The Sweet Life of the Randle's

We have been up to quite a lot since I last did a "real" post. Don't worry there are a lot of pictures. Pictures are the best anyway!

On Labor day (I know it's been awhile) we met the Burgin's (our really good friends) in Vegas. We wanted to do a last vacation before they headed to live in Cali. We are going to miss them a lot. But don't worry we are already planning a vacation to see them. We had such a good time in Vegas. We had good food, good shopping and Paige and I got a massage while the boys played golf.

We went to the Tournament of the Kings while down there. It was super fun. We had to take a picture with our knight even though he lost.

Paige and I weren't very good at obeying this sign. These signs were placed everywhere around the spa, but we just had too much to talk about to keep quiet.

Last weekend we went to Kartchner Caverns which are about 30 minutes away from where we live. The cave was pretty big and it was actually hot and very humid in the cave. They are very intense and serious about protecting the cave. You can't take any bags inside the cave and you have to walk through misters so you don't leave lint or hair inside the cave. We went with some of our friends that are down here and it was just a really good time.

This is the whole crew that went: Doug, Jen, Spencer, Me and Lucas, and in the front is Kate

After the caverns we went to a steak place to eat. It was yummy food and we had live music. I felt a little out of place with my chucks and shorts because everyone was in their western getup...including spurs and hats.

Like always the clouds here are amazing. We get a call one night after dinner from Lucas telling us to go outside and check out this sweet cloud. It was pretty sweet and so I took a picture.

A few weekends ago (I know a little out of order) we headed to Tombstone which is a legit western town. We had lunch and bought some really good fudge...thinking about it makes my sweet tooth go crazy. Along the way we stopped at a historical marker that marks the Mormon Battalion and the Battle of the Bulls.


Well we will be home a week from Sunday. Gosh time flies. I can't believe it has been three months. It is definitely bitter sweet I have really started to enjoy it down here, but we must get back to reality. Oh I just can't wait ;)

~simple pleasures~

So on this fine Thursday I was painting my toenails and thinking...gosh there are some things that no matter how many times they occur they always bring me joy. Below are some of the most recent things that I have encountered.

1. Just looking at these boots makes me giddy... cause I am the owner of them. I have never owned a pair of tall boots. Call me crazy or out of fashion, either one I have my reasons. I look at the price tag of boots that I love and I just can't pull myself to buy them. I think, "For the price of one pair of boots I could buy 2-3 pairs of shoes...that is gratification 3 times over." I finally gave in because I had a gift card to Nordstrom and it eased the pain just a little. I just can't wait to wear them. I would wear them today, but I think I might get funny looks cause it is 100 degrees outside. Just an FYI, I am pretty sure that this picture does not give these boots justice..they are just plain hot in person!

2. So this cartoon basically sums up how I feel when my toenails are painted..and let me be honest, my toenails are always painted. So I am a little OCD about my toenails. If they are chipping or too long I have to get out my manicure set and repaint them. This is not a pain, but I actually find it very therapeutic to give myself a pedicure. Don't get me wrong I love getting a good pedicure, but they don't always last long because of my OCD.

3. I can't tell you how excited I get to get my hair done. I have had hundreds of haircuts, but it never gets monotonous. This last time I was prepared when I went in. I had been to the book store and bought a $6.00 hair magazine (don't judge me) and marked all the ones that I liked. I am all about changing my hair. I get tired of the same old boring thing, so I always ask for something new. I was in Utah last week and I got my haircut it had been a few months and it was driving me crazy. My hairdresser talked me into going dark purple. It's pretty punk rocker and different, so I love it.

4. Down here in Arizona I have some spare time on my hands so I get to indulge in reading. I have always loved reading, but it is the one thing that gets pushed to the back when I am really busy. Right now I am reading Kite Runner it is an excellent book. I am averaging about a book a week down here, it's pretty awesome. I just love to go into a different state of mind and be like a kid again and imagine what the places and people are like that I am reading about. It is definitely a simple pleasure.

The Grand Canyon State

Well it's been another few weeks down here in the Grand Canyon State. Spencer is keeping busy with his Army training. He just had his first big test for the first part of the course and he passed which is awesome! We have been having fun with some of the friends he has met and enjoying each other. We have some mountains around so we all went up and had a camp fire and roasted marshmallows which was delightful.

There was a motorcycle show in Tucson and of course we had to go. It was a good time, it is always fun to get out of Sierra Vista. It was two weeks ago and Spencer cannot stop talking about it. He really was like a little kid in a candy shop. I found a bike that I thought was cool/cute. Spencer has wanted to buy me a bike for a really long time. Now that I found one that I like he is researching and begging to buy me one. I sure love my husband. Check out my sweet ride below. (maybe in about 10 years)

Below are a few of the other bikes that were at the show.

The nights here are amazing I love the skies at night. The other day Spencer and I sat on our back porch and watched a spectacular lightning storm. I do love summer nights.

Sierra Vista, Arizona

I decided that life is always changing and there is no reason to plan months in advance. Spencer and I had 6 months planned before he left to do Army training, but everything seem to change after about a month after he left. It is a long story so I will make it brief. The place where I was working full-time needed to downsize at the end of June and unfortunately I was part of the downsize. So I lost my job and I really didn't know what I was going to do with myself. I really thought I might go crazy without a full time job. So that pretty much sucked.

Spencer came home for the 4th of July and we were talking about different options that I had. We came to the conclusion that I was going to move with him to Sierra Vista, Arizona for three months while he finished up his Army training. I felt really good about this decision. I was stressing about what I would do with myself down there since I didn't feel like I could get a decent job since I was only going to be there for only three months. I would like to say that I know the Lord hears and answers prayers. I was praying about if this was the right move and what I should do. Well the company that had let me go needed part-time help with the marketing side and asked me to come back part-time. I told them I was moving to AZ and they said that I could work remotely. I was so glad that everything worked out.

We have been down here for about two weeks. It definitely has been a change. I went from hanging out with my sister and her two girls all day to hanging out with myself most of the day. The first question every one asks is, "Is it sooo hot?" No, not hot at all. Sierra Vista is about the same altitude as Utah. Right now they are in the monsoon season so it is a bit rainy. Sierra Vista is about 30 minutes from the Mexican border so we are very far south. It has been fun to be with Spencer and have weekends to go to the surrounding cities and visit. I haven't been the best at taking pictures, but I have a few. Every night the sunset is beautiful and there are pretty awesome lightning storms.

Hopefully I will be better at blogging our adventures down here. Last weekend we went to Bisbee, which is a hippy town and we headed to Tucson to do some shopping since Sierra Vista has a pretty crappy mall. Even though I had my camera I didn't take any picture, but there is always this weekend!

The Good Life...

Life has been a little crazy with us lately, but I thought I should post a few pictures from our vacation to Cancun that happened back in May. It was so perfect! We celebrated our one year anniversary. We stayed at the Moon Palace all inclusive resort. We will for sure go back it was beautiful and all I could have hoped for. I think we had about 5 virgin pina coladas the first day...needless to say it was awesome.

We hit up the ruins at Tulum.

To be honest I wish I was there right now. It was a great getaway and a perfect way to spend our one year anniversary.

Little bit of this a little bit of that~

Gosh it was a busy May. Now that everything has calmed down for now, I guess I will post some pictures. The next few posts might be out of order, but they all happened in May. This post is about the quick weekend trip up to Idaho Falls, over to Yellowstone then on to Jackson Hole.

We headed up to Idaho Falls for my brother Dave and his wife Britten's sealing in the Idaho Falls Temple. The sealing was beautiful and it was a beautiful day. I could have posted at least 10 pictures of everyone outside the temple, but I decided to keep it to just one. All of the nieces and nephews joined us outside the temple and they were just so cute plus the temple grounds were in full bloom.

Spencer and I in front of the Idaho Falls Temple

Us in front of the falls in Idaho which were pretty spectacular

We then headed to Yellowstone. I have never been to Yellowstone so it was pretty great. There was tons of wildlife and it was so pretty up there.

The Buffalo were literally right outside our car.

Of course we saw Old Faithful erupt which was great too.

This little cutie, Audrey, is my brother Steve and Kristen's little girl. We took her in our car for most of Yellowstone she was so cute. I think she missed her twin brother a little bit, but she loved having all of the attention. I have to admit having her in our car made Spencer want a little one of our own.

We didn't take any pictures in Jackson Hole. I guess there is something in the air that makes us not want to take pictures because we spent our honeymoon in Jackson Hole and we didn't take any then either.

It was a fun trip. We got to hang out with family and have a weekend off from the daily grind. It was especially fun to have Steve, Kristen and the twins out here from Chicago. I sure do wish they lived closer they have such cute kids and we don't mind their parents either.

~Moved On~

A couple of weekends ago Spencer and I moved out of our apartment. I have to admit I am sad to have moved out. I don't so much miss the cinder block walls, the AstroTurf carpet, and the many different smells that accumulated in our apartment during dinner time. But I do miss the people. It takes me a little while to get out of my comfort zone and start to talk to people and make friends, so right when I was getting warmed up to people we have to pick up and move. I have to say we lived by some great people. Our ward was great, our first Sunday there we were greeted by ward members that made us feel welcome...gosh I sure do miss the ward.

So now we live with my parents. We are so fortunate to be able to stay there and save money, we are grateful to my parents for letting us be "live-ins" for a little while. I will be living there for the next 6 months, while Spencer is doing more Army training (June-November) in Georgia and Arizona. I know November will be here before I know it, but right now it seems like forever away.

I should mention that this past Sunday, May 3, Spencer and I have been married one whole year. We didn't really celebrate much since we are going to Cancun at the end of May to celebrate. We just cuddled and watched Twilight.

Can't believe it has been a year. It feels like just yesterday that I was planning and graduating and stressing out. It really has been such an awesome year of course there were hard times, there will always be hard times, but there were also great times, spiritual times, and just plain fun times. I look forward to the next year. I know this year will bring many changes which I look forward to.

(Wish I had pictures of our wedding to post, but that CD got packed away and I am not going to dig through all of our stuff for it.)

VOTE FOR US! #1098

So I got this email a few days ago from our wedding photographer saying that he entered one our wedding photos into a contest. I thought that was pretty cool. I loved my photographer, Brody Dezember, he did an awesome job with everything. I would love it if everyone would vote for our photo, if we win we get to be on the cover of Bride and Groom Magazine plus Brody will give us a large canvas print of the photo, which I would love. Just follow the instructions below to vote. It is just something fun to do and make sure you check out all of the great photos, especially the ones by Brody Dezember.

1. Go to http://www.utahbrideandgroom.com/Utah-Bride-and-Groom-Magazine/Utah-Bride-and-Groom-magazine-cover-photo-contest/

2. Scroll down to #1098. I know you can't enlarge the image on their site so below is #1098.

3. Scroll to the bottom of the page and enter the information.

I hope everyone will vote it only takes a few minutes. Thanks!

My lil' brother is all grown up...

Well my little brother has left on his mission! I can't believe Matt is 19 it just seems like yesterday that he was getting baptized. He headed to the MTC on March 11 and heads to Catania, Italy on May 11. He is such an awesome kid and has always been a great example to me. It was hard for me to see him go. For heck sake he is my little brother. But I know he will be great he has such a strong testimony and such a great spirit.

We got his first letter and first email from the MTC it sounds like he is doing great and learning so much. I did get news today that he sprained his ankle pretty bad so he gets to go see my brother to get some xrays...hope it heals fast! I just freakin love this kid so much. I guess we will see him two years!

Chaotic Chirstmas...But a Whole lot of Fun!

I guess it's about time to do an update on Christmas. Christmas was a lot of fun this year, everyone was in town and it was a crazy party on Christmas. It was a big sleep over! I didn't get a lot of pictures, but you can see what my parents living room looked like the morning of! I loved seeing the look on all of my nieces and nephews faces. It's tradition that when everyone wakes up everyone has to wait at the top of the stairs before you can go down and open your presents. My little niece Emma loved that Santa wrote her a note to thank her for the cookies and reindeer food! To be a kid again wouldn't that be great!

Spencer and I had a smaller Christmas since we went to New York a few weeks before. I did get a new phone/blue tooth head set, and luggage. Spencer was really excited about all of the clothes that I got him...what can I say that's what happens when you start a job that you have to dress up for. I did get him Lego Star Wars which was fun to throw in a toy. Spencer really is a kid at heart. The Lego Star Wars is already put together and he is wanting a another one (maybe for Valentines day).