i've been through the desert on a horse with no name...

happy monday to you! on one of jourdan's days off last week we decided to go on an adventure. so, we went exploring in the desert and found us some mighty fine cacti, cactuses...many cactus? not sure what the proper plural name for cactus is. haha anyway, we had a grand time...

trail 100, let the adventure begin!

jourd got off to a bit of a rough start...

and then it got worse...poor hugsband. the wilderness is a dangerous, dangerous place.

good thing i was there to make it all better. :)

and then, we found the feather of a bald eagle. a rare find indeed. ;)

we got hungry, so jourdan went hunting for food. the food was too quick though. darn lizards.

we discovered all kinds of cactus life. some were really tall, like mindy...

some were short and pokey...

...we love each other

we named this one medusa. get it?

some grew sideways.

we look like we're 12 years old.

some were just plain crazy...

and some were cute and baby little.

pretty neat, aye?

all in all, we had a great adventure! jourdan talked to a park patrol fella and found out the best mountain biking that's in the area. he's very excited to explore those soon! jourdan's uncle bryant and aunt taryn invited us over for dinner last saturday. what a fun family they are! we loved spending time with them and are grateful to have some family close. :)

jourdan started full time, with his first batch of students last week. he already has 5! jourdan's really excited and will be one busy lad. they all call him "sir" and it makes jourd feel uncomfortable. ha most of his students are in the beginner stage of flying... which has kept jourdan on his toes for sure. the other day he sent an email to all of his students to set up a time and a place for them all to meet up. here's a couple of replies from his students...

-Tomorrow morning, 630 am, at the tables outside dispatch approved. 
Looking forward to see you, sir ^-^

-Ok sir, we are looking forward to meeting you, our permanent instructor.

what a couple of gems, huh? my favorite is the asian emoticon. haha Jourdan LOVES his job and has really enjoyed his students so far. we are very blessed to be here!

we've been enjoying a lot of rain here in the AZ land. It's seriously been non-stop rain for the past 3 days. it's been nice though. arizona needs it! i am a bit sad that i've been missing the icy sidewalks in utah. i'm sure there have been some of the best falls of all time. haha i'm the worst and for some reason, people falling on ice is the funniest thing ever. sad, but funny. i'm awful, i know.

well, all is wonderful here! we hope you're all doing wonderful too. love you all so much and miss you dearly!

settling in...

hey you guys and gals! so, week 2 in this arizona land has been splendid. Jourdan is still enjoying his new job. he's been studying A LOT, preparing to get his first batch of students next week-ish. he got to back seat a flight to Nevada yesterday and gets to be the actual pilot today for a few hours. he sure loves what he does and that makes me so happy. i love that he loves his career and i know he will have much success. :) the end.

Jourdan's first day of work!

 let's see, what else have we been up to? jourdan's been mastering the piano. my mom taught him a piano lesson during christmas break and he practices every single day! what a guy, huh?

  last week we got together with one of jourdan's mission pals and his wife and adorable baby girl. we met up with them in tempe. we felt pretty hip there in that college town. haha we mostly felt old. it was fun for jourdan to catch up with his mission friend and fun for me to get to know him and his family.

the elder's quorum president invited us over for dinner last week as well. our ward is so thoughtful and friendly! we're excited to be here for sure. jourdan had a good time talking to him about guns and guns and...guns. haha

last saturday we went to the glendale "glitter and glow rockin' block party". yep, that's what it's called. glendale is a little town about 20 minutes away. it was actually really cool. the entire downtown part of the city is closed off for this huge hot air balloon event. they had bands playing on basically every other block, a petting zoo, carnival rides, tons of food, and holiday lights everywhere, hot air balloons everywhere, and most importantly...cotton candy. it was a good time indeed.

this was our favorite blugrass/folk band. also, it was freezing.

who knows what this guy is all about. perhaps he's glendale's mascot? unknown.

it was sweet to watch them blow up all the balloons! i don't understand how they don't just start on fire. who's to say.

 our first official sunday, in our actual ward was grand. this ward sure is on top of things! as soon as sacrament meeting ended, one of the counselor's asked us to meet with him. we figured that he just wanted to talk to us, ya know? get to know us a little, which he did. anyway, conversation soon led to a calling. i've been called to be the young women's secretary! woo! i'm super excited. the yw president said that on a good sunday there are about 9 yw who attend. total. there are quite a few less active members in our area so we have lots of work to do! i'm excited. :) jourd's calling is "still in the works". we'll see and let you know!

we sure hope that all of you are happy and well! we love you all so much and miss you dearly. come visit us and get out of that nasty cold weather! ;)

new beginnings...

Hello all! Jourdan and Mindy here. We are so happy to announce that we are starting a new chapter in our lives. We have decided to start a family... blog. :) Gotcha! I haven't blogged since last year. You can read about it here if you want. We just arrived to sunny Arizona and the transition is going smoothly. I (mindy) had a home/family sick cry fest for an entire day but all is well now. haha. Poor hugsband Jourdan. For some reason I turned into 12 year old Mindy, going to girls camp for the first time. How silly, right?

Our long ish drive down here went pretty smoothly. We drove a Budget truck and our 2 cars and my parents were kind enough to help us drive down. So grateful for them and for Jourdan's parents. We are very lucky to have them. Anyway, we made it to Flagstaff and my dad noticed that the front tire of the truck was totally worn through, to the metal. So grateful that it didn't blow! good grief. So, we were a bit delayed because of that but it all worked out. Jourd's Uncle Bryant and cousin Cameron helped us move our stuff in the apartment. What a nice couple lads they are. We were all pretty exhausted but so glad that we made it safe and sound. phew!

Here's a shout out to everyone (you know who you are) who helped us so much with our move to Arizona. Seriously, we wouldn't be here without you. Thank you times eleventy million. Jourdan's really loving his new job as a flight instructor. He works for an Aviation school called Transpac. So far so good! For the first couple of weeks he has to go through a training program and then he'll start getting students. Here's a fun fact...the student body is 98% Chinese. Jourdan might need to learn broken engrish, i mean english. It will be an adventure and we will have many hilarious stories for you, I'm sure.

Our apartment is really nice. It's a one bedroom, one bath deal but it's just perfect for us. Most of the unpacking is done and we're pretty much settled in. I will be looking into some prospective hair doing jobs in the area. I'm excited/nervous. I've decided that I don't really know what to do with myself now that I'm done with school.  It will be nice to stay busy working somewhere and serving in the ward. Speaking of that, our new ward seems really cool. We accidentally went to the wrong ward on Sunday. whoops! We walked in on our actual ward's PEC meeting, so they know we exist and are excited to serve.

There's quite a few different religious denominations here. More than we were expecting. It brings back Texas and Ohio (our missions) memories! We're excited to meet new people and make more friends here. I've secretly been dreading making new friends. haha I've joked about being too old to make new friends. But, I know I need to and will. Good thing Jourdan's such a social fella. :)

We are happy and so grateful for this new adventure! Love and miss you all so much! XXXX

P.S. WE WILL BE POSTING PICS OF OUR PLACE SOON!

starting off our journey!

sad to say goodbye to family and friends. :( love this girl!

Jourdan and I weren't sure what to do with our frozen wedding cake with the move and all, so we decided to just eat it. 9 months early. haha It was delicious!

HAPPY 3 MONTHS!!!

Jourdan dropped some cake and may or may not have eaten it anyway. 5 seconds, right?

baby Jourdy.