Experiencing the West with the One You Love (a Valentine's Blog)

Hello again from the Old West - also known as Arizona. When we last wrote, we were developing a bad case of the Chrismas spirit. Christmas came and went and was very, very busy! We thought Santa came by way of reindeer, but when you work on a ranch, he comes by stagecoach - complete with horses! Our biggest Christmas miracle and present was our engagement! As of Christmas morning, we are officially engaged to be married, and we couldn't be more thrilled and excited about our future!

In other news, Arizona has been full of adventure and surprises. We have visited the site of the West's most famous gun battle - the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona, complete with a daily re-enactment of the gunfight with Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp. We even witnessed the famous thump of Morgan Earp dying at the Historama presentation (seriously, Google it if you haven't been there. That alone is worth the trip.). We have seen wild burros climbing in the mountains between the saguaro cacti, javelinas (wild pigs) running around the ranch, a baby calf frolicking among the horses, and we have seen snakes and lizards coming back from hibernation (still no sign of a tarantula, though!). We have visited several ghost towns and old gold mining operations and imagined what life was like back in the good old days. We have gone horseback riding out in the desert with real cowboys, ye haw! We went to the Grand Canyon to visit some friends we worked with in Jackson, Wyoming, and Erin rode a mule down into the depths of the Canyon (and was completely terrified looking over the edge in the ice and snow the entire 7 hours!). We volunteered at the Super Bowl, and met some fun people from Phoenix. We also met Spike, the Super Bowl mascot, Boomer Esiason (Erin's childhood crush!), Jerry Rice (and told him that we cheered for him at a live taping of "Dancing with the Stars" a couple years ago), the "Bus" - Jerome Bettis, and Josh McCown (Go Raiders!). We volunteered with the Salvation Army and had more fun passing out presents to families to give to their children than we had opening our own presents (except Erin's diamond ring - see above!). We went to the zoo to see the baby white tigers and the other zoo to see the Zoo Lights (who knew Phoenix had 2 zoos?!). We rode in the Gold Rush Days parade in a float made to look like a train from the Old West. We even went to see Caroline Kennedy and Barack Obama speak and came away feeling inspired and excited about the future of our country. We also went to see Asleep at the Wheel at Wickenburg's famous Del Webb Center.

Arizona has been so surprising for us in so many ways. We never expected the mountains and the snow here. We never expected to be COLD here - although spring is definitely on it's way; bring on the tank tops and flip flops! We never expected there to be so much here we want to see and do. We can't wait to see the desert wildflowers bloom and all the animals come back. It's nice to hear the birds singing, as they all return from wherever they went this winter! We've never really lived anywhere with actual cowboys, and Erin still gets a kick out of seeing big belt buckles, boots, Stestons and hearing the clank-clank-clank of spurs wherever we go (no, Begee has not yet purchased a big belt buckle of his very own!). Our jobs have been challenging at times, and it's interesting to think that we have less than three months left here (considering most seasons only last 3 months!).

Since Valentine's Day is tomorrow - our 5th one together! - we wish you all love and happiness, the chance to live the life you dream of with the one you've always dreamt of. We're so lucky to live the life we do with each other, and we are so excited about what the future may hold! We wish you all good travels and a Happy Valentine's Day!