life as we know it: Spring Break

**lots of pictures in this post**

Being married is awesome. With it comes along trips and adventures with each other, and NO "chaperons"! We get to sleep in the same bed, the whole night. Its wonderful.

Spring break just ended for me. It was a NICE reprieve from school. Although every day I got a knot in my stomach thinking about how much crazier life will be over the next month and a half of school. I quickly tried to dismiss those thoughts.

Kyle and I started out the week with a short trip to our place in Rio Verde. My husband is absolutely amazingly talented. He is my own superhero, he can do/fix/build basically anything. Truth. This get away we have in Rio Verde is one example of dedication and talent, and for me = joy :)

First, I'll start by showing you some pictures of building this wonderful place. It took him every day after work and in between "life happenings" over a span of 5 years to complete this house on his own. His dad and brother would come help out every now and then. Kyle designed it himself, and constructed the frame from left-over steel. He used the best of the best for this place. Yes, I'm totally tootin' his "bragging" horn, but hey, that's what wives do, right??

The frame all being put up.

View from the front

My handsome hardworking man.

In the process

Outside view

Outside view, those are large glass windows, just with the curtains closed.

He custom made EVERYTHING you see here. Well, besides those chairs, and the pots and pans.

Its about the size of a large studio apartment, without the apartment complex. Bonus.

Awesome tile job in the shower. Complete with TWO shower heads :)

I just love him :)

So now that you all see how talented he is, I'll just go ahead and tell you about our little trip. We went up there Saturday. I hadn't felt good the day before and hardly ate anything, so Saturday I was famished! I was a nice wife and took us to Old Country Buffet (a place only my grandparents and dad would ever choose to eat!) since we could eat our little hearts out. It was amazing. Needless to say, I barely managed two plates of food :/

We ran a few more errands and got up there after sunset. We got some groceries in fountain hills, and our must for vacation: the largest bottle of GREEN MACHINE. That juice is heavenly. We then stopped at my favorite place- Senor Taco- for some bean burritos. They are heavenly. Large like filibertos, but I don't feel like puking afterwards. Mmm...

Sunday we woke up running a bit late for church, and couldn't speed up a bit on the way due to some marathon going on...but made it to the building in time for sacrament... except there were NO cars there. A sign on the door said it was stake conference: which was in Scottsdale. Fail. So, we went back and read some spiritually uplifting books to try and make-up for no church. After a nap and some lunch, we packed up to go fishing/hiking the verde river. One lesson learned while dating/married to Kyle, when he says a hike is no big deal and only a mile or so, always know that means a few miles or so. Or twice as long as he thought. This man is someone who hiked the John Muir trail (230 miles in 10 days) for FUN. Awesome, but not my cup of tea even though I do love being outdoors. However, it was nice weather, and a cool breeze, so we ended up having lots of fun. We hiked/fished/mostly hiked til about 9 that night. Fun times. It would have probably felt more successfully had we caught anything but seaweed... I mean, riverweed? What do you even call that nasty green mushy stuff?

Monday we woke up and drove into Scottsdale for lunch at another favorite: Paradise bakery, and some window shopping. Found this adorable baby/toddler store called Moon Beams. Got some great ideas! Although the shops were fun, their price tags were for those of a much "higher" status than ours. Ha! So we went to a few different places and got some fun things. Our last stop was home depot for some paint stuff we painted on the roof. Sad, we had to cover up my "Marry Me Elena" since it was in black because in the summer it could destroy the roof. Good things photos last forever! Or until your laptop crashes, like mine did, and you lose thousands of pictures in a matter of seconds. Sad. Anyways, here are a couple pictures of our fun time!