Havasupai Falls

Okay, my turn to write! Woo!

The most interesting thing to happen to Hannah and I over the past three weeks was also one of the coolest things I've done in my entire life. Over Halloween weekend, we and 11 other friends/family members went on a hike to Havasupai Falls. Our group consisted of me and Hannah; her siblings: Emily, Heather and George, and Brian and Terrisa; her dad; our friend Patty; family friends Brent and Kyle; and Dave and Ashley, who are friends of Brian and Terrisa's. We departed on our three-hour drive on Thursday evening and spent the night in a motel in Seligman, which is a little town about a 1.5-hour drive away from the start of the hike.

Friday morning we drove to the rim of the canyon to begin our hike, which was ten miles long and took us about six hours to complete (we were in no hurry what with the gorgeous landscape). It really wasn't too grueling, though Hannah tripped and rolled her ankle about halfway into the hike. She was in good enough condition to continue hiking on her own, though several of us took turns carrying her backpack in addition to our own, so that she wouldn't have to hike with any added weight.

We arrived at the campsite just about an hour or two before sundown, so we quickly pitched our tents and then went on a short walk back to one of the big waterfalls. Originally, only Patty, Brian, Brent, and I actually jumped in the frigid water at the base of the waterfall, but eventually we were able to convince every single person to join us, one by one!

On Saturday, we went on an eight-mile (round trip) day hike out to Beaver Falls and back. It was quite an adventurous trek! The very first section consisted of a climb down a very tall cliff, using "ladders" build into the sides of the cliff face. I say "ladders" in quotation marks because, in reality, it was mostly just rugged rock with stakes and chains nailed into it to use for handholds; there were actually only two fifteen-or-so-foot ladders. Though it was a bit scary, it was definitely worth it, as it was the first leg of our journey that followed the river all the way down to Beaver Falls. We hiked through all sorts of terrain, from rivers to dusty desert to more forresty scenes to a terrain that more resembled a giant, overgrown garden! It was tons of fun.

Sunday was the hike back out of the canyon. Since people had places to be that evening, we hiked out at a much faster pace compared to our Friday hike. Ultimately, we shaved about 1.5 hours off our Friday time and completed the ten miles in about 4 hours and 15 minutes. It was probably one of the most grueling things I've ever done; all our legs were screaming at us on that last section hiking up the switchbacks. But we rewarded ourselves with an enormous and delicious meal at a little diner back in Seligman called Lilo's. Overall, it was one of the most memorable weekends of my life, and I'm sure many others in our group would say the same!

The only downside to our weekend was that we missed one heck of an ASU football game against Utah. It also happened to be Homecoming weekend, and ASU won 19-16 on an overtime field goal. Thankfully, I was rewarded with an even better game this past weekend, against Notre Dame. Our defense really won it for us; we had three straight takeaways in the first quarter that resulted in touchdowns, along with a game-sealing pick six in the fourth quarter to hold off the Fighting Irish's impressive comeback. We won 55-31, sending Todd Graham and the Sun Devil football team even higher in the College Football Playoff rankings. We're currently ranked No. 6, and if we win-out the season, we'll be in the playoffs for the first time in I don't know how long! One of my friends put it quite nicely in her Facebook status:  "Did you know that leprechaun tears are part of a balanced Sun Devil diet? Graham's boys sure do."

The following day, Hannah and I went over to our good friend Stephanie's apartment on the other side of campus to make pizzas with her and her fiancé, Kyle. We then walked over to the new AMC theaters on Mill Avenue to catch a showing of Interstellar. The movie was fantastic, and the seats were literally the nicest theater seats known to man. They were these comfy, red leather, electonicaly reclining seats that reclined so far back that you might as well have pulled your king-size bed into the theater to watch the movie with your friends. A very fun night, indeed.

I think that about sums things up on our front... Though school continues to be challenging for the both of us, fun moments and weekends like these balance it out to turn this semester into one of the best years of college so far!

Okay okay... So it has been WAY too long since the last post and I apologize to all you readers for the wait. I have been very busy, but I know that's no excuse! I started writing a post a week ago and never got around to finishing it so I am starting over. Jeremiah and I have had a lot of midterms since the last time we posted, but also a lot of fun and exciting things going on. The first to note is that we officially booked our flights to Europe!! This was a big and scary(for me anyway) and exciting step in our Europe journey. We did a lot research and asking my parents and Heather and George about their experiences and we decided to try out a website called studentuniverse.com. Heather and George used this and it is a website that offers discounted flights for people under the age of 25. We were looking at arriving in different places all over Europe to see where we could get the best deals and we decided on flying in and out of London. And we are actually leaving from and flying into Los Angeles on the US end. Through student universe we found nonstop flights around the dates we were looking for from LA to London and back on Norwegian airlines. So we ended up booking right through Norwegian airlines for just under $1000! Considering the prices we were looking at early on in our flight search, this was a great deal. It was very scary to finalize that payment but so exciting at the same time. So as of now this is our itinerary: Leave May 24th from Los Angeles, arrive in London, then Bruges --> Amsterdam --> Berlin --> Munich --> Salzburg --> Zermatt --> Paris, back to London, leaving on June 21st. That's four weeks of exploring Europe! We were originally planning on three weeks, but decided to make it four weeks because we aren't sure when/if we'll ever have this much free time again and we paid for the flights, might as well take our time over there! Our next steps include exploring travel options between countries, things to do in and around each place we visit, and places to stay. If you have travelled to any of these places and had some great experiences, we would love to hear your recommendations through the comments section below or through email. So far that is as far as we have gotten on our Europe planning, but the flight is a big step... We are now financially invested in the trip!

I am going to assume that you don't really want to hear about the dozen tests we have taken between the two of us, the hours of studying, or the monotony of our homework and school lives, so I'll tell you more exciting things that have taken place. A couple days after we purchased our flights to Europe, Jeremiah and I hopped in the car with his family and travelled to Disneyland! I know what you're thinking... Again?? Aren't you sick of that place?? Actually no, despite it being our ninth time to a Disney park together. We had a blast! Every October the Dwights go to Disneyland for a special family trip and they always stay in the Grand Californian! I have been lucky enough to join them for the past four years! When we arrived on Saturday, it was later in the evening and we got up to our room and we all just stopped and smiled at this awesome view right out of our window. So cool! It was the perfect start to the trip! The next four days were filled with rides, food, shows, food, great conversation, and yeah, great food. So we ate a lot, but we also walked a lot, and just really enjoyed ourselves. This trip always makes me feel like part of their family because it is one of their most loved traditions, and I'm pretty sure I didn't stop smiling the whole weekend. Pretty amazing how Disney can make your experience feel magical no matter how many times you go!

Nine times to a Disney park together!

This past weekend did not let us down either! It started off with a date night to Cibo Pizzeria and the Phoenix Symphony with my brother, Brian, and sister-in-law, Terrisa. Terrisa and Jeremiah had briefly talked about how it would be fun to do a date night to the symphony so we decided to make it happen! It was a delicious dinner and a very well-performed symphony. It was also very convenient for me, literally a few blocks down the street! So we had a great night with Brian and Terrisa. That may have been the first time just the four of us together for that long, and it was a great experience! We had good conversation, and while we missed Paisley and Parker, it was good to talk with just the two of them. Then on Saturday I woke up very early to pick up Jeremiah and my friend Patty and one of her friends and we all went to the REI store for a big sale! Jeremiah, Patty, and I are joining my family and a few others for a hike to Havasupai falls in the Grand Canyon over Halloween weekend! We need a lot of hiking gear and REI happened to be having a huge sale this past Saturday. So we all got breakfast and got in line at about 7 am, and waited until 9 for them to open. We all got things that we wanted, so it was successful, and also very fun! After that, Jeremiah and I went with our friend Stephanie to get our football tickets for the ASU v. Stanford game. We ended up getting really good seats! We went to an event called Devils on Mill before the game started and got free food, free movie tickets, and walked around and got pumped for the game! At the game, like I said, we had great seats, and we got free shirts! We also beat Stanford 26-10 so that was even more exciting!

Sunday I got up early again to help get ready for Madeline and Parker's first birthday party!! I honestly can't believe that it has already been a whole year since they were born. Madeline is full on walking and Parker is crawling, and they are both absolutely adorable. Plus the party was awesome. It was a Western theme, so cowboys and cowgirls, and bales of hay, and Western foods. Heather and Terrisa did a great job putting it all together, and it seemed to me like everyone had a great time!

I really should get into a better habit of writing on this blog, because it is a really good reminder of all of the good things that I have going on in my life. During the week my classes and job can make me feel very overwhelmed and stressed out and sometimes I forget about all of these amazing things that I have! I am so lucky to have my nieces and nephew to celebrate, and to have a great school to attend, and have the opportunity to travel to Europe! Looking back on just the past few weeks I am reminded of all of those great things! I hope that anyone reading this is having a good week and can take the time to look back on all the good things that have happened to you in the past few weeks.

We will continue to try to get more consistent at writing on this blog so that you can keep updated on our Europe journey and our lives! Thanks for reading!

Riding Thunder Mountain with Nathan, Jeremiah's brother, in the middle.

 Devils on Mill

 At the game!

 Awaiting their cupcakes!

Sophomore/Junior Year Begins!

Hope you all have had a good couple months since Hannah's first post of this blog. I take full responsibility for the absence of posts since that first one, since we're supposed to switch off with every post. Actually, I only take 99% of the responsibility. Hannah gets dealt 1% because she refrained from pestering me. Thankfully her Aunt Doris is good at keeping both of us in check!

So what's all happened in these past two months? Most notably, school has begun for the both of us - for me, my junior year of mechanical engineering; for Hannah, her sophomore year of kinesiology. Neither one of us has a particularly light load this semester. I have 19 credit hours and I think she has 17 or 18, plus we're both Community Assistants in our respective residence halls, and we're each involved in two or more clubs/organizations on campus. Good thing not all of those 19 credit hours are purely academic!

This fall we enrolled in Latin/Salsa I - a dance class. Had you told me two years ago that I'd be taking a dance class at ASU, I'd have called the police to drag you downtown to the mental health hospital. But the opportunity arose for me to fit it in my schedule this semester, and on a whim, I went for it. Once I told Hannah, she enrolled in it too, and now we're about four weeks into the class! It's actually quite a lot of fun. We don't get to dance with each other more than once or twice a class, but it's still fun to be learning salsa dancing together. I thought I'd be terrible at it since I lack a good deal of physical coordination, but the class is very structured and slow-paced, so I'm picking things up alright. I just have to learn to let loose a bit so my style comes through more. And Hannah, of course, is stellar! She has both a natural and situational advantage: she's very coordinated, and she's also already taken a dance class at ASU. So with that in mind, I'd say I'm a decent beginner.

Something neat I got to last month was perform the National Anthem at Chase Field! I'm part of the Desert Bones Trombone Choir at ASU, and we were fortunate to be invited to perform the National Anthem before a Sunday afternoon Dbacks game! It was a really neat experience, being down on the professional baseball field playing my trombone. Baseball was the love of my life until I was about 13 years old, at which time trombone took over as my new love. To be able to combine the two in such a unique way was truly an incredible experience. I even got a chance to get a few signatures from some of the Dbacks' starting pitching rotation! Collmenter and Cahill aren't my favorites - I was hoping for Goldschmidt to come out to the field - but it was neat all the same.

Class was canceled a couple weeks ago, though, due to - and I mean this literally - the storm of the century. In fact, it may have been the storm of all time, because the entire Phoenix Valley received more rainfall in a single day than we've ever gotten on any day since that type of thing began being tracked back in the late 1800s. Parts of the valley received more than five inches of rain in just twelve hours, which is more rain than we got in all of 2010. It was pretty epic, though for many, it was disastrous. Thankfully no one I know had significant damage done to their cars or houses, but I saw all sorts of pictures of highways that had turned into rivers strewn with partially submerged cars. Oh and the roof of a Fry's down in Gilbert collapsed due to the weight of the water. Worst that happened to me was having to deal with leaks in some of my residents' rooms!

In other news, my dad and brother and I went to Disneyland over Labor Day weekend. Yes, I did just get back from a seven-month internship in Disney World. No, my Disney itch was not satisfied. And no, I'm not a spoiled Disney brat. Just blessed by a family with the same enthusiasm for Disney! We stayed in a hotel just right across the street from the parks with only two full-size beds. I took the third, which was about the size of a coffin made for a leprechaun, but comfortable nevertheless. We ate at our favorite places, rode all our favorite rides, and continued to build our record scores on Toy Story Midway Mania. If you read my last blog, you'll know I vowed to reach 300,000 points, and I'm proud to say I'm now about 40,000 points closer from when I left Florida. I think Nathan (my brother) and I could both break 300,000 when we go back in October!

Yes, we're going back in October. Don't scoff.

Another fun thing we both did with my family was go to the opening night of the Phoenix Symphony's 2014-2015 season. They opened with Firebird Suite, and the feature was Carmina Burana. Both were spectacular. Hannah and I are definitely going to have to renew our college club cards so we can go to all the other Classics concerts! Only $30 for like ten or twelve beautiful performances of classic orchestral music. Such a sweet deal.

With Hannah's family, we had a fun pool party last weekend that also sort of served as a going-away celebration for our friend Sarah, whom Hannah's known since she was in elementary school. Sarah is leaving soon (in fact, I think she already left) for England for a semester of studying abroad! It should be a lot of fun for her. It certainly has Hannah and I drooling, as we're planning our own European adventure right now! We recently made a tentative itinerary that includes stops in Berlin, Germany; Zermatt, Switzerland; Salzburg, Austria; Paris, France; Bruges, Belgium; Amsterdam, Netherlands; and London, England - all spread over three to four weeks and hopefully less than $3000 a person. We'll probably leave shortly after Nathan's high school graduation in May and get back in mid to late June.

Planning exactly where we intend to visit is making it even more real, and I have to say, I'm getting pretty stoked!! Hopefully within the next month we'll finalize our itinerary and book our plane flights. Woo!

Well, I think that's a pretty good summary of the significant happenings over the past couple months. I anticipate that we'll be a bit more consistent in our biweekly postings from now on, but of course, no guarantees!

A Welcome and What's What 

Many of you reading this post are probably visiting this because you were previously reading Jeremiah's Engineering the Magic blog. That's great! He is such a great writer, isn't he? I know I enjoyed reading it. We decided that maybe you all enjoyed reading it too so we wanted to keep a blog going for friends and family. Since school is starting up so soon (August 21st) this joint blog will make it easier to keep you updated while staying on top of schoolwork. This blog will most likely contain shorter posts than Jeremiah's because, let's face it, going to school five days a week, isn't quite as exciting as working and living at the Happiest Place on Earth. We will update you on our lives, school, and the most exciting of all, our road to Europe! We have decided that we are going to follow in the footsteps of my older sister and brother-in-law and backpack Europe next summer. So you will all get a taste of the planning process for that very exciting trip! We can't wait! 

But first off, Jeremiah returns home in less than two weeks and, needless to say, I am very excited! It has been a long seven months, but a good seven months for both of us. We have made a good time of it, with trips back and forth, and we both agree that it was a great growing experience for us. But we are excited to be reunited for good (well, until I study abroad), and ready to go back to ASU this fall. Speaking of ASU, if you couldn't tell, the background of this blog is a picture I took at an ASU football game. That is your first little taste of our life at school. Thanks for joining us for this blog, we hope you enjoy reading it!

-Hannah

P.S. If you haven't ever checked it out, my sister and brother-in-law whom I mentioned, have a great blog that you might enjoy as well! thegeorgeandheatherblog.blogspot.com

Another page I took out of their book, their blog is what gave me the idea for this blog!