Jeremiah & Hannah's Blog: The Beautiful Arizona

Only one week left of summer! Where did the time go??

I feel like I am always saying that, but in this case I am pretty excited about the time moving quickly because that means that our wedding will come faster! T-minus 10 months!

So first things first- wedding plans. Last time Jeremiah wrote we had just decided on a date and venue which was a big decision, which we are still very excited about. And since then, we’ve made a number of smaller decisions. The one that I’m most excited about is that I picked out my wedding dress! I obviously can’t describe it because Jeremiah reads this blog and I am leaving it as a complete surprise. But I absolutely love the dress! I went to about 5 different stores to look, and found some other nice options but kept coming back to this one (which I tried on at the second store we visited). On top of loving the dress, the store we went to, Uptown Bridal, was a really great, no-pressure place. They were very helpful and very patient with my indecisiveness. We have also decided on out colors (not sure if that was mentioned previously) of gray, navy blue, and sage green. I picked out my bridesmaid dresses already too! This decision needed to be made pretty quickly because my sister-in-law is pregnant with baby #3! We wanted her to be able to try on the dress and find her size so she knows the approximate size she’ll be after she has the baby in January, rather than having to guess or wait until just a couple months before the wedding to order. So I am very pleased with that decision as well. Finally, my sister Emily took our engagement photos and I made save-the-dates that I just got in the mail. They are so cute! We’ll be sending them out in the next month I imagine. Those are some of the big things we’ve done and so our next steps are booking our photographer, DJ, and florist. Our venue is all-inclusive so they have these vendors that we can choose from, so that shouldn’t be too hard. We are also looking into honeymoon locations, which has been really fun. Especially after this summer where I have not left Arizona much, I am itching to travel! We are focusing in on Maui, HI, Mexico, and a couple other places in the Caribbean. But if anyone has any other suggestions or tips about these places, let us know!

Sneak peak at one of the engagement photos my sister took.

Outside of the wedding planning we have had a pretty eventful summer despite having not travelled much! For one, the detail I briefly mentioned in my last paragraph- my brother and sister-in-law are pregnant again! YAY! Paisley and Parker are getting a new sibling in early January of 2017! This will be my fifth niece/nephew and I can’t wait. On the flipside of this, my family has some harder news too… About a month ago we found out my sister and brother-in-law are moving to Philadelphia, PA. They are moving for my sister’s job with General Mills, so it is going to be great for their family… It’s just hard for us here in AZ! I have loved having Heather and George close by and I won’t get to see Madeline and Luke as often as I’d like, but it’s a new place for us to travel to and there will be plenty of occasions to see them still. They leave this Saturday, the 13^th, and I can’t think about it too much yet or I’ll get too emotional!

Luke! Almost 6 months already!

Jeremiah is in his last week of his internship at Stryker Sustainability and has really loved the experience. They have kept him super busy with multiple projects so the time has flown by for him. Even though he is really busy, he is enjoying all of the work as well as the environment he is working in. Maybe he will work there in the future at some point too! Who knows? For now, he is gearing up to start his official last year at ASU as a Masters student. Along with the required 12 credits he will be working as a TA for FSE 100, an intro to engineering type class for undergrads. This is a highly sought after job that he will be so perfect in! He has always been an awesome, patient tutor for me and is really great at explaining concepts. So I’m excited to see how this role goes for him.

This summer I have been working at a physical therapy office, which I started back in February. It has been going very well! I really enjoy meeting so many patients and it has been an awesome experience to learn about physical therapy. I have also been taking an online Physics class, which I am sooo ready to be done with. I’ve got a few more weeks… I can do it! The class is especially annoying because I am only taking it so that I can apply to certain PT schools that don’t take high school AP credit. But that’s okay; it will be worth it!

Something fun I have done this summer is a lot of hiking! I have always loved hiking, but have never gone very consistently. Luckily, my friend Jess helped me change that! Jess is a friend of mine from ASU who is a very avid hiker. She invited me on a hike back in June and we went once a week until she went home to Tucson, but I kept it up either by myself or with other people I recruited to hike with me here and there. Arizona is so beautiful, and it is really awesome to get up and active so early! In order to hike here in the summer, obviously it has to be early! But Arizona doesn’t get more beautiful than the Grand Canyon, which I hiked in July! Jess and her mom and a few of her mom’s friends had planned for quite awhile to hike the Grand Canyon in July and luckily a spot opened up so that I could join them. So amazing! We went and stayed on the South rim on a Thursday, hiked down South Kaibab trail starting at 4 am Friday morning, stayed at Phantom Ranch at the bottom, and out Bright Angel trail on Saturday. It was hot but it was worth it. The canyon is spectacular from the top, but truly a different experience to hike down into it. At the bottom, as I said we stayed in Phantom Ranch which has cabins and campsites. We stayed in a cabin (with AC thankfully!) and hung around the grounds playing games, swimming in the creek, napping, and enjoying the delicious beef stew and cornbread that the Phantom Ranch employees prepare. The hike out was 9.5 miles of gradual, and some parts steep, uphill. It was a little daunting, but we took it slow and steady and the whole group made it up pretty close together and without any injuries! I loved getting to experience the hike with Jess and the other ladies I went with were so much fun. We also met a girl from France on our way down, Camille, and spent a good amount of time with her! How brave to travel across the world and hike into a huge canyon by yourself! I made a GoPro video of our trip, so feel free to check that out too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zZsh8Va5BY

Isn't that amazing??

We made it out!

So that is what Jeremiah and I have done individually, but together we’ve done many other fun things! For one, we travelled to Kansas over the 4^th of July weekend! Some of his extended family live in Salina, KS so we were able to spend time with them. One of the days we were there we went to a nearby lake and spent the day jet skiing and tubing! So much fun!! I love jet skis. We also went to a fireworks show, tried a cute little burger place called the Cozy Inn, played a lot of ping pong and other games, and enjoyed the company. We flew out of Wichita and one of my friends (and a bridesmaid), Stephanie, lives in Wichita so we were able to stop in and see her and her husband! She made us the cutest brunch all red, white, and blue themed since it was the 4^th of July. They also had just recently gotten two kittens so I got to see and play with them. Another small trip we made was to the Grand Canyon for a quick visit with Jeremiah's family. We stayed in a cute little house in Flagstaff and then took a train to the canyon. The train ride was really nice, and a great way to beat lines to get into the national park.

We forgot to take a picture before Kyle had to leave for work.

We have been really lucky to be able to spend a lot of time with friends this summer, including tubing down the salt river, going to movies, doing an Escape Room, and other miscellaneous get-togethers. We’re lucky to have so many great friends! In fact, Jeremiah is moving into a house with three of our friends this weekend! The house is in Tempe and he is really excited to make the move. But he is also cherishing his last few days at home too!

This semester I have a very full schedule with 15 credits, which includes finishing my Honors Thesis and working 10 hours a week at my PT job which will count as my required internship for my major. I will also be working 15 hours a week as a first-year success coach. I am really excited for this new job! It is something I’ve been interested in for a long time, so next time I post I’ll let you know how it is. So it’s going to be full, but should be really great!

The summer had no spectacular Europe trip, but we still managed to make it a great one.