Christmas is almost here!

I wanted to, first of all, introduce the world to Mickey O'Neal Hatch. He was a birthday gift from Aubrey to me, and is the third member of our little family. He is more adorable than I ever could have imagined, and even Aubrey (who does not enjoy cats) is in love with him.

Secondly, we are so excited to be able to come home for Christmas. I (Lauren) will be home December 9-17, and Aubrey is coming December 6-14. We hope to get to see everyone while we are there. It gets really lonely out here!

I'm really enjoying my new job...it is so much less stressful than the W was, and I really feel like working in my field is really going to benefit me in the future. I'm hoping to go back to school in the spring to finish my degree in Art Education so that I can teach elementary art or high school photography. In the meantime, I'm still trying to market myself, build a client base, and develop a strong portfolio for myself so that eventually I can own a studio and primarily shoot weddings and portraits. It's a long road, but I think I'm up for it. I'm making a ton of connections out here with fellow photographers, which I am really excited about! Also, I'll be shooting the wedding of Katie Crowley and Brad Rechin in GA on December 13.

Aubrey is still enjoying working at REI. They have increased his hours and he is now working in several different departments. He's made a couple friends at work and they've gone hiking several times. Aubrey's knee and ankle have been bothering him recently though, so he's taking it easy for a bit.


We bought our Christmas tree last night and put it up! We know it is really early, but we get pretty bored and lonesome out here in Arizona, so we put it up early. We decided to make all the decorations ourselves (so it is more personal, AND we saved a little money), so the tree is adorned with paper snowflakes, a paper bow, and paper chain-link garland! We love it, and Mickey hasn't torn it down just yet :)

Hope all is well with everyone. Can't wait to see you all at home!!!

Love you!
Lauren

Wedding Photo Book

Hi everyone! Lauren here...just wanted to show off our wedding photo book. I finally did something productive with our wedding photos! I have to do SOMETHING out here, after all...

Click here to view this photo book.

I was able to make it back up to Humphreys Peak yesterday with a few people from work.



The beginning of the trail, and Humphrey's peak to the right.



By this point it's already getting pretty hard to catch your breath just because of the altitude, and in about another 200 feet we were above treeline.



At the summit (12,633 feet)



You could see the Grand Canyon from the top, it was about 80 miles away, and if you enlarge the picture you can kind of see it at the top.

Camping at 9,300 feet with temperatures in the 20's

Sunrise view from the field that we camped in


The trail leading up to Humphrey's Peak, the highest peak in Arizona at 12,633 feet


South rim of the Grand Canyon

A tunnel on the Bright Angel Trail


You can see the Bright Angel Trail at the bottom of the canyon in this picture, a few friends and us are hiking that trail next March. It takes you to the bottom of the Grand Canyon to a campsite right next to the Colorado River.

Sliding Rock state park in Oak Creek Canyon

I have to make sure to bring my fishing pole with me next time, there were so many trout in this stream



We went out to L.A. to see the Cro Mags, Gorilla Biscuits, H20, and Ignite, and while we were there we figured we'd check out Laguna Beach and a few other places.



We also stopped at Joshua Tree National Park on the way back

I'm planning a trip to go climb Mt. Rainier, in Washington, next May. I'm trying to get 2 more people to go so that we will have 5 people in our group, I have 2 other people in mind that have already climbed it, that both said they would want to do it again in May with me. I have already started training and planning out everything that I will need for it. I have already applied for my REI grant for it, which will give me $300 towards the equipment I'll need, and I'm going to apply for the permit soon.

Check out http://www.summitpost.org/mountain/rock/150291/mount-rainier.html for more about the mountain and more pictures.

And if you want to possibly come let me know.







- Aubrey

We finally got the internet and cable this morning, so I'm going to make a somewhat long update (mainly pictures).  We've been in Arizona for about 2 weeks now, we're starting to figure everything out for the most part, and we both started work again, which is a relief.  It's a lot different then it is back home out here, there's no such thing as hospitality, but it's sunny everyday, and it's definitely one of the prettiest places I've ever been.  We did get to witness the worst storm of our lives the second night we were here.  The news said the storm had sustained winds of 75 miles an hour with gusts in the mid 100's for over 2 hours and dropped over six inches of rain.  There was a lot of damage to the apartment complex, mainly trees blown down (one on a car) and blown out windows.   But here are some pictures from the drive out here and our day trip up to Sedona before we went back to work.

- Aubrey

New Mexico

Hey everyone, Lauren here. We are updating briefly from the New Mexico welcome center...we've been en route for the past two days and just hit New Mexico about 20 minutes ago. We'll be driving the rest of the way tonight and tomorrow.
We can't wait to finally get there.

But we miss everyone a ton! We can't wait to get settled in so that everyone can come visit.

We love you all!!!

Moving to Arizona

On August 24th, we'll be moving from Atlanta, GA to Scottsdale, AZ. Since we will be living 1,845 miles away from everyone and everything we know, we decided to start keeping up with this thing so we can stay in touch with everyone and they can see what's going on in our lives.

This is the drive we have ahead of us:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=N+Scottsdale+Rd+%26+E+Mckellips+Rd,+AZ+to+atlanta,+ga&sll=33.451361,-111.928239&sspn=0.031653,0.052185&ie=UTF8&ll=31.802893,-100.349121&spn=32.731164,53.4375&z=5

And here is the floor plan for the apartment we have:

http://www.scottsdalegateway.com/summit.htm

Now, I'm going to try and actually keep up with this thing and not forget about it, and hopefully within the next few weeks we will have a bunch of pictures and more up.

- Aubrey