Our Grand (Canyon) Adventure

Once upon a time, a girl from the Grand Canyon State married a boy who had never even seen a cactus. This meant that one had several childhood memories of baking in the sun while looking at the largest hole in the world, while the other had no idea what he was missing out on. To rectify this obvious inequality in the relationship, the boy and the girl decided to make the trek (through the snow even) to experience the grandeur of the Grand Canyon together. They couldn't imagine anything more romantic (or character building) and witnessing something so large could only be the next big step in their relationship. So here is the story of the epic romance of Ramzi and Ramsay's first trip to the Grand Canyon together.

All epic romances aside, we had a fun weekend seeing the Grand Canyon. It had just snowed the night before and we got up early to watch the sunrise to avoid all the other tourists and to hang out with all the critters who also get up early (like the baby elk we saw). To sum it all up, it was kind of a perfect trip and it was pretty great showing my husband the beauty of the Grand Canyon for the first time.

And now, time for the pictorial evidence of our Grand Canyon excursion. (My cute hat and coat are credited to Kendle Webster who kindly let me borrow them after foolishly leaving my coat at home)

 We were the first ones on the snowy rim trail. Sorry it's blurry. We were kind of running because we were almost late for the sunrise.

But even though we had to run almost half a mile in the snow, this view was totally worth it.

This view can make anyone look good.

Except this fella. That handsome man makes that view look good!

Selfie time!

This is me being sassy and enjoying walking close to the edge without my mother telling me not to.

And this is Ramzi snapping a picture so my mother could tell me off later (thanks, Ramzi )

An awesome panoramic that showcases the snow.

The baby elk we saw!! Because there weren't very many people around, the elk got really close to us. Look at those ears!

More elk!! I was trying to tone down how excited I was for the picture.

Man, no picture can do this view justice.

I found Smokey Bear.

And the grumpiest park ranger around. (This is my new favorite picture of Ramzi)

And that about sums it up. I highly recommend seeing the Grand Canyon at least once in your life, especially in the snow.

You Should Always Marry Your Best Friend

Guess what?! Today marks a year that Ramz and Rams decided to decided to become Ramzi&Ramsay (aka The Dosch's). It has been quite the year between being a new family, moving to a new country, new jobs, and a new school. But even with all the newness, we've been loving the ups, weathering the downs, and discovering that life is a lot easier when you have your best friend by your side.

December 17th, 2013 was the happiest day. And here are some highlights of what can happen when you decide to go on this adventure of life with your best friend.

Well, you get to wear the best dress ever and have a wonderful day all about being in love and making promises to be together forever.

Oh, and you also get to pose for pictures and look really good all day.

You get to be broke and make your first Christmas tree out of a broken surf board. But you secretly feel really hipster.

And little cute piggies capture your heart, making it hard to leave your little island.

But,  you're moving to the the land of hobbits so it's actually not that hard to leave

You get to be goofy while both adjusting to foreign, unpredictable weather.

But even with the weather, you get someone to share all the beautiful and new views with.

    

(Seriously, New Zealand is awesome)

And you get really good at taking couple selfies. Do you see how we almost fit all of that human-sized chocolate bunny in our picture? Skill, let me tell you.

But most importantly, you get swept off your feet every day by your best friend who is there when you cry, when you laugh, and when you just need to be reminded you are loved and cherished by someone.

I have never been so thankful I agreed to that first date two and a half years ago. I never thought it would bring us to where we are, but I've never been so happy. Thank you for loving me and thank you for being my best friend. Happy Anniversary, Ramzi. Here's to the next 50+ years together.

We're still ALIVE!!

Well...I have no excuse that we haven't had a blog post since May. We've been super crazy busy? I'm lazy? We were actually hired as secret agents and can no longer disclose our daily doings?

Whatever excuse makes you feel better about the hiatus of blog posts, believe it and...move on if you can. However, I am committing to at least one blog post a month for ALL of 2015 (with a post here and there from THE Ramzi himself) AND you can expect some great Christmas posts soon.

BUT, until then, here are some brief pictorial highlights of the last 7 months (*cringe* such a long time without a blog post)

Oh, and did I mention we're currently stateside for the Holidays? We are :) I don't think I could have gone another Christmas without my mom's cinnamon rolls. But we are missing our Kiwi-Land adventures and will return to our life abroad in January.

Anyway, picture time. Thank you for your patience and non-judgement of my laziness about blog posts (ok, you may be judging me, but at least you're too nice to tell me)

-Written by THE Rams aka Brianne-

Just another awesome movie-worthy view from New Zealand. Be jealous :)

And...we found PIGGIES in New Zealand! Though they're not quite as cute as our Hawaii piggies

We started playing Risk in the evenings. Our biggest fights we've had as a married couple started after an ill-timed invasion and annihilation (Ramzi's far too competitive for his own good)

Just a cool alleyway full of street art near our apartment.

Violently purple flowers I pass on my morning runs.

Our nerdy celebration of the boy who lived (and my first lesson in why you don't frost a cake while it's still hot)

IT'S COLD WHERE WE LIVE. DID ANYBODY TELL US THIS??

A middle of the night project for Ramzi's Master's program. Is it considered graffiti if it washes away? FREE PALESTINE

Our first rugby game! Love Ramzi's grin :)

REAL LIFE RUGBY PLAYERS! AH!

And...we live in a pretty cool place. OTAGO FOR LIFE! But we are happy to be Stateside for a few weeks.

P.S. Feel free to keep my honest and pester me in a few weeks if you don't see another blog post

P.P.S. If you are ever curious how we travel so much as poor graduate students (New Zealand to Arizona is kind of a long way) you should facebook me (Ramsay) or Jordan (Ramzi) about travel hacking. We only travel if it's free or severely discounted and we love to share our tricks and schemes with other people (that way people can come visit us wherever we live!)