The Great Outdoors

So the latest in the Hale's life... I started school two weeks ago, I am already dying for the end of the semester- how bad is that? Steve is still stayin really busy at work and trying to get ready to take the GMAT.

Over Labor day weekend we went for a hike with our friends Amber and Scott (the same hike that we went on with Steve's mom in March when I was miserable...) This time went a lot better than the first time. We started early so we stayed cool an dwe just had a lot of fun... For the first half of the hike anyways! When we got to the falls we got in the pools and were swimmin around to cool off and there is a nifty little rock slide. Steve and I went to go down it, and he went down just fine and then I stood up to go down and I took one step and my feet came out from under me and the next thing I knew I had landed right on my chin and cheek. All I could think about as I was lying on this rock was I just got a Traumatic Brain Injury, I guess that's the future SLP in me... Anyways it was a pretty nasty fall, I cut my chin and almost immediatly my chin started to swell up. Luckily, an ER doctor came over and gave us some ice and told us to super glue my chin closed! The worst part was we had to hike 3 miles out to get back to our car, but really I was just happy that I wasn't on my way to the ER!

My chin was pretty purple and blue for a couple of days, I really looked like a battered woman! Sorry about the drugged look on my face in these pictures, it was right before we went to bed and I was TIRED!

The month of July!

The Month of July was a busy one! All sorts of stuff was going on and the blog just got away from me! So here is a brief run through of the last month of our lives!

Fourth of July

We spent our fourth of July in Tucson, and my parents and little sister came down and spent the night of the third and the day of the fourth with us! We played cards and initiated my family into the Hale tradition of Rook! On the fourth, we drove up to Mount Lemmon and had the loveliest day, the temperatures were all the way down in the 60's! We had a nice hike and the barbecued steaks and had all the regular fourth of July fixins... YUM!

First Anniversary

So the 14th of July was our one year anniversary-- I can't believe it has already been one year since we got married! It has been absolutely the best year of our lives. The week before our anniversary we were able to go to the temple and do sealings. It was so special to remember that incredible day. For our anniversary we went to Ruth's Chris steakhouse because that is where we went on our wedding night. It was sooo yummy! We would eat there every night if we could afford it :) And instead of giving eachother gifts we decided to get rid of our awful bed and get a new one, it has been really nice to get a good night's sleep. So I just posted a couple of our wedding pics and one from our anniversary dinner

BIG NEWS!!!

I know you are all thinking... Big news... Kalli is pregnant, but no... The big news is that I FINALLY beat Steve in Scrabble, in fact, I not only beat him but I spanked him. I won by like 50 points. We got scrabble for our wedding and I hadn't beat him until jus this month. This is a picture of my victory board! Wahoo!

Monsoon Season

Every July and August Tucson gets a monsoon season and it rains practically every day. Steve and I sit on our balcony alot and watch the lightning. It is really a cool thing about Tucson. It also brings a blessed break in the really hot weather. So this picture was taken from our balcony after an afternoon rainstorm. Rainbows happen a lot during monsoon season but I think this is one of the first double rainbows I've seen.

Fondue Party

We had a fondue party with our friends Troy and Nancee. We got a fondue pot for our wedding but hadn't ever used it. So we were excited when Troy and Nancee wanted to do one. They had a pot too, so we made peanut butter fondue and chocolate fondue. It was a feast! We will definitely do that more often

Camping at Rose Canyon Lake

We drove up to Mount Lemmon with our friends Scott and Amber. The funny thing about the whole adventure is we got there at like 8 on thursday night, Scott and Amber had to leave the next morning at like 9 and Steve and I left at like 2. So we weren't there for very long at all. But it was still really fun. We had tinfoil dinners and roasted marshmallows and made smores. While we were making smores a skunk ran through our camp! We were all terrified we would get sprayed but luckily it left! The next morning during our breakfast we saw a javelina, which is an ugly pig looking creature-- There is a picture down below! After Scott and Amber left, Steve and I went for a nice little hike for a couple of hours. We really enjoyed the cooler weather and time to spend together and with friends!

So that is life for us lately. I am about to finish my second summer semester on Wednesday. I can't wait. Then I get a ten day break before the fall semester starts-- wahoo! Steve has been extremely busy at work and had two trips to California this last month and he is really excited because he is going backpacking with a couple of guys in our ward this week ( I am just glad he is going with other guys and not trying to make me go!) Other than that Steve and I are both trying to study for our graduate admissions exams, so any advice on taking the GRE or the GMAT is totally welcome!

Men....

So just a random little blurb about my husband! So lately we have
been trying to decorate our apartment a little more, just to give it
some color and pizzazz I guess. Anyways we bought a new
tablecloth for our kitchen table on saturday and I thought it looked
a little empty, so I bought a medium sized flower centerpiece thing

on Monday. Yesterday, Thursday, Steve and I were
playing a game at our kitchen table and all of sudden, he looks
at the centerpiece and is likehas that ALWAYS been there, or is it
new? I started laughing uncontrollably because since monday I
have been waiting to see how long it would take him to notice! It
really made me laugh how he like most men would never notice a
little centerpiece on the table, but I probably would have noticed
it right when i walked in the door! Haha he makes me laugh!

A Random Weekend...

A couple of weekends ago Steve and I went camping on Lake Patagonia with our friends Troy and Nancee. It was so random because we spent the morning wakeboarding and setting up our camp... then we drove down to Nogales Mexico which is like 7 miles from the Lake. We crossed the border and ate an authentic Mexican restaurant. I couldn't believe how scary driving in mexico was! I am surprised we made it out of there alive the drivers were so crazy! These are some of the pictures of our adventures!

HELP!

Ok I am trying to figure out the whole cute background for a blog... but I can't, someone please tell me how to get a cute background!

Strawberry Jam

Steve and I made strawberry freezer jam the other night. It is soo yummy, I was a little nervous because I have never made jam before but it was surprisingly easy (We used the Sure-Jell reduced sugar Pectin... if anyone was wondering).

This post is mostly because I am procrastinating writing a paper. I am taking this independant study history class and it sucks and I suck at doing it... can ya tell?

Lake Powell

So I realize that all of my blog posts lately are inundated with pictures but I just can't help myself! So please understand that with lake powell we compiled everyone's pictures and had like 1040 pictures to choose from, I really consolodated! But here you have it.....

The first week of June we spent a week in lake powell with Steve's family, his Canadian cousins, and our brother-in-law, Jordan's family. There was like 22 of us on the boat. It was so much fun, we played on the boat, played a lot of cards, ate good food and enjoyed time with our family so much. I have decided that Lake Powell really is one of my favorite places to be.

This was our home for the week....

And this was our playground....

This water weenie ride actually turned quite bad, Michelle (third girl back), and I hit heads on one of our crashes and it actually burst her ear drum! It was the first day in Lake Powell... She took it like a champ though. She seriously didn't even cry. I always knew I had a hard head!

The boys came away with no injuries, if you can believe it.

I really tried to talk Steve out of cliff jumping, he didn't listen of course but it made a pretty cool picture, eh?


Here most of the boys and Racheal swam over to a cliff in our little cove (I know you can't tell it's a cliff but there is a drop-off into the water.) They climbed around for a while and then thought it would be really cool or really manly to push big rocks into the water to make big splashes.... it was highly entertaining to watch from a distance.

Steve is such a great wakeboarder, it's so fun to watch him do crazy stuff that I would never even think of trying. He loves every second of it though, it looks like quite a rush to be so high in the air!

Laura and I took a crazy tube ride together, we went through the biggest waves. We seriously could have been in the ocean.

Hangin' on....

But not quite hard enough!

This lizard was the ugliest lizard I have ever seen, it hung out right outside of our houseboat, but everytime someone went to look at it, it ran away. Finally we got a peek at it after a couple of days of chasing it.

Steve and his first time wakesurfing


I drove the houseboat for about five minutes, and retired after complaints of not being able to go in a straight line. I'm pretty sure I am not meant to drive boats!



Over the week I had to have played at least 10 or more games of rook. This is our last day and I finally won my very first game ever of Rook. What an exciting day!



We went on a really cool slick rock hike on Sunday, It was really pretty. Calvin (the dog) killed a lizard on this hike, it was pretty sad. Poor lizard...


Best Part of the Trip...
Last year at Lake Powell I spent the entire week trying to get up on the wakeboard. I finally got up for the first time on the very last day on the very last boat run of the whole trip. I basically spent the week doing this.... (the picture below)



But this year at Lake Powell, I was able to get up and I got a little adventurous and I jumped! I got some air going into the wake! It was really exciting, I have never really gotten air anywhere besides a trampoline. I have to say that wakeboarding is so much more fun when you can actually get up! Woohoo!