I know we are slackers! Our Apartment finally!

So I know that we have completely forgotten about our blog, but I will be updating it a little bit at a time. I have to go all the way back to March when my sister SAra got married. I think Jake and I have just been running around with our heads chopped off the last few months. But, we are starting to come back to reality bit by bit. Just in time for me to start school in two days! Ahhhh! I am so excited. Hopefully I can keep you updated with my school process. But for now, I am posting some pictures of our apartment that I have taken forever to post. You can look at the previous posts for the before pictures, and here are the "after" Pictures. I am especially proud of my kitchen that I painted the walls and laid the flooring. I decided not to paint anything else after that, though.

Battle of the Bay

I have been an Oakland A's fan since I knew what baseball was. I'll never forget my first Little League team's tight green and yellow jerseys and that everyone was upset that we weren't the White Sox or some other 'cool' team. Well, I thought it was cool and have followed the A's ever since. I even caught a home-run at Oakland's stadium a few years back.

So moving to the Bay area gave me the chance to get in some awesome baseball, and Kim and I jumped at the first chance we had. The MLB is in inter-league play right now, so we went to one of the "Battle of the Bay" series, the Oakland A's vs. the San Francisco Giants. I won't comment on the outcome of the game or the series, but we took a few pictures.

Evening picnic by the Bay..

Not to make everyone else jealous, but Kim and I walked about a half-mile from our front door to have a little Sunday evening picnic. The weather has been beautiful, albeit a little chilly here lately and we wanted to enjoy being so close to some amazing views.

We stopped along the trail for some photo-ops
More pictures at Kim's request (more like command ;)



So we hiked down the hill to the edge of a cliff (smart, I know)


But we got a great view and enjoyed a nice Sunday dinner
Yep, contented. Like the Rizzuto

Our Place in SF

After we got back from Panama, we packed up most of our apartment in Glendale and drove our car north to San Francisco to look for an apartment. Lucky for us, rents are lower (but still ridiculous) than they have been in years, so we looked at a lot of places all over the city. We need to live in the city for my job, but wanted to be close to the freeways for Kim's commute.

We ended up finding a great little flat a few blocks between two great parks and only 4 blocks from the beach! It is a 2 bedroom, 1180 sq. ft. with a fireplace on the second floor and great city views. The best part is a single car garage all to ourselves! Parking in the city is impossible! We love it and are excited to have people come visit!


View from the kitchen of the Golden Gate


Living room and boxes
Park down the block
Messy bedroom since Kim's in Utah
Hallway

Good News While In Panama..

The week before I left for Panama, I flew to San Francisco to interview for a job with Hilti (http://www.us.hilti.com/). I had a really good interview, but couldn't worry too much about it since I would be out of the country. Fortunate for us, soon after I arrived in Panama, Hilti contacted me and I had a final phone interview with the Division Manager, a great guy who is also a T-bird AND Utah State grad. Shortly after that, I was emailed a job offer to start in their Management Development Program in the San Francisco Bay area.

So here we are! I started last week and have really enjoyed the job so far. We are very blessed for me to have a job nearby where Kim can go to PA school, especially in such difficult times.

PANAMANIUM 2009!!!!!!!!!!!

So I know it is a long time coming, but I graduated May 1st and left the country for Panama on the morning of May 2nd. After Kim came down on May 16th, we traveled around and came home on May 27th. I haven't had a lot of time to post between now and then, but here's an update.....

I'm sure a lot of people have already seen these amazing pictures on my Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=107955&id=613502802&l=fd76ab08ed and http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=112000&id=613502802&l=7be9c1c058 if you haven't).


On the way to the island with the Matsons
With Kim at the Canal

Oh and I got some bug bites


Our cabin on the island in San Blas
Some Panamanin ruins
That's how we got around


Chiquita Banana Plant
Our hotel in Bo
Fort ran by Christopher Columbus

Rural Panama

Looking out on the Panama city scape; this is where part of the last 007 movie was filmed
Lots of crocs in the Panama Canal

Jake Graduates!

So Jake did it. He graduated with his MBA in International Management on May 1, 2009 from Thunderbird School of Global Management. The ceremony was amazing and I loved every second of it. I am so grateful to Jake for his hard work and dedication to school. He has put in a lot of hours over the last couple years to this degree. The last month in particular was particularily brutal. I probably saw him an hour each day as he was up until 2:00 AM almost every night doing homework and preparing presentations and applying for jobs. I wanted to pay a small tribute to him by publically telling him how grateful I am for his drive and sense of responsibility for our family. I have never once heard him complain about the long hours and personal sacrifice that was required to complete such an achievement. He always did his duty, always knowing what it was he needed to accomplish and did it without ever looking back. I love him so much and couldn't be more proud and happy that he has accomplished this. Congraulations to my sweetheart!!! I also want to thank his parents for their life-long support of him and instilling him at a young age with a sense of responsibility and an ability to work hard without complaint. I am so grateful to Barbara and Larry for raising a son who has a true testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and is honest in everything that he does. He is a true model of integrity and I know he learned that from his parents. Thank you to everyone else (i.e. my parents and others) who have supported us on this long and difficult path. We love all the friends we have made and will treasure our friendships with them forever. Thank you to everyone. Last of all, I want to thank God for providing and upholding us every step of the way, giving us strength beyond our own.

Jake I love you so much, congratulations!!!! This is Amazing!!!

(a special thanks to Jen Westenskow for giving me these fabulous pictures)
for some reason I can't get them to download so I will add them soon

Do you ever wish you were a kid again?

I guess since I've lived away from home for the past few years, I've become a little more nostalgic and think of the awesome life I had growing up. I did a lot of amazing things as a kid and really enjoyed life in Utah growing up on the farm. Even though I'm not in that stage of my life anymore, and I really am content with where I'm at (even if that means in the library most of the time, at least for the next 25 days), I like to look back and remember....

My older sister Emily has 4 kids, the youngest of which is Scott, her only boy. Suffice it to say that Scott is all the mystery and mischief that her other 3 girls never outwardly expressed, all rolled into one little child. He reminds me of one of my favorite cartoon characters from when I was little - Calvin from the comic book, Calvin & Hobbes. I like to try and capture what Scott is thinking or conniving in all the descriptive pictures my sister has taken of him and maybe live a little bit of life through his tiny little eyes....

I love the Jazz...

So I decided to surprise Kim (although it was mostly for me) and take her to the Jazz/Suns game Wednesday night here in Phoenix. We had decent tickets, first row on the upper bowl, which in the Suns arena, isn't too bad. We had a great time, although we had to sit next to some stupid Lakers fans. Oh well. The Jazz played decent, but ended up losing. They made up for it by beating the Suns three days later in Utah.

This is me at our seats with the Lakers fan in the background.


We went to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner before the game and it really was pretty good. Thanks Kim for letting me surprise you with something for me!

Camelback Hike

Kim and I (Jake) decided to take a few hours away from school and work and go into Phoenix to hike Camelback Mountain. It's in the middle of the city, and it's not really a mountain. Its more like some hilly rocks, much like you would find at the City of Rocks. It was a beautiful day to get outside, right around 60 degrees and sunny when we started the ascent. It's only about 3 miles round trip, but the climb takes you up about 1,500 feet, so it's fairly steep. There were a TON of people and dogs on the trail, but it was still a lot of fun!

Kim posing at the top. Just behind her are sheer cliffs.
Us at the top. There were about 15 Thunderbird alum's who had made the hike and were kind enough to take some glamour shots of us.
The great city of Phoenix, Arizona. 5th largest city in the U.S.


About halfway up the trail. It got a lot steeper afte that.
3/4ths the way up. I didn't think we'd ever really make it.
Kim perfectly posing like she always does. I didn't mean to get so much sun in the photo.

My trip to Vegas..

So I recently made a quick, two-day trip to Las Vegas to meet some potential employer contacts and rub shoulders with some T-bird alumni. It was an enjoyable drive, I thought I'd include some highlights from the trip.

The long, lonely road. I'm surprised this picture isn't more blurry, given how fast I was going.
And this one is to show how SLOW I was going for my Mom. And how I just tripped 99,999. Fun.

Fascinating Concept..

Wet, Wild Weekend!

So for the past few months I've been formulating the perfect Valentine's Day present for Kim - a surprise trip to southern California to visit Disneyland. Kim has always loved Disneyland, especially Toon Town. Last time we were there, we didn't make it around to all the places in the park she wanted to see, so I knew deep down she really wanted to go back. After all, we are pretty close here in Phoenix, only about 4.5 hours away. We decided to go the week before V-day as Kim had another reason to visit SoCal, an interview at a PA school there, so we made a trip out of it.

It was a little rainy, which was good for us, as it kept most of the little ankle-biters away from the park. We waited in line maybe 10 minutes at the most and went on practically every ride!
No one in line at 10am.

A princess castle.

The strongest man alive.

Kim in her favorite place, Toon Town!
And now Kim deciding to blow up her favorite place.