!i! The Ballet !i!

AJ got some free tickets Ballet West's Jewels Ballet.  We didn't know what this performance was about.  There were 3 parts:  Emerald, Ruby, and Diamond.  Basically, they just wore costumes to match the themes.  There was no story and the music was strange so we did what any mature adults would do at a classy ballet:  We made faces to pass the time during the intermissions.

 The Smoulder

 The Puffer

The...I don't know what this is

We made it through 2 of the 3 acts and called it quits so we could get some dinner! 

!i! Flagstaff, Arizona !i!

AJ had another interview at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona for the physical therapy program.  It is pretty hard to get an interview there, but AJ was offered an interview so we booked the trip, packed our things, and we were off...eventually.

The morning that we were supposed to leave, there was a sudden snow storm.  It began during our commute to the airport and it arrived with a vengeance!  The roads were very slippery very quickly, but we safely arrived at the airport.

Our flight was very early in the morning.  It was one of the first flights out of the airport.  Due to the snow, the plane had to be de-iced.  That was interesting and a little unsettling.  They sprayed some green and orange goo all over the plane that melted the ice.  I thought to myself, this can't be good for the environment, but it did keep us safe.

Our first stop was in Phoenix.  We flew over the grand canyon which looked gigantic even thousands of feet in the air!

We had a layover in Phoenix before boarding our plane to Flagstaff.  It was a vast contrast between the blizzard we left and the sunshine and palm trees in Phoenix.  Even in February, it looked hot.  We roamed the airport riding the moving sidewalk and soaking in the sunshine that glistened through the windows.

The flight to Flagstaff was on a tiny plane.  It held maybe 30 people.  The flight was 45 minutes and when we arrived, there was snow on the ground, but the sun was shining...a sight we hadn't seen in months!

Flagstaff is beautiful.  The snow was glistening.  There were pine trees all around.  If felt kind of like a resort/college town.  I could definitely see us living there.

After gathering our things, renting our car, and checking into our hotel, we headed to the campus to scope out the building in which the interview was to take place.  Then we headed to the Petrified Forest.

The Petrified forest is filled with, you guessed it, petrified wood.  There were huge logs that had petrified and turned to stone and cracked. The entire area was littered with these petrified wood pieces!

There were also some Indian home ruins they had uncovered...

Along with some petroglyphs.  There were tons of petroglyphs scattered along all the rocks.  I couldn't help but think of the people that used to live here and how they survived.  Despite the blue skies and sunshine, the wind was bitter cold!

The following day, AJ had his interview.  He felt like it went really well.  While he was interviewed, I sat in the lobby of the hotel and researched apartments and the cost of living as well as job prospects.  After AJ's interview, he took me to the Grand Canyon.  I had never been to the Grand Canyon and I wanted to see what was so grand about it.

We drove through the flat desert and the temperature creeped up to 60 degrees!  It looked so warm outside!  I enjoyed the sun shining through the windows.  We even had to turn the air conditioner on!  This was something we soaked up with the extremely cold winter we had back in Salt Lake!

The Grand Canyon was gorgeous.  I was surprised with how large it actually is!  All the pictures I had seen in the past did not do it one ounce of justice!

We drove around and stopped at all the look outs.  I was wishing we had brought our hiking shoes!

Eventually, it began to snow and we headed back to Flagstaff.

Since we were in Arizona, we had to try some Mexican food.  We stopped at a nice Mexican restaurant near our hotel and had the best Mexican food we had ever tasted!  We shared a stuffed Navajo Taco and I think I drank three diet cokes!

Eventually, it was time to go home.  We packed up our things and boarded our flight.  We had made our decision even before we had left Flagstaff.  We have a big adventure ahead of us!