Arizona

Okay, I know I'm so far behind with blogging... December was a crazy month with final exams and projects, and then I meant to catch up over Christmas vacation but I forgot to bring my camera cable home to New York; major fail.  So, I'm gonna go back and start with Thanksgiving and catch up :)

Richard and I spent Thanksgiving in Arizona with his family and had a BLAST.  His parents live in Avondale, AZ, and his grandparents in Kearny, AZ--we visited both places.  It was so good to see his parents and spend time with them for the week; I think I speak for both of us when I say that I wished they still lived in Biloxi so we could visit more often.  The plus side of them moving to Arizona?  BEAUTIFUL scenery :)  The mountains out there are absolutely breathtaking.  I've never seen anything like it.  I also got to meet the majority of Richard's extended family, which, as you can imagine, was a tad overwhelming :) But everyone was really welcoming and sweet.  I enjoyed getting to know everyone, and Richard was thrilled to see his family, so that was special for me to see. 

The best part of the trip had to be climbing Mt. Teapot the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  It was simply amazing.  The climb up took about three hours, and then it took about two hours getting back down (mostly because we were falling and sliding most of the way).  Richard and I had lunch together with some of the other family members that climbed and it was stunningly beautiful.  Major props to Richard--he was such a huge help while we were climbing.  Granted, he had to help because he kept forgetting that I was a foot shorter than him and he was making huge climbs up big rocks that I had no hope of being able to reach.  But he helped me all the way up to the top and kept me calm when I thought I was going to die :)

The first time I had ever seen cacti...

Oh, just the mountain we're about to climb... yes, all the way to the top of that peak on the right.

No big deal, right?

View from the top...

Another view...  

Where Richard and I ate lunch on the top :)

We made it!

Richard and I, Richard's dad, and his brother and sister-in-law, Phillip and Darcy.

The whole family that climbed once we were all back down... pretty exhausted at this point.

Also, Richard gets not so major props for telling me to wear SHORTS.  As you can see, the rest of the family wore pants... Richard decided we were fine in shorts and I (for once) listened to him.  I learned my lesson.  Our legs were destroyed.  This wasn't like, grassy rolling hills mountain climbing.  This was cactus, rocks, and thorny bushes rock climbing.  My legs looked like I had been attacked by a mountain lion and they were bruised for weeks.  Never again.