Trip to Austin

The day after I arrived in North Carolina. I flew to Austin to go to Allison's grandmother's 80th surprise birthday party in Austin. We had some fajitas and lots of margaritas! My family was able to attend. You can see the two sisters above who were obviously enjoying their margaritas! After the party some of us took a trip up to the state capitol of Texas. The rotunda was beautiful at night. Ryan was given a Texas history lesson...he didn't know that we had been our own country at one point. Allison and I had to fill him in on what a great state Texas is! Here's a picture of my new roommates with me. I think we make a nice looking threesome! Always fun times had in Austin!

Charlotte

I made it to North Carolina!

Kellyn Comes to Town

Kellyn came to visit the only time it rained in Phoenix the entire time I was there.

Kellyn and I had the most amazing pizza in Phoenix. It was well worth the wait for this must eat joint. We even got a wave from the chef on his way out the door. We celebrated the ASU win over U of A in Tempe like true college party animals on Saturday! Lots of yummy fun!

Happy Thanksgiving!

The family came out to visit me for Thanksgiving! Above we were enjoying cocktails before our wonderful dinner at Lon's. Dad seemed to miss being in any of my pictures, but I assure you that he was there for the visit. We went to the Phoenix Zoo for Zoo Lights. They dress up the entire zoo with Christmas lights and even a talking giraffe. It was a fun family experience to put us in the holiday spirit.

We weren't allowed to take any pictures in the zoo, but here's a picture of the sisters just outside of the zoo. Here's to me having two Thanksgiving dinners!

Camelback Mountain

A few days before Thanksgiving, my friend Lauren made me hike Camelback Mountain with her. If you've been keeping up with my blog you know about my previous hiking adventure...I wasn't completely thrilled to take on the Camel. So we set out with lots of water. As seen in the picture above we had to climb a sheer rock face, very exciting! There is a railing for on the way down because it's so steep.

The hike was quite challenging with lots of boulders to climb over. We were passed by many, but eventually we made it to the summit! It was a perfect day in Phoenix and the view was wonderful. This mountain sits right in the middle of town. The picture above is a view from Camelback of the mountain I climbed in my first hiking adventure.

Look at Lauren and I, we're so cute and outdoorsy! You may have heard rumors, but yes we were hit on while climbing back down the mountain. The flirtatious gentleman climbed up and down the mountain 4 times in the time it took us to climb up and down once. He told us he had a record of 25 times in one day. These people are crazy!

In the end I was very pleased that Lauren made me hike the Camel with her! What a good friend. In another couple of months someone could probably talk me into doing it again.