AYE ZEE BABY!!!

So I went to Arizona the last week before I headed off to FSU... It was in one word.... AMAZING!

On Monday, August 11, I woke up at 4 am and headed off to the Orlando airport with my mom.... we checked my baggage in and then I got on my plane for my 4 and a half hour flight.... I got stuck between two "bigger" men and the one at the window was actually really nice and let me stare out the window constantly, seeing that it was my first flight.... I landed in AZ at about 9 in the morning ( three hour time difference ) and Hayden Liljenquit picked me up... I was sooo excited when I went outside and it wasn't humid! We left and I immediately saw nothing but rock, cacti, and earth-tone colors....

Hayden had to work that afternoon, so I took a nap and then went and ran errands for his mom with his sister Katie Joe... When we got done with that he still wasn't home, so Katie and I went and got manicures... When Hayden got home, him, Katie, and I went to Carlos O'Brains for dinner with the people he works with... after that we went to a late movie, and by the time we got home I had been up for more than twenty-four hours....

The next day Hayden had to work in the morning, so I slept in, and then went with Katie to drop her mom off at the airport ( she was going to Texas to work for the week ). After she went to work, so I went on a walk through their neighborhood.... Lets just say that AZ is a completely different place than FL! When Hayden got home, we went out with his friend Joe, and a girl named Lindsay, into the desert and went four-wheeling ( or quading. as the call it ). I had never rode one before, so it was alot of fun and Hayden taught me how to drive it... I ran into a thorny bush twice and stalled out numerous times, but I loved every moment of it... When the boys went out by themselves, Lindsay and I got the giant squirt guns they brought to soak us with and attacked them instead... great times! After our four-wheeling excursion in the desert, we went to the Marriot's lazy river at like 10:00 pm and swam around for a while.

Then on Wednesday, Hayden wanted to get a group of people to go desert golfing, so we needed to get tons of golf balls... so we went to this driving range and took over 250 balls desert golfing... Desert golfing is where you stand on this ridge and hit the balls into the pond below, but the pond dried up ( surprise surprise! ) so we got a kiddie pool and filled it up tried hitting the balls into it, which didn't work out so well... It was a lot of fun. When we were leaving the desert, Hayden let me do a doughnut ( or "cookies" as the kids out west call them! haha ) in his truck, so I therefore accomplished something that was on my list of "Things to do before I die".

Thursday Hayden and I woke up bright and early to go with his brother and his wife, Robin ( she is AMAZING!!! ) out to Lake Bartlett... Lake Bartlett is up in the mountains and was gorgeous, but I thought it was sooo weird that there weren't any gators! Hayden attempeted to teach me how to wake board and I ALMOST got up, but it was a lot harder than it looked... Then Robin and I tubed together. It was a perfect day out on the lake. That night I brought the rain to the desert and we decided to go to this girl's "anti-birthday party"... I got sick somehow on the car ride there, which made for the perfect excuse to leave the party early... So when we got home, we all watched movies instead.

Friday, I didn't wake up until almost noon because of me being sick.... I decided that I needed some sun and fresh air, so Hayden taught me how to longboard ( a skateboard, but longer... just for "crusin' " ) and I really enjoyed it... It would be perfect for navigating across FSU! Then we went shopping at the outdoor mall so I could get a gift for Amber's 11th birthday... That night, we decided that we needed to appreciate our gymnastic olympians more, so we went to and open gym with Joe and his brother and some of their friends and tried our gymnastic skills; I wasn't so great!

Then Saturday Hayden took me on the "Hike of Death!", aka Camelback Mountian.... I thought hiking would be a breeze... no problem right?! I'm pretty athletic and love being outside.... WRONG! We parked like a half mile from the parking lot because Hayden didn't think that there would be parking and then we started up the mountian.... The steps were killer and I had to stop like three times.... then I saw the incline.... It was sooo steep... and I was so hot ( we went at like noon... oops : ) ) and I went up.... Hayden had to practically push me up it! I fel so bad for him having to go with me... Once we got half way I about died and I'm pretty sure I asked him to throw me off so I didn't have to go back down. After thirty minutes of resting though, I maned up and went all the way back down and did the half mile hike back to the car. Poor Hayden though could have done the hike with his eyes closed in like thirty seconds! That night I was so exhausted we just stayed home and watched movies...

Sunday, my last day in AZ : ( , we went to church and after had a big family dinner.... I never thought I'd find a family bigger, nor more roudier than mine, but boy did I. There were so many cute little kids running around and having fun with their cousins, and it made me miss home so much. Since my flight didn't leave Arizona until 11pm, Hayden took me to the Mesa, AZ temple because it is my favorite in the entire world... It was gorgeous and I loved it... Hayden and I talked a lot and got to know eachother even more... He is a great guy and one of a kind. Then he drove me to the airport and I got on my flight ( oh so sad : ( ) and flew to Atlanta, landed there around 5 am eastern time and flew out to Orlando around 7:45 am and finally arrived home at 10:30 am..... Long trip home, but totally worth it!

I'm having major withdrawls and I miss the hot desert so much.... It was the trip of a lifetime and I'll never regret going!