Chihuly and Saguaros

We went to Phoenix this weekend. We had a chance to go on a great little hike in saguaro country and see a few ancient petroglyphs on the rocks. My favorite thing was the Chihuly glass exhibit at the Desert Botanical Gardens. Aside from the abundance of ethnic food, Phoenix itself wasn't all that exciting. It reminded me of San Jose in all its suburban sprawl.

Chloride and Route 66

A few weekends ago, we went on a mini road trip to a small mining town called Chloride. We took Danielle's SUV on an off-road adventure to get to a group of murals that a local artist painted on some of the boulders outside of town. Afterwards we traveled part of Route 66 through Kingman, AZ. The historic route runs from Chicago to L.A. and has a lot of quirky sites along the way. I would love to drive the whole thing one day. The two lake pictures are from a hike that we did later that day along Lake Havasu at sunset.

Sara Park Hike

I was a little reluctant to hike in the desert, figuring I would be disappointed at the lack of changing scenery and abundance of dirt. I thought I would miss the trees and roast in the sun. When we reached the first crest and I saw the blue of the lake against the browns of the mountains, I changed my mind. This was a beautiful hike, ending at a little cove on Lake Havasu.

Christmas and New Year's Eve

The holidays were great. I'm disappointed that I didn't get to see my family but it was also nice to be able to celebrate the way I wanted instead of the way my family wanted. We got up early on Christmas morning and opened our presents, went out to breakfast, slaved away in the kitchen on a vegetarian feast, and went to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

Our Gingerbread House...it took much more patience than one could imagine.

Our Christmas Tree and Presents

Winter Moon

Lake Havasu Boat Parade


Danielle made me go out to Christmas breakfast dressed like this. I'm only smiling because I still have my eyebrows.

In Between Christmas and New Year's Eve, I had my eyebrows waxed by an OCD salon worker. Every time she pulled a wax strip off, she looked at it and voiced some dramatic exclamation accompanied by a mixed look of surprise and disgust. Then she would show me how much hair she had just taken off. The fun never ended...she was equally as surprised and delighted after each wax strip was pulled...so I had to keep acting surprised every time she showed it to me. The picture below is the end result. I can now fit four fingers between my eyebrows. I figured I'd post the before (above) and after pictures for everyone to delight in.

New Year's Eve Paraphanalia