically picking our way through huge, slippery roots most of the time. I was fortunate to not have any falls this hike. Oh wait. I take that back. I almost fell, but LUCKILY my husband was holding my hand (because I made him) and he rescued me. My hero.
Joshie Josh and Nola accompanied us for this lovely hike. Notice again the staircase of death behind them.
I put this picture here for Michael's pleasure. He was the only one brave enough to actually attempt the rope swing-that if you didn't let go fast enough would catapult you into the rocks- imminently leading to a bloody death. He thought it was rad.
Oh Josh. Why ever would you push Nola into the freezing cold water? Oh wait. You're just joking. We all insanely decided for ourselves to jump into the freezing cold water. Who does that? I'll tell you who does-
Exhibit A:
My Husband. The Flying Squirrel.

Exhibit B:
Nola. The Leaping Frog.

Exhibit C:
Me. The not-so-enchanting Tinkerbell.

Don't deny our awesomeness.

Or the mental capability or our minds.

Now, onto more serious matters.
And yes, this is very serious.
I am calling all who look upon this to vote. Which version....
Blue???
or
Sepia???

Don't deny that my husband is simply adorable and looks good in every color.

These weird stacking-of-the-rocks are called Cairn.
They were randomly on the side of the road and Michael wanted a closer look.
He jumped out and ran across the street.
Apparently they can mean many things.
I like mysteries.
I waited impatiently and then decided to snap some pictures.

These pictures were taken rather hastily.
I wasn't expecting much out of them but I'm quite pleased with how they turned out.

Nola's into photography herself so she showed me a bit of stuff she had learned.
We practiced this little shenanigan for quite some time before we got it decently viewable.
My Husband. The Wise Monkey's.

Don't deny he can be in three places at once.
He's good like that.
The End.

Desert Hike

2009-03-10T20:23:00.007-07:00

A couple weekends ago my in-laws were in town so we went on a little hike through the desert. I've always considered the desert to be particularly ugly and this was the first time I've ever had a change of mind and discovered there was beauty to be found.

The barrel cactus was my favorite to capture, I love the brilliantly colored spines! Some yellow, some pink, and some extravagantely red! This is my Pic of the Trip.

Here's Cory with his first time view of the Saguaro Cactus-only to be found in our oh so great state of Arizona.

A little barrel and outlooking over the desert.

Another barrel with some gorgeous color in it.

This one's had too many sweets! Look at those love handles!

Still can't get enough of these. Sorry.

Mmmmm lots of green in this one here. Not my fav but I like the Ocotillo and the blue mountains in the back.

Cory and Debbie delightfully enjoying our desert hike. It really was pretty. I was quite surprised.

Good Hiker we've got here!

This is ones a little extreme There was this little cluster of baby cacti in the grass under a bush and I thought they were cute and deserved something interesting. This is my idea of interesting. I really wanted to emphasize the white and the spines.

A Thousand Words

2009-03-10T20:09:00.005-07:00

I'm going to go out on a limb and blurb here for a second-I'd like to take up your time :)

I love to write, it was one of my favorite classes in high school but I'm afraid I've fallen out of touch with my writing self lately and am a little rusty. But everyone says a picture is worth a thousand words, right? And I've been needing a hobby lately. This+that=photography. I've always liked taking pictures and I especially love editing them and from crazy to beautiful. Some people are offended by the whole photoshop thing, but its art, people. Because you know, sometimes the world gets a tad bit boring and I like to add a little sparkle (sometimes a lot). I like to make it MY OWN. Make it SPECIAL. Make it WORTH looking at it.

So, if you're reading this, you've seen my pictures. I'm just starting so there aren't many. But, PLEASE COMMENT!!! (Start with the one topping off my page) Tell me what you like, what you don't like, what you'd change...etc. I would appreciate some feedback. Thanks!

One Year Ago.....

2009-02-14T10:16:00.008-07:00

One year ago my wonderful husband finally mustered up the guts to ask me the most important question of our entire lives. And so far its turning out more beautifully than anything I could have ever imagined. Thank you honey, for being so brave and willing to marry me! For making a memory I'll never forget! You're the best!

Performance

2009-02-12T18:05:00.002-07:00

Eh Hem Ladies and Gentleman-

There is a special performance going on in Mesa during the next 2 weekends put together by Rob Gardner in which Michael will be appearing. Its called the Price of Freedom. Its a presentation of letters sung by soloists to and from family members during WWII along with actual footage of the war provided by the National Archives. Everything I've seen or heard of Rob's compositions has always been nothing less than amazing! We'd love to see you there-it'll be well worth your time!

This is where you'll find all the information you need if you're interested:

http://www.spiremusic.org/tpof/

Cabo San Lucas

2009-01-21T19:06:00.010-07:00

Pretty self-explanitory picture right here. A little info on how this trip went down. We spent muchos time each morning at time share presentations so we could get discounted stuff and free breakfasts. Works out for your benefit if you don't mind listening to them babble on and on and you don't mind turning them down as quickly as possible. To start with, we got a PT Cruiser Convertible for $20. Not too shabby!

First day we took a little boat out to Lovers Beach.
Here's at the dock with the awesome Mexican buildings behind us.

The little boat had a bit of a tipsy time on the smallish waves that were too big for it!

Getting ready to lay out and get tan...little did we know that the rest of our vacation would be full of completely cloudy days....so the whole tanning thing didn't work out after all.

Pacific side looking back at Lovers Beach. Its dangerous to swim on the Pacific side due to the severe undertow that occurs. We found out they call this side Divorce Beach. Don't want anything to do with that!

The cliffs around the beach were stunning and we couldn't resist our urge to climb! So up and up we went! The rock was so adhesive you could walk right up it! Me striking a pose while looking out into the bay-along with my own color rendition.

Up on the cliffs looking down on Lovers Beach, the bay, and Cabo.

More fun colors and kisses!

I got into some of those drinks you see in the background...my interpretation of being drunk. Which is apparently everyone's favorite thing to do in Mexico. 24/7.

Second day we went horseback riding! Michael didn't really enjoy his time-he had a psycho horse unfortunately that only wanted to bolt. But we got to run them all over and see some awesome desert and this massivo cactus!
We took the horses down to the beach for more kisses and the gorgeous ocean!

Bye Bye horses and our guide! Ya...he had a sense of humor.

Later that night was supposed to be a Sunset Cruise with Whale Watching. Remember the cloudy days? So, no sunset. And the cruise? Was actually a booze cruise so the only thing we saw for 2 hours was 40 Mexicans getting stark drunk. No whales. But a wonderful view of Lands End and The Arch. Luckily we got to see some whales each morning just offshore while we sat at the presentations.

Third day we got a real treat! I've always wanted to swim with dolphins except its always so dang expensive! But we got a great deal and couldn't turn it down!

So excited to swim with dolphins in our wetsuits! Good thing cuz it was cold!

The little bums were charging $25 for each 6X8 printed picture and we were like heck no! So what did we do? We quickly and sneakishly took pictures of the pictures on the computer-thats why they're not the best quality-but memories none the least!

I wish we could've gotten more of the pictures because what a wonderful experience it was! We got to get and give kisses, dance with them, and hold on to the pectoral fin while they swam us around! Look at my cute husband...not even the dolphin could resist him!

Hello sweet thing! Such beautiful animals! It was always my dream job as a kid to be a Dolphin and Killer Whale trainer so this was the most fun thing for me to beable to do!

On the drive to the airport we had to stop for one last stunning view and give my final awesome pose! And what happens while we're driving...the sun comes out. Are you joking me!?

San Fran

2008-12-08T18:36:00.006-07:00

My favorite picture of the trip, with some of my own modifications-I love pictures and making something extra special out of them!

Unfortunately, we have no pictures of the Hamiltons, a couple from Michael's mission who were so kind to let us come stay with them and show us around San Fran!

Thanks guys!

Here we are on Alcatraz Island looking out at the Bay Bridge. It was neat to take the audio tour and learn lots of goodness about the prison!

This is a picture we took from the trolley-I love seeing the bridge through all the streets and houses!
Here is the cute little trolley!

Gotta love Pier 39 and their oh so famous seal village!

This was outside a little store-so wish I could've bought it!

Alcatraz Island from a distance.

A cell in Alcatraz-what a dreary place to have had to be sent to!

This is just some RIDICULOUS sailboat owned by some RIDICULOUSLY rich
person. Unbelievable.

Oakland Temple up ontop the hill overlooking the whole city!
B-E-A-Utiful!

Being true tourists (once again) at an awesome halloween fair thing-
they really had some neat stuff going on there!

Out on the Golden gate bridge on a lovely day!

On Alcatraz, looking back at the city-so happy!

OAHU

2008-11-06T19:43:00.009-07:00

Welcome to Hawaii! Oh how we love it! Lets first say that we did this whole trip in a friday afternoon and saturday-we are awesomely time crunched travelers who make literally the most of their limited time!

We're just happy in this picture-nothing excitingly out of the ordinary. But I do think its a good picture of Michael :)

Our new travel buddies are also happy! Laura and Johnny and our cute jeep we got or cheap! I rhyme.

For our first adventure of the day-China Man's Hat.
The distance isn't as daunting as it looks.

Almost there-looking like we're just offshore-but out in the middle of the ocean!

Hiking up, up, up to the peak of the "Hat" for the most stunning view!

The pictures don't do justice to how glorious it was-being out in the middle of the ocean-

with the beautiful Hawaiian scenery ahead of you-

and the sun streaking its way through the clouds-
gently glittering off the ocean bay below. Truly breathtaking.

Aloha China Man's Hat!

We just dinked around the rest of our friday night-
saying hello to the oh so fabulous hawaiian men.

Eating some delicious shrimp and being true tourists
by posing in the wooden frame (looks for this again in San Fran...)

We took a last stop to the beach to relax for a bit of the night on the sand.

Bright and Early Saturday morning we headed off to Maunawili Falls!
The hike was pleasantly full of crossing streams, slipping through mud, and
viewing some more of that gorgeous Hawaiian scenery. Can't get enough!

The Falls! Nothing huge and grande-but quaint and cute nonetheless
as Michael proves he is a conquerer of waterfalls (which he is)
(no, seriously, he is)

Double jump as we prove we are the conquerer of the skies!

No, seriously, I am. See me? Ya.
Its like being a fairy in Never Never Land.
The vid at the bottom is me jumping from higher up
from the left side of this picture. Freaky it was!

We love to play! No growing up for us! Peace out Maunawili!

Stopping for lunch/dinner. Then Matsamotos-HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT!!!
Before this we were at Waimea Bay
jumping off the rock there as well but unfortunately didn't snap any pictures.

Laura with the Bounty Hunter! Grrrrr!!! He's scary looking.

The one and only Sunset Beach to top off our trip.

There aint nothing like swimming in
the ocean under a perfect sunset!

And a special thanks goes out to Nola and Josh or letting us stay with them!
Even when they had just moved there 3 days earlier! Thanks guys! You're awesome!

Here is my jump-that was really really scary! I've jumped lots but it never ceases to pump me full of adrenaline. This isn't the best shot but this is about a 50 ft. jump out of the trees into the little pool of Maunawili. ROCK ON!!!

Viva Las Vegas

2008-10-01T17:31:00.004-07:00

We went to Vegas for the weekend to play with Juli and go see Phantom of the Opera at the Venetian. Chelsea has never been there, so it was a mesmerizing experience for her as we drove down the strip. Since we don't drink or gamble or pick up hookers, we put our energy into finding whatever else Vegas might have to offer.
This picture is from the top of the needle on the Stratosphere before we shot off into the sky! We rode two of the rides atop the Stratosphere. Big Shot and another one whose name has escaped me that took you out over the edge and spun you round and round. Both were super fun and a little freaky!

We watched the dancing waters three times, I believe, because the music changes each time. You can't watch just one.

Such an amazingly beautiful spectacle! Before this we witnessed another fantastic spectacle. We saw Phantom of the Opera in the theater that was built around the show. It was crazy awe inspiring! They shortened it a bit, but most people wouldn't recognize it. We ended up eating at Panera Bread twice because Tracie hooked us up with gift cards. We love that place. And we love Tracie! Thanks a bunch!

Tradition led us to this little snack place to get chocolate covered strawberries. We ended up getting a lot more than that, as you can see. I guess you just can't say no to chocolate and sugary goodness either!

This picture is in there for the sole reason of letting short, Mexican guys know that they do actually have a chance with tall, redheads-should someone ever wonder :)

Puerto Vallarta Adventure

2008-09-27T10:48:00.010-07:00

This was quite an interesting trip. We were initially headed to Alaska for the weekend with my old roommate Spencer, but when the flights filled up at the last minute we decided Mexico would be fun! What an adventure it turned out to be.

This is Guayabitos, about 45 minutes north of Puerto Vallarta. We flew down early Friday, went and grabbed our cheapo rental car, and took off up the coast. We were going to stay the weekend at a friends place here in Los Ayala. Getting there turned out to be harder than we thought.

After attempting to get up the hill of death to the house, we were all muddy and a little beat up, so we decided to go to this restaraunt on the hill. It had quite the view and was so nice to just sit and hang out, but Chels and I didn't know what half the food was, so the food was a little less than desireable. Notice how our plates are still full....

After we ate what we could, we headed up to the house. It was a crazy bumpy ride in a little piece of crap car, but we did make it. We couldn't pull up to the house because the road had caved in at the entrance, so we got out and walked up to the house.

This is the house we went to. It's the pink one on the right. It actually has a gorgeous view over- looking the beach. It is a really cool location in the middle of this jungle, but comes with all the blessings of a jungle.

As we were climbing to the house we almost walked through the web of this freaky guy. The little one on the left is larger than 90% of the spiders in America, so you can only guess how big the one on the right is. It literally was as big as Chelsea's hand.

They were all over the place. There were none in the house, but they were all over the place outside as we walked around. You had to be really careful not to walk through their webs, which were actually a golden silk thread if looked at properly. Later, we were told that these Banana Spiders are not poisonous, but they were still freaking scary.

Amidst all these freaky spiders, there was this little preying mantis on the railing. It was about the size of a penny. It was SO small and cute! There was also a frog on the side of the house!

This was the view from the back balcony and it really was amazing. We stayed here in Guayabitos for a night, and then decided to go down to Puerto Vallarta for a couple days.

In Puerto Vallerta we decided a zipline tour would be fun. We went to El Eden, the film set for the movie Predator. It was gorgeous driving down the coast and then through the jungle and the little towns.
To prepare for our zip lining adventure, we needed to have close-toed shoes, which neither of us had. So we headed to Wal-Mart and got these awesome cheapo mexico shoes which suited us perfectly. Chels actually really liked them!

This is Mike, swinging through the trees!

Ew, ya, we look like dorks, but had a good time nonetheless.

And this is Chels doing her swinging thing.

We were pretty hot and sweaty due to the hiking and humidity and after a few minutes debate, we decided the cold water would be good for us.

Michael sliding down the waterfall. It was really scary climbing over to the spot where I start. Then it was scary because I got stuck in the current of the waterfall. Bobble-head Michael!

Doing a backflip off the rope swing. We were really glad we decided to play in the water.

Any rain really takes a toll on these dirt roads in Mexico.

It made for exciting, jaw clenching car rides though!

Saying goodbye to Mexico. What a random, fun trip it turned out to be!

Diamondbacks and Cardinals

2008-09-25T20:04:00.003-07:00

We went to the Arizona Diamondbacks game with Eddie and Carrie. The stadium is awesome and the game was fun, but I must admit that baseball games go on forever! It was cool to go to a game, but I don't know when we will be going back.

Sorry the pictures are not that great, but I took them on my phone. The Diamondbacks won, so it ended up being a good game.

We also went to a Cardinals game. This was another amazing stadium. This stadium was unreal, actually. Chels thinks it looks like a giant alien saucer! The traffic was crazy on the way out there-the stadium is WAY out there-in the middle of no where! Cardinals won this one. It was a cool experience to be at a professional football game.

Both games were really fun. Now we only need a professional soccer team here in the good ol' state of AZ so Michael will have another source of joy!

Maui for the 4th of July!

2008-09-22T20:28:00.008-07:00

We were going to go to Honolulu, but the morning we were supposed to take off the flight filled up. So we decided Maui was a good backup. We flew there and found a place to stay for cheap and spent the first night hanging out on the beach. It was kind of a make shift trip, but we had a ton of fun.

This was on the top of Haleakala Crater for sunrise. We woke up WAY early and cruised up the mountain so we wouldn't miss the sunrise. We barely made it to witness this.

On the road to Hana we stopped and took pictures of these really cool trees. They're the Rainbow Eucalyptus Tree's. Our friend called them the gay trees. They were a little different.

As is Michael sometimes. They brought out his inner self.

This was another stop on the road to Hana. Another black sand beach. We thought these were really cool. Even though people say the road isn't worth the drive, they are wrong. It was worth every bit of it. It is one of the most beautiful drives I've ever been on.

This is at Seven Sacred Pools. We were the only ones that climbed up this top fall, along with our new-found friend Chris. We met Chris and Shirnest at the pools and after hanging out for a couple hours ended up deciding to stay another day and sleep at their place. So they let us stay for free and we took the flight out the next day.

This is the "nuddie" beach. We never went down because there were nakky people down there, but we thought we would get a picture of it. It looked really pretty. Technically it is illegal, but no one really cares down here.

This is the really cool black beach. This is at Waianapanapa State Park and we had a ton of fun here. We picked a guy up on the road to Hana and he told us to come here. He was this really funny old guy and made us take a picture with his "Thank God for Hana" sign.

That rock out there that pokes up is where we jumped from in these next videos. It was crazy cool!

This was a crazy scary jump. The waves were beating in against the rocks and you were standing on this 40 foot rock and the wind was blowing pretty fiercely. . .so much fun!

Chels always looks funny jumping off the rocks.See what I mean. Look in the middle on the left. That's Chels all bent over jumping off the rock.
Michael doing a backflip off the little cliff. We had a lot of fun here at the Seven Sacred Pools. I absolutely love Hawaii for this reason!
This is the sign the hitchhiker gave us. We look like such dorks!
This is a little LDS chapel in Maui. It is the first LDS church built on the islands, so I told Chels we had to find it and take some pictures of it.
This is inside with some of the original pictures. It was such a cool little church. Kind of hard to find, but way worth it.This was the beach we hung out on for the 4th of July. I would have taken some pictures of the fireworks, but none of them really looked like anything, so you'll just have to imagine fireworks over the ocean.
It looks like a really peaceful beach at sunset, but a couple hundred yards away a huge group of kids showed up and drank the night away. Police showed up at one point, so I can only imagine what was going on over there. But we had a lot of fun down on our end. Chels took a couple of pics like this and I couldn't decide which one was the best, so I put this up.
This is another picture of beautiful Hawaii. It was so pretty there. I think I could live there for a while and be perfectly content. I wish we had more time in Hana. We were told not to go out there, but if we ever go again we will probably spend most of our time there. There were a ton of waterfalls and beautiful shorelines as you wind your way through the trees.
Everyone thought we were crazy for only staying a couple days, but when the flights are free it's oh so worth it.
This is another pic from the Haleakala crater. We got up here right before the sun started coming out over the clouds.
We love Hawaii and even though it was a last minute change in plans, we still had a ton of fun in Maui.

MY MAN....

2008-07-13T20:01:00.005-07:00

1. Who is your man? Michael Sackett
2. How long have you been together? A tinsy bit over 1 year
3. Dating/Engaged/Married? Dated for 7 months, Engaged for 2.5 months, Married 2 months!

4. How old is your man? 25
You or your man?
1. Who eats more? He does, for sure!
2. Who said "I love you" first? He did.

3. Who weighs more? Michael does. That could change once I'm pregnant though...in a long time.
4. Who sings better? Bah! Michael...with the voice of an angel.
5. Who's Older? He's killin' me by 7 years...
6. Who's smarter? Probably Michael.

7. Who's temper is worse? We're about the same....neither of us has much of one.

8. Who does the laundry? I usually wash and he folds his clothes about half the time.

9. Who does the dishes? It used to be both of us...but lately its become just me.

10. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Michael does. But we switch off a lot when we travel.
11. Who's feet are bigger? Michael's
12. Who's hair is longer? Mine
13. Who's better with the computer? Michael is better on his Mac...but I do just as well on a PC.
14. Who mows the lawn? Haven't gotten there yet, but he probably will.
15. Who pays the bills? Michael

16. Who cooks dinner? When someone does cook something, its me.
17. Who drives when you are together? Michael almost always. Apparently me driving 15 over the speed limit is too slow for him.
18. Who pays when you go out to dinner? Michael, but its all the same.

19. Who's the most stubborn? Depends. We're about even.
20. Who is the first one to admit when they're wrong? I always end up crawling over and saying sorry, even when he was wrong and I wasn't.

21. Who's parents do you see more? Mine, since we live in Mesa.

22. Who named your dog? Don't have one :(

23. Who kissed who first? If you ask Michael, he'll say I kissed him. But we both know he went after me first!

24. Who asked who out? Michael asked me out at church...first day we met.

25. What did you do? Well...I don't know when our first day technically was...we watched Braveheart that night after church. Went to FHE together and then saw Disturbia after walking around Barnes and Noble. This second night was when HE kissed ME. But he counts our first date as when we went to the Stadium of Fire for the 4th of July.

26. Who's more sensitive? Ah me for sure. He can't believes how much I cry.
27. Who's taller? Michael, thank goodness.
28. Who has more friends? Michael's been alive a lot longer than I have...he does.

29. Who has more siblings? Michael has 4 and I have 3.

30. Who wears the pants in the relationship? I'm not sure. Haven't been married quite long enough to find out :)

Bahamas Trip Continued

2008-06-29T19:44:00.000-07:00

Next we went to Cococay, Royal Caribbean's private island. We ate a lot of food and played on the water toys. And I bet you can tell which posts Chelsea puts up and which posts Michael puts up. :)

Our last stop on the cruise was Key West. I don't really know what this was, but it looked really funny and we had to have a picture of it. We went shopping again and I bought my first pair of sunglasses-that was big! We ended up renting a scooter after our shopping spree and we scooted around the island for the rest of the day.

Chels loved the pink taxi, we hit the southermost point of the continental U.S. and took a break on the beach.

Here's the scooter we rented for the day!
And this picture is for my family. Hopefully you get the joke.
Notice the little "BOOM TK"

That was a little portion of our honeymoon. There are so many pictures and this takes way too much time to put more than this. But we loved every second of it. I'm just getting used to this whole blog thing again so bear with me and Chels if there are any crazy posts. I'll leave you with this as we sail off into the sunset!

Honeymoon to the Bahamas

2008-06-29T18:57:00.000-07:00

This was our pre-cruise emergency practice. Not the exciting part of a cruise.

Our first stop was in Nassau, Bahamas. We went shopping for a while, which was kind of a waste of our time, but then we headed over to the amazing Atlantis. We bought a day pass and played on the island for the rest of the day. We went swimming, floated down the lazy river, slid down the water slides, watched them feed the Manta Rays, looked at the sharks, and watched the dolphins. We jumped in the taxi back to the boat and we were some of the last on the boat. We got the boarding time a little wrong, so they were hurrying us along. :)

Yea for the Bahamas!

Fossil Springs

2008-06-29T18:28:00.000-07:00

We went camping at Fossil Springs as our first outing in Arizona. We decided to stay overnight so we packed up big 'ole backpacks (bad idea) and took off. It was a quick drive up to Strawberry and a fairly pleasant 4 mile hike down while the sun was setting. We began seeing the springs bubbling up out of the ground and quickly set up camp. We spent the rest of the night walking up the river and partially getting lost on the way back. Next morning we headed to the dam and big waterfall!
Here, you see Michael to the left dangling in the air on a rope swing. The water was crystal clear and oh so clean due to the fact that its all fresh spring water. A bit chilly but nice and refreshing! To the right of the people there is a little cave underwater you can swim through and behind where I'm taking the picture there is a big rock you can jump off and a sweet big cave you can swim into. Just when we were about to leave we got the guts to jump off the dam. It was one of the funnest jumps we've done! It didn't hurt at all! You jump into where the waterfall is landing so all the bubbles create a nice cushion and the water sort of pulls you through and pushes you out so there is no slapping of the body! I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

Except, next time we won't be staying overnight...and we'll go a different way because hiking back out was pretty awful. It was hot and straight up the whole 4 miles. With packs. Awesome. Not. And we couldn't ever stop more than a minute or else the bugs would eat us alive. They did anyway. Mike looked like he had chicken pocks for a week...from tiny knat size flies! It was gorgeous down in the springs though and we're looking to go again at the beginning of August.