Phoenix in December...

We thought Phoenix in December would be a little like this:

 

 

Instead, we lucked out and got this:

 

It rained almost the entire drive to Phoenix, and all of the next day! 

 

Why were we there, you ask?  For this:

 

Nate's regional office is in Phoenix, so we attended their big Christmas party in Scottsdale.  While that was the main point, we enjoyed ourselves by returning to the Gold Canyon Resort.  We stayed there in June for Nate's birthday and we are big fans.  I surprised Nate by booking him a massage for Saturday afternoon (I had to do something while I was waiting, so I enjoyed a pedicure).  It was relaxing, rainy, and like always, too short of a stay. 

Ugly Sweater Party 2012

We missed out on this party last year because we were out of town, so we were so excited to be able to attend this year!  We met at Bucca di Beppo with some super fun couples in our ward for dinner, ugly sweaters, and a white elephant exchange. 

 

Fortunately, this was stolen from Nate...:)

I found a Justin Bieber singing toothbrush at Big Lots...twas a big hit!

I also found some piggy kitchen accessories I was pretty proud of...

I this next year we'll need new sweaters...somehow the sleeves on mine have become 3/4.

Christmas Superheros! (Karlee and Matt) They won the contest, hands down. 

Tara and Jamie.  I made fun of them for being boring, but it was kinda a funny idea. 

Cooper and Anjuli...Cooper's sweater was also 3/4 length, so I wasn't completely out of place. 

Braden and Heather...and Santa.

Tess and Dustin.

Whole group; complete with the pope and my winning prize: Zac Efron heart pillow.

Cruise!

 This year to celebrate our 6th wedding anniversary (and the fact that neither of us had finals or were out of town), we decided to go on a cruise!

Waiting in Long Beach, pretending it wasn't cold. 

Getting on the ship!

View from our room. 

Self-portraiting. 

Glamour shots by Deb. 

1st stop; Cabo!  We took a boat tour in order to see the important stuff and see we did!  The water in Cabo is absolutely beautiful...and apparently very deep.

View from our boat. 

Pacific side of Lover's Beach.  One side is the Sea of Cortez (swimmable), the other, Pacific (so not swimmable). 

We missed our water taxi back from Lover's Beach, so we made the best of it and explored as we went.  We weren't disappointed; it was so beautiful! 

Crabbie bigote. 

Sunset in Cabo. 

Los Arcos in Puerto Vallarta. 

Hass riding in Puerto Vallarta. 

Dogs. 

Dogs and Hass!

After our first bit of our hass ride, we stopped at a refreshing (read: cold) waterfall. 



Beach/water loving iguana. 

Speedboat loving Nate. 

If I look unnatural, it's because I felt unnatural. 

Pirate ship! 

We stopped at this beach at the end of our horseback riding/snorkel trip.  We had lunch and tried to figure out how this place could be so beautiful. 
 

Nate stopped to talk with some locals, so I was rewarded with listening to Nate speak Spanish AND watching a black lab lick his owner's feet. I don't know why it was awesome, but it was. 

We spent the evening after our tour walking the Malecón. 

 

Cathedral of our Lady Guadalupe. 

 

Los Arcos (it's blurry, but there is a grandma fixing a little girl's angel costume; very cute). 

 

We were happy to be reminded of the Christmas season.  :) 

 

Back to the ship; for the next two days we: 

 

ate plenty,

 

enjoyed the cold wind,

 

watched movies (this is us getting ready for "Dr. No"),

 



and enjoyed the sunset.