Pete and Rexy visit / heading home

Hey Everybody! Hope that 2008 has started great for all of you. Our friends from home came to visit and stayed for almost a week and we had an awesome time. I have known Pete since we were first paired up to live together at my first year of college in London and we have known Rebecca (Rexy) for a number of years now too. We did as much as you could possibly do in the short amount of time that they were here. We ate lots of good food, took them to some good malls so they could spend their strong Canadian dollar, and took the road trip back to the Grand Canyon. Pete thought it would be fun to not tell Rebecca that we were going to the Grand Canyon and instead tell her that we were going to Sedona. So once we passed Sedona on the highway Rebecca told us that she thought she saw a sign that Sedona was only a few miles away...and that was 20 minutes ago. So we told her the surprise and she was so excited that she cried a little! It was so awesome to see her so surprised. Besides the Grand Canyon trip, the highlight had to have been New Years Eve. We went to the Fiesta Bowl Block Party over in Tempe near the football stadium at ASU. They shut down a few blocks of the street and set up multiple stages for live music, as well as vendors and a midway. The end of the street had the main stage where we got to watch the Barenaked Ladies and ring in the new year. It was nice seeing a Canadian band here in the States and they put on a great show. The Fiesta Bowl Block Party is voted as one of the top 10 places to celebrate New Years Eve in all of the U.S. and there were over 100,000 people there. We had so much fun....the time flew by and 2008 came before we knew it! Having Pete and Rexy here was a wonderful way to end our time here in Phoenix. We travelled around and did some new things as well as showed them all of the stuff that we already knew about. We were sad to see them go.

So, maybe that second-last sentence through you for a loop. I know that I haven't publicly written about our plans for after our placement here. For the most part that is because it took a long time to decide what we were going to do. We listened to the various job offers throughout different parts of the states but none of them were really standing out as a place we would love to go live. Also, when we were making our decisions the Canadian dollar was sky-rocketing daily. The further it raised, the less it made sense for us to continue on to a new placement. We also have some things going on back home that we really don't want to miss out on. Friends having babies, some pre-wedding events, things like that. There is no one single factor that is determining us coming home. We are desperately going to miss travelling and seeing new things around every corner. However, when we left to head out on this adventure we never knew exactly how long we would be gone for. Although we said our plan was to leave for a year, we never knew if it would be shorter or longer. So there have been a myriad of reasons, situations, and conversations that have gotten us to this point. Our apartment is a mess as we are packing everything up for the last time. We are leaving here in the morning to start the 32 hour drive home to London. We are heading to my sister's house and will stay with her and my brother-in-law for a while until we get ourselves settled in the new city. For most of you the news of us heading home isn't a surprise as you have heard through the grapevine that we were coming back to Canada. We are really excited to see our friends and families. I will type more once we are back and I will reflect a bit on our time away and the things that we learned about ourselves. For now, I should get back to packing. Thank you for reading and thinking of us. If you are reading from Canada then we hope to see you soon!

Stay Classy!

p.s. We had one last great Sunday lunch with Ron, Cathy, Stacey, Joey, and of course, Isa. It was hard to say goodbye to them....we will miss them all very much.

Christmas...Raps...Sedona

Christine here….
Well, seeing as I have only written on the blog once since our whole adventure started, I figured I was due!
I hope that each and every one of you had a wonderful Christmas that was spent with those that you love. Shawn and I had a great day that started with some gift opening, web-cam and telephone conversations with our family and friends, and a yummy breakfast!

It was definitely a strange feeling to be so far away from our family and normal Christmas traditions; however it was neat to have “our own” Christmas morning. After a little cat nap (I worked Christmas Eve night) we were off to Stacey and Joey’s house for Christmas dinner. It was a great afternoon spent watching the boys play Guitar Hero on the Nintendo Wii, and being thoroughly entertained by Isa (their 2 ½ year old). I even had a go with the Wii, and I do have to say it was pretty fun! Joey’s parents and brother & wife were also there, so it was great to visit with them as well.

On the Saturday before Christmas the Toronto Raptors were in town taking on the Phoenix Suns. So we took in the game down at the US Airways Center. It is literally a 10 minute drive from our apartment so it was super easy to get to. Before the game started we were able to go down courtside and watch some of the Raptors warm up. It was pretty cool to be that close to the players. Chris Bosh was out there and we were even really close to being able to get his autograph but he stopped signing right before he got to us.

Shawn’s highlight was “fist bumping” Chuck Swirsky, his favorite TV/Radio announcer for the Raps…it was pretty funny. Unfortunately the Raps couldn’t pull out a win, but overall it was a great night! My highlight came at the end of the game when we went back down beside the court. One of the Suns dancers was one of the last 2 ladies on the TV show “The Bachelor” and to my delight I was able to get my picture taken with her! Now, I know to many this may seem kinda strange and silly…but watching “The Bachelor” was a staple event among my girlfriends back home and it brought back many memories of times spent with my girlfriends laughing and eating Breton Brittle :)

Sunday took us up the I-17 north, through miles and miles of cacti to a town called Sedona. This area of Arizona is famous for its red rock, artisan boutiques, and hiking paths. We spent the afternoon walking through the uptown area, browsing in shops and eating the so-called “world’s best” hotdog! We enjoyed the beauty of the red rock and then visited the Holy Cross Chapel. This chapel is built into the side of the rock and gives you a beautiful panoramic view of Sedona and the surrounding red rock area.

Well, that kinda brings you up-to-date on what we have been up to. We are continuing to enjoy the beautiful weather and sunny skies and can’t believe how fast our time here is going.

Hope all is well with everyone….until next time.

Merry Christmas!

Just wanted to say a quick Merry Christmas to anyone reading this. We have had some mixed emotions about Christmas over the last few days. A part of us is really sad not to be at home with our families and the normal routines we have had around Christmas time for as long as we can remember. But another part of us is excited to be spending our first Christmas together as a married couple. We are doing our best at trying to make it feel like Christmas for us. We have a little tree, a few presents for eachother underneath it, and we play a lot of Christmas music around the house and in the car. However, driving with the windows down and seeing Christmas lights on a cactus isn't the kind of Christmas we are used to. With that said, it really is a cool experience to have as I'm sure we will have many many more Christmas' with plenty of snow. We both hope that all of you are enjoying some wonderful time with family and friends.

We recently took a day trip over to Sedona as well as went to the Raptors/Suns game on the weekend. I will update again soon with some pictures from our trip and the game.

We wish you all good health and much happiness during the holidays.

Here is a pic of our little tree. Stay Classy.

John 3:17

a surprise visit home...

We arrived back in Phoenix Monday night after a whirl wind tour of events back home. Since late October we knew that we would be heading home to surprise my mom for her retirement. Back in early November we bought our tickets to fly into Detroit. We arrived on Thursday and stayed until Monday. Although our plans a few months ago only included heading home for my mom's retirement, there were a few other events that we ended up being home for. Events that took us through the widest array of human emotions. We got an early phone call from Christine's father last week with the sobering news that his father, Christine's grandfather, had passed away after 96 years of wonderful life. Although our initial reaction was one of wishing we could've been home just a few days earlier to see him one more time, we soon realized that the timing allowed us to be home for the funeral. Of all the days throughout the year, this event coincided with our one short trip home which we had planned months ahead...the good Lord was looking after us. Our original plan was to fly in on Thursday afternoon, get picked up by my brother-in-law Cameron and then spend the night in London where him and my sister live. Then on the Friday we would head home and surprise my mom just after dinner time. With the new turn of events, we switched up our plans a wee bit in order to be home in time for the funeral on Friday afternoon. Cam picked up my sister directly from work and headed to Detroit to pick us up. We went straight from the airport to Markdale...a long trip. We arrived by just after 11pm and proceeded to head into the house and announce "we're home!!!!". It took my mom only a few seconds to come darting out of her bedroom to see us standing in her kitchen. She squealed, and cried, and shook, and said numerous times that she must be dreaming. It felt great to have that surprise out of the way as it was getting increasingly more difficult to keep the big secret under wraps. And of course, to see the happiness in my mom's face was well worth every mile travelled. We stayed up visiting for a few hours as it took my mom a while for the sight of us sitting in her living room to sink in.

Friday was a somber, but wonderful day. It was a day filled with family, sharing memories of Christine's grandpa, and celebrating his life. The traditional funeral service was a testament to a man with strong traditional and wholesome values. However, the heartfelt messages delivered during the service perfectly articulated James Kenneth Fraser's loving and caring side as well. His love for his wife of 71 years, his family, and his community. He was a very proud man, in every good way the word "proud" can mean. He was proud of where he grew up, proud of his children, and definitely proud of his grandchildren. He was the kind of man that leaves this earth with a legacy that makes everyone who knew him, everyone sitting in that tiny church in Dundalk, want to be a better person. I can't think of a greater thing to be said of a man after he passes.

Christine and I felt so privileged to be able to be there with family members to pay our respects and say goodbye to Grandpa Fraser. I look forward to carrying his legacy, and stories of him, into many future generations so that our children's children will know what a man of character he was. Here is a picture of us with Christine's grandpa and grandma from our wedding in the summer.


Saturday brought a few more surprises for my mom and the feeling of Christmas for Christine and I. Every year we get together with my whole family, including my sister Sandy, her husband Brian, and my nieces, to open presents and spend the day together. The only weekend that worked for them this year just happened to be when we were home as well! The timing of all these things was crazy I tell you. Before we opened presents at home we had a surprise lunch party for my mom at Steven's Restaurant in Markdale. My mom's brothers were there as well as some family friends. Since my mom thought that the lunch reservations were only for our immediate family she was definitely shocked to see all of the people waiting for when she arrived.

It feels good to surprise people, and to celebrate people. I'm so happy that my mom can spend her time as she wishes now. Knowing her, she will probably be more busy in retirement than when she was working. I know it will be hard for her at times, she had such a wonderful rapport with the staff and students at the school. I also know that she will be dearly missed in many ways that will only be apparent now that she isn't there anymore...what a way to leave.
The rest of Saturday was spent doing Christmassy things with family and playing with my mom and dad's new puppy...it was great.

One more unexpected event that we just happened to be home for was a huge snow storm. Although it was fun for Christine and I to see all the snow, the thought of making it back to Detroit safely really started to concern us. We decided to make a go of it on Sunday to see if we could make it back to London. The visibility turned out to be ok, but the amount of snow falling still made it a very slow drive. It normally takes about two and half hours to get back to London from my mom and dad's house, but this time it was about four and half. The most important thing was that we made it back safely. We had a nice drive on Monday back to Detroit and a safe flight back to where we are now, in sunny Arizona. We have to thank Kerry and Cam for picking us up and driving us around for the weekend, through the snow and across the border, I don't know what we would do without them.

I videotaped a bit of the snow on Sunday so I will try to upload it here when I get the chance.
We hope everyone is enjoying the snow back home. It was so wonderful to see so many family members in such a short amount of time. Drive safely and stay classy.

when it rains, it pours (and Isa's First Game!)

It rained! That is big news around these parts. We thought that we might go our entire time here without seeing any rain at all. Cathy was telling us about a part of Arizona that hasn't had rain for over a year! However, for us the rain started on Friday and barely stopped right up until last night. It's a good thing it stopped when it did because we were able to head out to a big light parade that was passing by just down the street from us. So we bundled up a bit (we don't have heavy coats with us, but we had sweaters on) and we took our lawn chairs and set them up right on the side of the road where the parade was passing. Neither of us had ever been to a parade at night before and it definitely surpassed expectations! The lights were amazing. The parade lasted just over an hour and had about 75 floats. It was definitely a bonus to be able to walk to it as roads were closed off and parking would've been a nightmare. There is an estimated 200,000 people that go to the parade every year...so it's a big event in Phoenix for sure. It was so nice to see so many kids running around excited about Christmas.

I noticed that I hadn't updated since the hockey game I went to. It was a lot fun and especially good because the leafs lost! Going to a hockey game down here in the south sure is different than back in Canada (even though about half of the fans at the game were leaf fans). The stadium is brand new and built out in the middle of nowhere. It was actually kind of nice because it wasn't congested getting in and out of the arena. Also, for people who go to games in Toronto you might find this hard to swallow: Tickets were $28 each for our seats (about 5 rows back on first balcony), parking was free and there was plenty of it, and programs were free. Of course, the biggest difference between a game at the ACC and here was the 5000 empty seats. Hard to believe that the same organization that has a mile long waiting list for seasons tickets back home can be watched here for $28. I guess that is hockey in the south. Isa (Stacey and Joey's 2 year old daughter) was with us for the game. She behaved herself very well and enjoyed all of the action during the breaks in play....they even had a dance pack that danced on the ice in regular shoes! Only in America. Anyways, here are a few pics from the game. A great time with Ron, Cathy, and Isa!

That's all for now. We are keeping busy...the days are flying by aren't they!? It's December already! Hope you are all finding parking spaces at the mall. Stay Classy.

Thanksgiving and Black Friday

Even though we celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving back in Oregon, we didn't hesitate to celebrate it again here in the states a few days ago. For those Canadian folks who don't know, American Thanksgiving is a big deal....huge. I would say it is on par with Christmas, if not bigger. It's a four day weekend starting on Thursday (Thanksgiving day). It is the official beginning of the holiday season. We spent a good part of Thursday over at the church that our friends Stacey and Joey work at. They're organization (Masters Commission) had thrown together a huge meal for hundreds of foster kids from around Phoenix. So Christine and I took some pies and met up with Ron and Cathy to help out in any way we could. It was a pretty amazing event to pull off. They were insistent on creating an environment for the kids that felt like a family meal around the table (there were many many tables). That meant no buffet lines. Everything was passed around on nice serving plates and we ate with the fanciest plastic knives and forks that you have ever seen. It was such a wonderful event and it was an absolute honour to be there to experience it. Sitting at the table with strangers and seeing all of the kids laughing and having fun was priceless....truly what Thanksgiving is all about.
The day after Thanksgiving is called "Black Friday" here. Historically it marks the day that business' would get out of "the red" and into "the black". Over time it has become the biggest and craziest shopping day of the year. There are many amazing deals to be had if you are willing to wait in lines outside of box stores for hours on end. Most stores open at around 5am, but the lineups outside would've started long before then. So in the true spirit of us embracing our time here in America, we got up early and went out to see what it was like. We were at Circuit City by a few minutes after 5am...just in time for the doors to open. There were a few hundred people lined up outside but once the doors opened we were all able to get in. Once in the store people form even more lines depending on what they are buying (TV's, Cameras, computers, etc). We only grabbed a few small things and then waited in the checkout line for about an hour. It was crazy for sure, but kinda fun to experience at least one time in our lives. It was just a really strange feeling to wake up at 4:30am and head out to see parking lots full and people lined up outside of these huge stores. It was cold for Phoenix standards, the moon was bright, and the people were out by the thousands. We hit up a few more stores and then we were back in bed by 7am for a few more hours of sleep. What a day!

Anyways, we are doing great here. Still enjoying the sunshine even though it has cooled off a bit. I am off to the Leafs/Coyotes game tonight with Ron and Cathy. Go Coyotes!

Stay Classy.

Grand Canyon

So we finally got out of Phoenix and headed to one of the seven wonders of the world. It was great to be back driving on roads we have never been on before. It was truly amazing to see the landscape change as we drove. We got to drive through Flagstaff which is a couple of hours north of Phoenix. This is a very cool little city...it felt more like Oregon than Arizona to us. It was amazing that within a few hours we felt like we were out of the desert and into ski country. The rest of the drive to the Canyon was equally beautiful. The total driving time was under 3.5 hours which was shorter than we had expected...a pleasant surprise.
No amount of pictures or reading can prepare you for the vastness of the upside mountain that is the Canyon. It is no less deep from any angle or lookout you choose. The donkey's that take people to the bottom of the canyon look smaller than ants and the hiking trails that switchback down the sides of the canyon wall look like thin lines of dental floss that eventually disappear the closer they get to the bottom. Often the canyon only seemed like a painting or a backdrop, most likely a testament to how little our brains can comprehend what we are seeing.
One really interesting aspect of being inside the Canyon park is to see how it operates, partly like a small city, but often has the feeling of an amusement park or tourist trap. Tour buses can pick you up and drop you off anywhere around the rim. There is a fully working grocery store, bank, library, and post office. And there is also no shortage of grand canyon trinkets and collectibles that you can get with your name printed on them. Still, even though the commercialization exists, it can't take away from the sheer beauty of such an amazing natural wonder. We will post pictures here, but like I said, nothing can compare to seeing it in person.
We stayed at one of the lodges within the park, only about a 10 minute walk to the rim. It was a nice change from the hotel chains that Christine and I are so used to staying in at this point on our travels. We took a different route on the way home so that we could stop at a few different lookouts that we didn't get to see the day before. We still can't get over the difference in landscape and wildlife that a few thousand feet in elevation can make. While on our way out of the park we saw 6 or 7 Elk (those things are huge), as well as lots of deer. By the time we had driven about 30 minutes out of the park we had dropped about 2000 feet in elevation and found ourselves in the Navajo reservation where signs warned us about snakes and lizards. Pine trees had turned into desert shrubs again, and eventually into the cacti we see in Phoenix all the time. It was like travelling through the forests of Oregon to the desert of Arizona, all within a few hours.
It was a wonderful trip and definitely gave us a new appreciation for Arizona as a state. Here are a few pictures. Hope you like. Stay Classy til next time.

Oh! one more thing! We almost saw rain last week. Supposedly it spit a bit in the morning...but we didn't see it. So we have still only seen it rain a few times in the past 4 months. oh well.