Hello Tucson, Arizona!

We now live in Tucson, Arizona!! I'll start by writing a little about our move down here, then about our experiences and thoughts on the area so far :)

BYE PROVO!!

Eloise was a great moving truck driver ;)

After spending a few days in Provo packing and deep cleaning at the end of October, we took two days to drive down to Tucson on the first of November. Dustan drove the moving truck with all our stuff, while I drove our Civic with Eloise. Not going to lie, it was a rough couple days! The first day of driving, we drove to Flagstaff, Arizona. The drive was supposed to take about seven hours to Flagstaff, but it ended up taking 10 hours with all the stops we had to take with a very grumpy and sad Eloise. Once we got to our hotel in Flagstaff, Dustan ran out to get us some Cafe Rio, which was not even good at all (how does bad Cafe Rio even exist?!). Then, as we were eating dinner, Eloise threw up all over the hotel floors and chairs :( After some yucky cleanup, we all went to bed and hoped for a better next day.

In the hotel room

Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be. Eloise was chipper in the morning, but was so sad and upset when we put her in the car again after breakfast. It was another long day of driving. Lou was refusing to eat much of anything (we realize now that she had some sort of stomach bug, and throwing up the night before wasn't just a random thing). Thankfully, Dustan's aunt lives in Phoenix, so we stopped and hung out with her for a couple hours before driving the last little bit to Tucson.

We arrived in Tucson on Friday afternoon with just enough time to check-in to our new apartment in west Tucson and get all moved in with the help of some friends. And we LOVE our apartment! It's a little older than our last apartment (we miss or granite countertops and double bathroom sinks), but it is wonderful! The living room is so open and spacious, we have a large covered porch, and a giant outdoor storage room for all our sporting gear, bikes, and tools, and a WASHER and DRYER! It's magical.

First ghetto dinner in our new place

Our first weekend in Tucson was a little rough, with Eloise being so sick. She was throwing up and refusing to eat or drink and just overall not doing well at all. We thought she was doing better on Sunday, then she ended up throwing up all over the chapel pew during church... Welcome to Tucson to us! Haha. She was better after some Pedialyte and a few days of lots of sleeping, then we got to exploring a little more!

Sunset from our porch

The first things we did in the area were some short hikes/walks outdoors. We love seeing all the different cacti especially. Though the hikes we've done so far (Gates Pass, Sweetwater, and the Yetman Trail) don't really have cool destinations, the paths are pretty neat! Mostly because of the saguaros. Overall, the landscape here in Tucson is more green than we expected and prettier than we thought it would be. Though we'll be honest, most of the city itself feels a little more ghetto and run down compared to most places we've been simply because there isn't a lot of effort put in to landscaping around houses and commercial areas. Even some rocks would look better than dirt and weeds! I'm sure it's hard to have much grow here.

We also explored a little bit of the city. We went to an arts festival in downtown and enjoyed looking at the different exhibits and seeing the cute and colorful downtown area. So far, the people are so nice and they all gush on how cute Eloise is (I guess there are less cute babies here compared to in Utah, haha) and often laugh about how we aren't bundled up at all in this "cold" weather.

Speaking of weather, that is our favorite part of Tucson so far! Dustan can mountain bike all the time, and I often go on walks and to the park with Eloise. We get to spend a lot of time outside, since the highs each day are typically at least 60 degrees, if not higher. It is wonderful!

In conclusion... We are liking Tucson so far! We'll see how we love it in the long run (especially come summer), but we are enjoying our warm winter in a new state :)

The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of JESUS CHRIST

At the beginning of October 2018, the president and prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Russell M. Nelson, issued a challenge to members of the Church (specifically the women) to read the Book of Mormon before the end of the year. The Book of Mormon is 531 pages of dense writing, with many obscure biblical references, difficult historical concepts, and deep spiritual lessons. It also a book with many inspiring people, miraculous events, and some crazy stories. For someone who reads as much as I do, one would think I could easily read through this book in just a week or two. But no. I had attempted to read the Book of Mormon in three months multiple times before, and had failed miserably, giving up before I was even halfway though. But this was the first time my prophet had asked me to, and I really wanted to succeed!

Along with reading the book in its entirety before 2019, President Nelson also encouraged us to specifically look for verses of scripture that talked about Jesus Christ and mark them, to help us learn more about our Savior to draw closer to him. With these challenges in mind, I calculated how many pages I needed to read a day to finish in time, and chose a lovely green/yellow marking pencil to mark all the scriptures that taught me about Christ.

As I was marking scriptures about Christ, I realized that in purpose and action and character (but not body), God and Christ are ONE. So I also began marking all the scriptures that taught me about my Heavenly Father as well. And here are some of the most common themes I found in the Book of Mormon, the characteristics and actions that appeared the most.

GOD and CHRIST:

• Are a LIGHT in the dark
• Heal
• Protect their faithful
• Love ALL perfectly, no matter what
• Strengthen us
• Destroy the wicked
• Are peace
• Keep their promises/covenants, always
• Forgiving
• Answer our prayers
• Are LOVE
• Guide us
• Require faith and obedience
• Bless and prosper the obedient
• Judge
• Are merciful
• Abhor and forsake sin
• Redeem
• Love the little children
• Are pure
• Empower and enlighten
• Create
• Give second (and third, and fourth...) chances
• Teach
• Are all-knowing and all-powerful
• Suffered FOR US

This list could go on and on. I learned so much about my Savior while reading the Book of Mormon. I found that reading with such a wonderful purpose gave me more strength to read. When I have read the scriptures in the past, it was so easy for my mind to wander. I loved reading with a purpose and intent to learn, and I feel like I understand my Savior more. I feel like it also helped me to develop better gospel study habits so that I've been able to go into 2019 strong.

If you are interested in learning more about the Book of Mormon or the Church of Jesus Christ of Letter-Day saints, you can visit mormon.org :)

The 2018 Holidays

We were lucky enough to be able to see all of our family this year for the holidays! We spent Thanksgiving with the Krauses in Colorado and Christmas with the Nielsons in Washington. They were both pretty chill, relaxed vacations, so I'm choosing to combine them into one blogpost that consists mainly of pictures :)

Thanksgiving with the Krauses

For the first time since we have been married, Dustan actually needed to work and be productive the week of Thanksgiving. Because Eloise and I wanted to be able to spend more than just a few days with family, we flew up to Denver the Saturday beforehand while Dustan didn't make it until Wednesday morning. Though we wish the break was longer, it was so fun to be able to spend a week in Colorado! Aside from his one brother on a mission in Mexico, all of Dustan's family was home for Thanksgiving, as well as some extra family, Jen's sister with her husband and kids. It was a party!

Before the whole party arrived and it was just a few of us, we enjoyed some time at the park and doing window shopping in downtown Windsor. It is always so fun when we get Eloise and her cousin Elodie together. Every time we do, they play together just a little better and are more fun to watch. I can't wait to see what they are like when they're older!

Eloise's first birthday also passed, without much fanfare. We would celebrate her birthday with a party after Thanksgiving. Then, the rest of the family arrived and we stayed up way too late eating good food and playing games. We enjoyed some outdoor fun with football (where Dustan sprained his ankle again) and Kan Jam (our new fave lawn frisbee game). We had a huge and delicious spread for Thanksgiving, as always.

As I mentioned, we celebrated Lou's birthday after Thanksgiving Day. The family was so kind in spoiling Lou with gifts and chocolate cake, which she loved :) More on that is here.

Then sadly, it was time to go home already! We got up super early Saturday morning and flew back to Tucson. It was a lovely week though!

Christmas with the Nielsons

We're so happy that Raytheon (the company Dustan works for) gives it's employees time off during the holidays without them needed to use any PTO. On a typical year, Dustan will get off Christmas Eve through New Years Day. Lucky for us, Christmas Eve fell on a Monday, so we also had the weekend before to get out of town. So, we ended up having almost two weeks without taking any time off! It was awesome. These first two pictures are from before our trip, celebrating Christmas a little early in Tucson.

Sadly, the trip didn't start off great. Lou quickly got what seemed like a bad cold, and was up all night crying unless she was being held and still cried sometimes, which was extremely abnormal for her (she is normally a great night sleeper). She wouldn't eat much and was cranky and clingy. Finally, we took her to urgent care on Christmas Eve and found out that she had a bad double ear infection :( Thankfully, once she got on some high dosage pain killers and antibiotics, she was acting more like herself within a few days.

We were able to do some fun, little activities nonetheless. We drove out to Snoqualmie Falls and hiked the short distance down to the base of the falls. It was a very chilly and windy day, but it was nice to get outside. And we enjoyed some yummy Thai food on the way back home :)

On Christmas Day, it is a Nielson tradition to have the youngest person lead a line of people (from youngest to oldest) to go into the family room and look at the gifts and Christmas tree. So, Lou led the way! It was so cute to see her looking around and saying "wow" haha. She walked straight to her stocking without any guidance and found a new stuffed panda. True to baby fashion, she was more excited about packaging and wrapping paper than most of her gifts, haha. Christmas will just get more fun with her, every year! Sadly, we took no pictures Christmas morning, just a video.

Over the course of the next week, we spent most of our time relaxing at home. Once Lou was getting over her ear infection, of course I caught a cold as well. But we were grateful to be spending that time with family and friends that we don't get to see as often. Dustan went out shooting with my Dad and Mike, which is always a treat. We had a fondue night. And we stayed up late playing lots of games, as usual.

One other note to make about our time home. After struggling with various healthy issues for a while, my Grandma Robin passed away on Christmas. I was so grateful I got to visit with her once more beforehand, but even more grateful that I know where she is now and that I'll get to see her again someday. She was a huge part of my childhood, and I'll greatly miss visiting with her each time I go home again.

Even with the few hardships we faced during Christmas break, we are always happy and look forward to the chance to go home and spend time with our families. We are SO grateful for them! Until the next time!