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For those of you who we have not already told, Ahna and I recently found out that we are PREGNANT!! The sonogram above (and the photos that follow) were taken on November first when we went for the first ultrasound. We are currently about 13 weeks along and as it stands now, the due date is the second week in May. We are both VERY excited to share this wonderful news with everyone.

UK & Ireland!!!










We took a fantastic two week vacation in the middle of September overseas. We spent time in England, Scotland, and Ireland. We flew out of Phoenix for a layover in Philadelphia, then flew in to Ireland where we spent roughly one day with the family before we left for England.

We stayed in London for about four days for the first leg of our trip. We were completely taken aback at the gorgeous parks and the weather was perfect. We crammed as much as we could into the four days we were there and we feel like we got a lot done. There are a few more pictures in the web albums.











After our days in England it was a train trip to Edinburgh, Scotland for the second leg of our trip. Again we were there about three or four days and spent most of our time in Edinburgh with the exception of a bus tour we took through the highlands. The bus tour was definitely one of our favorite parts of the Scotland trip as we were fortunate enough to see all the beautiful countryside and the lakes (lochs if you're local). We went out onto Loch Ness and might have seen the monster.

In Scotland we were again blessed with great weather for the most part. A few days were rainy or windy but it was a pleasant departure from the desert heat. There are more pictures of Scotland in the web albums.











For the last few days of the trip it was back to Ireland. We flew out of Edinburgh and landed in Dublin where we spent one day and one night. We really enjoyed Dublin - especially the botanical gardens which could have been an entire day trip. Aside from Dublin, the remainder of our Ireland trip was spent with Ahna's parents near Tulla, but also exploring the surrounding areas including the Cliffs of Moher which are pictured above. The cliffs were absolutely gorgeous and we were lucky enough to have fairly clear skies.

One great thing about Ireland is that no matter how small the town, there is usually at least one pub - and we were lucky enough to hear a local session band on their jam night. Real Irish merriment at its best.

Zion Trip August 2007










A few weeks ago we spent a short weekend in Zion National Park in Utah. We had never been before but we were definitely impressed with it and we have already made plans to go back. It reminds us of a larger version of Sedona with lots of red rock.

There are many hiking trails all throughout the park - we hiked two of them in the day that we were there. "Weeping Rock" where the water comes out of the rock (like it's crying - hence the 'weeping' moniker) and "Emerald Pools" which, from what we understand, were pretty low on water because it was the height of summer.















On the way home we found a tasty little gem in the form of a new camping spot (pic above). It is right next to the Virgin River, which is the river that runs through Zion. Camping next to water?! Go figure!! We've definitely been in the desert for too long.

We decided on the trip home that we definitely need to take advantage of the fact that we are so close to places like Zion (we never even knew it was this gorgeous) and Lake Arrowhead, which will be our next post. There are a lot of really nice places within just a few hours of Vegas - we just need to make more plans to GET OUT! More Zion pictures in our web albums.

Pinetop Trip July 2007










We had a long weekend visiting Grandma in Pinetop and good lord was is beautiful. Pretty sure it was in the upper 60's the whole time we were there but what we loved the most was the fact that it rained every day. We needed to remember that water still falls from the skies in some places (not in Vegas of course).

We arrived late Thursday night and the next day we hiked in Greer (pictures here). The next day was spent mostly relaxing and enjoying the beautiful mountain air. We had a wonderful visit and we will do everything we can to make this a tradition every summer - we definitely need it.

We left early the next day so we could finish the six hour drive and still have some time at home before back to work the next day. We got caught in some REALLY heavy rain through northern Arizona, which was very fun. We can't wait to go back next summer.

We obviously have not been keeping up with the blog like we should be. There are, however, some new photos added to our web albums. Soon we will come up with something new and interesting to post.