It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas! Well, kinda!

Well, it's that time of year! Snow falling, sledding, making snowmen...BUT, not here! I guess we could make sandmen but they wouldn't work well huh? As we got our Christmas tree it was odd because it still doesn't feel like Christmas to us! Yes, the calender says December 12, 2008. But the weather says September 3! It's weird to be singing "Baby it's cold outside" and "Let It Snow" while cruising along the street with the sunroof and all the windows open; definitely a first for me, and sadly the second year for Matt. It has been fun though; I'm actually liking the fact that I can wear just jeans and a long sleeved shirt and flip flops to go shop for presents, instead of having to layer up, get the poofy jacket on, and trudge through the snow at all times to get from point a to point be. However, we do miss the snow, the cold (or chilliness) that comes with it, having to snuggle up under a blanket with cocoa to watch a movie. SO, if you are cold, count yourself lucky! There are those of us who aren't and kind of want to be at times!
Another first for us is spending the entire holiday season with out our families. Last year we had Thanksgiving with my parents, then Christmas totally alone, just the 2 of us, which was definitely a first! This year, the whole sha-bang is all alone; Thanksgiving was spent with some families from our church, which was such a blessing, we were truly thankful for! Christmas will be the same, we'll open presents the 2 of us and then dinner with the families, which we are so excited for! It'll be soo wonderful to spend the birth of our Savior with such wonderful and loving families!
So these are the pics of us with Joey and our tree and the final product of our decorated tree at home!

Out in the desert with the cacti and our tree and us!



Again, out in the desert! Look at our funny sweaters! Joey too!

Matt decorating our tree, so pretty!

Our "First Christmas" ornament-adorable!

The finished product!

TOOOOOMBSTOOOONE!!!

Matt's parents are visiting us for a few days and during the weekend we went to TOMBSTONE! Wow, that place is such a tourist trap! But we did have fun! We saw some gun fights, ate some ok food, and walked around the historic city. We also took a trolley tour that was narrated so we could learn about the different sites around town. It wasn't the wild west adventure one would hope for, but it worked for us yankees (you know, east coasters!).

I met a handsom man while we were there!

Matt got mad about that and beat him up and this is where he ended up!

Don't they look good?

Us, not so much!

The OK Corral shoot out site! With actual size mannequins!

The newly errected Wyatt Erp statue, dedicated the day before we got there



Boothill Graveyard...where the toughest are burried!



Also, where the wrongly hung are burried!

Carving the pumpkins

So we carved the pumpkins we picked out at the patch last night. I (Lyns) carved Joey's and my own while Matt just did his! Joey's was the traditional scary pumpkin, while Matt's was a slightly varied scary pumpkin, and as always, mine was silly! And, of course, we had to pay tribute to our beloved schools! CSU and VT! whoo hoo!

Starting off with the tops!

Big smiles for big pumpkins!



Joey's little pumpkin all done...so scary!



Yep....school pride!

Such beautiful and scary faces!

Don't we all look great!

Of course Joey had to be included too!

Pumpkin Patches!

This weekend we decided to start celebrating the coming holidays by going to a pumpkin patch! We went and picked out our pumpkins for carving, we also went in a corn maze and on a hayride to the "far away" patch....which was about 200 yards from the parking lot! We had a lot of fun though! There were lots of families there and we talked about how fun it'll be to take our kids to those kinds of things one day (in the distant future!) We're just enjoying being married and still being kids ourselves really. We had a fun drive to the patch (about an hour and a half away from Tucson) and the same back; just talking and goofing off and singing along to music...it's what we do best!

We're on the hay ride to the patch!



Lynsey: "Do we really have to take another picture, the first one was fine!"

Our pumpkins! With the loppers...the baby one is for Joey!

A view of our pumpkins and those around them!

"I Can Do IT!"

"I'm king of the pumpkins!"

The GRAND CANYON!

This past weekend, October 17-19, we went to the Grand Canyon! It took us 7 1/2 hours to get up there, mainly due to Phoenix traffic, road being closed because of an accident and no detour route set up for us to follow so we got a little lost, and road construction, but we made it in the end!! We got up there around 8pm and we set up camp. The next morning we got up and hiked around the rim, we couldn't go down into the canyon because we had Joey with us. That's ok, we'll just have to go back and backpack down into the canyon! So Saturday we walked around the rim in the morning then after lunch we drove to the southeast side of the rim and stopped at all the different points. We even went up into "Lookout tower" at the southeast point. Sunday, before we left, we went to the southwest side of the rim, by the lodges, and hiked the rim there. Sadly, after the first little bit the rim trail was closed so we didn't get to far. But, we did see the trail we would need to hike to get down there, and it was pretty intense. We really enjoyed out time at the canyon and can't wait to get back and really explore it more! We were in such awe of what God had created and can't wait to see even more of it!

The first "family photo" at the canyon!

Matt and Joey in the light of the campfire!

Lyns and Joey by the canyon; he just jumped right up there!

Matt on the ledge overlooking the canyon

Right before sunset on the southeast side of the rim



The "Look Out Tower" from a different point



Sunset on the southeast side of the rim



Joey on the Sunday morning rim trail! Isn't he cute with his pack?



Oh no! The trail is closed! Bummer!



The steps hurt Joey's paws so Matt was sweet and carried him down! Don't they look happy?

San Diego!

So, went to so San Diego for Labor day weekend! It was short 6 hour drive to the coast from Tucson, and we were more than happy to go! We got to meet up with some of Lynsey's friends from CO (who brought a special friend from the Czech Republic that she hasn't seen for 2 years!) and a friend of ours from MD (Jonny!). We went to Sea World with the whole group on Saturday then Sunday it was just us and Jonny at the Zoo. Before leaving on Monday we stopped by the beach to get some sand between our toes and breath in some salty air! It was a much needed break from Tucson and we had such a great time! We were blessed so much by seeing our friends! They were such an encouragment to our hearts!

Group shot at SEA WORLD!

Jana and Lynsey at Sea World!

The Semore and Clyde sea lion show!



Obviously, we like the sea lions the best!

Matt and Jonny at the ZOO!

Baby giraffe! She's only a few weeks old!

A Kola sleeping, what else do they do?



Look at this rare animal out of his natural habitat! It was really hard to get a picture of him doing his mating ritual face, but we got it! We know..it's a little scary...



Us squinting in the sun by the beach!