Honeymoon in Paradise...well..a much foggier version.(Part I)

Yes folks- this picture describes the tropical paradise we experienced on our  honeymoon. Wind, rain, fog and a TON of windy roads. 

Don't take us wrong, we LOVED our honeymoon! I mean, c'mon, who hasn't been waiting for that special time to be together, without supervision? And that was wonderful!

But let's just say we owe ourselves a trip to warm, sunny paradise. 
Let me show you all the fun things we were still able to do on our trip up the west coast.

We started our trip in Sacramento where we were married. We were able to stay downtown right next to the Capitol building! Our first day we spent driving up "the coast", or rather, a WINDY back road that we thought would get us there faster! We went up and down, around, in and out and everywhere in between. Fortunately we were able to catch some beautiful shots in the mountains. We passed through at the perfect sunset time and it was one of the most heavenly views we had ever witnessed. Take a look for yourself!

We were also finally able to get rid...mmm I mean "sacrifice" Adam's well loved moccasins at this sweet shoe tree we found. It was a good way for them to go, and a good start to our marriage! (let's say that it was time for some new shoes, haha!)

Hope you enjoyed part one of our honeymoon adventure segment! We invite you to look forward to some more funny stories and pictures soon to come. 

P.S. We love your comments! If you have vine (the app) you can follow us each at Stephanie Hogge and Adam Hogge. I have to admit that we have some pretty cool videos there!

Camping in February

  Here we are, newlyweds and newly excited about using all of our awesome  camping gear during the middle of February.
  "FEBRUARY?? Are you out of your minds?" is what you're probably thinking.. but no! We weren't out of our minds. The weather in St. George was relatively nice and we wanted to be out in the middle of it.
  So we packed up our camping stuff, filled the picnic basket and headed out to a local campground. The day was spent hiking (more like exploring through branches.) We decided to take the unbeaten path around a lake and ended up climbing rocks and hacking down branches. The thought of swimming across even crossed my mind because it would have been easier. And girls, learn this: DO NOT wear your hair in a messy bun when climbing through branches. They will grab and snag in the most inconvenient times and make your hair look crazy, like in this picture.




Come nightfall, our tent was set up, fire going, food cooking and we were relaxing by the fire. We even had some time to make a little video and take some pictures of our new (used) car!

 As the night grew darker, the stars grew brighter.. and it grew much colder. We hurried into the tent hoping that we could be a little warmer in there. Apparently card games and snacking don't heat up a tent so we eventually ended up snuggling up under the covers watching "Runaway Bride" on netflix. (Cool, huh? We still had 3G)
   
 As the movie hit a "buffering" moment, I began to hear the silence....or maybe the not-so-silent silence. Cracking and rustling noises were all around us and of course it freaked me out! A thousand scenarios began wandering through my mind, including the headline "A young couple found in the middle of a campground alone, in February: No one knows who or what happened to them." Naturally I asked Adam if he was worried about anything unsafe, and his response was "No, why?" As I explained my fears it got his mind whirling and we both began to get creeped out. Suddenly we realized that maybe it was not the smart choice to be all alone without anyone knowing where we were, in a thin tent, unaware.
  If anyone would have told me what happened next,  I wouldn't have believed it myself. But I swear to you that from the moment we decided to go home instead of risking our lives (we probably would have been fine..but..maybe not?...?) our whole campsite was packed in a mere 8-11 minutes. Our tires left hearty dust trails in the desert night as we sped out of there.

  We felt like we had been there for hours, but folks, we left that site at 9pm. Ha! Plenty of time to take hot showers, clean up and even do some homework before hitting the hay.

Moral of the Story: If you decide to go camping, then maybe wait until the natural time of year to go. OR, if you want a good story then follow our example. But I have to admit that it was nice to get the almost full camping experience AND get to sleep in our warm, comfy bed.

This story was meant to stay in our "Do not tell Ever!" vault, but we couldn't keep some good laughs from you guys. So enjoy the happy remains of our camping experiences, because the real ashes were left high and dry in the cold that night!                                          

Here we go!

  We finally decided to jump on the blogging bandwagon and add a new one to the pile. This is a great way to create an online "journal/scrapbook" of our new life. So here it is, we now introduce to you....(drumroll please):

 ASH: These are the happy remains of our ongoing life together!

We are the Hogge Family as of January 5, 2013. If you haven't figured it out already, ASH is our acronym for Adam & Stephanie Hogge. Currently we are living with my grandparents in St. George area. It has been fun to start our life together and to already create fun stories to tell our "future children".

There are many fun tales to tell, so check back often to laugh and, well, laugh some more. We'll see you soon!