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 :)