The Twelve Days of Matney's Christmas (explained)

Dear Friends and Family,
Thanks so much for taking the time to visit our blog and get a better understanding of exactly what put the words into our song (we hope you actually sang it!)

The First Day- We are still living (stuck) in Arizona.
The Second Day- We have acquired yet another English bulldog! Bentley is quite the character and getting along great with Cooper! Cooper is now a year and a half, and Bentley is 6 months old.
The Third Day- We got a little surprise when we had our cat Lily into the vet for her annual shots. The vet looked at us, giggled and then asked why Lily had a pink collar on. Turns out Lily is actually a boy...we haven't told her yet.
The Fourth Day- Tyler has taken up golf as a means to pass the summer months. During the summer it is to hot to do anything but sit in the air conditioning...UNLESS you get out on the golf course around 5am and get 18 holes in before 10am.
The Fifth Day- Cooper has still struggled with his eye problems. Surgery after surgery. Hopefully he is finally in the clear.
The Sixth Day- Claire is still very actively creating her earrings, necklaces, and bracelets which are available through her website; www.clairesjewelrystore.com.
The Seventh Day- Our saltwater aquarium is still up and running. It has it's good times and bad, but still seems to be a focal point in our house.
The Eigth Day- Claire has made a drastic career change during the last year. From office work to selling puppies. She is the Assistant Manager at Animal Kingdom.
The Ninth Day- Tyler is still mountain biking, and more than ever. He has joined a local race team and gets out on rides at least once a week. To have a peek at the team website check out; www.missinglinkracing.com.
The Tenth Day- Tyler has also made a career change. After 4 years with United Natural Foods/ Mountain People's Warehouse, he has taken a position with Protection One Security as a Residential Security Consultant.
The Eleventh Day- Claire's parents are in their second and final year in Togo working for The Peace Corps. Claire will be travel around the globe in late January to spend 2 weeks visiting her parents and getting a grasp of what life is like in this unique country. To see more about Wayne and Cate's experience visit; www.catewayneafrica.com.
The Twelfth Day- Another wonderful year as the Matneys!

We hope your year was as wonderful as ours, and that your Holidays are filled with joy and peace. God Bless, and Merry Christmas.

Love, Tyler and Claire

Mountain Bike season is BACK!!!

The sun has given up for the summer, and the cool weather is upon us! I have officially joined a team for the 2007 mountain bike season. Missing Link Racing is a great group of riders, most of which just look forward to a cold beer after a hard ride. I will be spending lots of time with the team througout the season.

We got a small ride group together and headed up to Sedona to enjoy the red rocks, and red dust provided by the beautiful northern Arizona wilderness. We rode a 9 mile loop through the Little Horse Trail system, just west of downtown Sedona. It wasn't a long ride, but with all the "slick rock" areas, we spent just as much time goofing around on the rocks as we did riding the trail. Here are some photos. The first one is of me making sure my suspension is getting it's daily workout, the others are of the group at Chicken Point, a VERY scenic view point that affords amazing views of the red rock cliffs. Enjoy, and plan on more mt. bike photos as the race season kicks off in January




.

Happy Halloween!

Claire was a Witch and Tyler was a Burgler... get it... he sells Home security systems!

We got a BENTLEY!

Most of you know we really can't afford a real Bentley, but our new English Bulldog comes close. Who couldn't say no to this cute face! He is about 4 months old and just a bundle of energy. Plus Cooper is having so much fun being a big brother! You can look forward to more pictures down the road.


Create Your Own!

Finding Nemo? Look no further!

Just got a new addition to the reef tank yesterday. I adopted this beautiful long tentacle anemone. Some of you have probably seen Finding Nemo, and know that a clown fish is most happy while living (hosting) in an anemone. So, we bought our anemone a Clarki Clown to keep him company. This is a two way relationship. The anemone provides protection for the Clown in the form of a hiding place, and those tentacles can sting other fish, the clown fish is immune to these stings. In return the clown fish is kind enough to gather food and drop it in the mouth of the anemone...paying rent in a way! Here are some photos, enjoy!

FORE!

Zach came down to Arizona during the most perfect time of the year to visit Claire and I am and enjoy a few rounds of golf. Zach landed on Thursday evening and we got up Friday morning and headed out to Kokopelli Golf Resort for round one of our marathon golf weekend!
After shooting 18 holes at Kokopelli we decided we hadn't had enough, so we booked another tee time for later that afternoon at Western Skies. We teed off pretty late, right in front of a great group of drunk Alaskans who kept us entertained the whole round. We ended only getting 9 holes in, and the 8th and 9th holes were basically shooting in the dark.
We took Saturday off from shooting golf, and instead went up into the desert to shoot guns. About 2000 rounds of ammo later, we kicked back and relaxed Saturday afternoon away...until poker started. We ended up at a friends house until about midnight on Saturday night playing Poker...which Zach beat me heads up to win a game.
Sunday morning we were out for more golf. We played Gold Canyon's Dinosaur Mountain, one of the nicest courses in the Phoenix area. ABSOLUTLY AMAZING! The course is set back into the mountains, which makes for stunning views from very high elevated tee boxes on the mountain sides. Here is a photo from that round!

We were both sore at this point from to much golf, and not enough sleep. So we let our Poker buddies drag us out again on Sunday afternoon for 18 more holes at View Point. Wheewwwww........LONG WEEKEND!

Zach, it was great to have you down, and I hope we can make this a regular visit! The golf courses are ALWAYS open and ready down here!

If only animals could talk!

Yesterday morning I took our cat Lily to the vet for routine shots, etc. As I chatted with the vet, she noticed something very odd. She thinks because Lily was neutered/spayed so young and she was so under developed, that they miss marked Lily as a female. Lily is actually a BOY!~ We are still laughing when we call him and he comes running with a pink collar on. If only animals could talk!

  

Camping on Labor Day

This weekend we went for a short camping trip to Ashhurst Lake. We headed up early Sat morning and got lucky as Friday night it rained hard and scared some campers away. Therefore we got a great camping site close to the water and some free dry fire wood! We didnt take that many pictures but here is some below... Cooper loves his tent! It was so nice to get away from the heat and the city. It felt GREAT to feel cold again!

Tessa was in town!!

 

We had such a fun time with Tessa in town for a few days. Sunday night we went to the Tempe Improv which was hilarious! I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. Then Monday we decided to take a tour of AZ and headed North with Cooper. Our first stop was old town Prescott. Then we headed to Cooper's parents house and he got to play with some dogs. Then we ate a late lunch in Jerome at the Mile High Cafe. Our last stop was Sedona and then we headed back home. We had quite the lightening show on the drive back which made it interesting.
It was great to have her in town and we are sad it was for such a short time. Glad she got to see the house and meet the animals. Can't wait for them to be here at Christmas!! 

Ok so we have had some complaints that we haven't updated this in a while... SO we put a new photo of us below from the Huey Lewis and Chicago concert. We will try to keep this better updated :)
Tyler update: I have started a new job with Protection One. I left United Natural Foods Inc./ Mountain Peoples Warehouse after nearly 4 years of wonderful employement. Protection One is a residential and commercial security monitoring company. My position allows me to help families better secure their homes, and is turning out to be very rewarding! Hopefully I will enjoy many years of success within Protection One, and with a little luck it might be our ticket out of "The Valley of the Sun", and back to a state/ town with seasons.
Claire update: I am loving my new job at the puppy store. It is so fun to see the pups go home to good people and see their excitment. Don't worry, I havent brought any other animals home yet...our Matney Zoo is enough for now :)
Animal update: Cooper eye still have some stitches in it, but doing much better! Lily is great as normal and the fish tank has its ups and downs. Biff is going strong and loves this Arizona heat!
House update: The house is holding out strong. The AC was on and off for a while there, which sucked but thank god we bought the home warranty when we purchased the house!
I think that is all for now! Enjoy!!

....Happy Birthday Dear Cooper....

Happy Birthday Day to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birth Day dear Cooper.......HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

Cooper turns ONE year old on Friday June 9th. We are so happy to have him, he is absolutly the most wonderful dog you could ask for. I think he is the most wonderful pet our veterinarian could ask us to have too...but that's another story! Happy Birthday Cooper! WE LOVE YOU.

Our One Year Anniversary!

Claire and I decided to head north up into the mountains, to beat the heat for our anniversary. I planned a 4 hour scenic train ride through the Verde Canyon out of Cottonwood, AZ and surprised Claire as we pulled into the train station. On Monday morning we got up early and went to Out Of Africa. Out of Africa is a wildlife preserve that both rescues and houses a variety of animals, but their biggest draw is the Sarengeti Safari ride. We have plenty of pictures, and should have them available on here soon. For now, you can click on the slide showes below and flip through the full sized photos.

For information on the Verde Canyon Railroad visit http://www.verdecanyonrr.com/
For information on Out of Africa visit http://www.outofafricapark.com/

Im domestic!

OK maybe I dont cook, but I learned how to sew and made these curtains! Thanks Matneys for the machine! My next goal is a pillow!

Our new tank is up and running!

Hello everyone!
I got our rocks and sand into the new aquarium. As you may remember, this our (my) second attempt at this hobby. My first went horribly wrong and I ended up selling it all and starting over from scratch. This new one was custom built and stained to match our decor. The only missing thing is a matching box to house the chiller (gray box on the right with red digital display) which is sitting in the garage stained to match our stand...but needs some work done to make the chiller fit. Here are some pictures of the complete tank and stand and then a few of some corals that came on our live rock. I will keep you updated as I add fun stuff to the tank! Thanks for looking, and feel free to ask questions in the comments section. I love this hobby and recommend it if you are looking for a way to burn some time (and paychecks!). -Tyler

Baseball Time

So last night Tyler and I went to the Diamonbacks game for a bit. I took this picture with my phone and thought it was funny of Tyler so I had to share! The D-backs games are NOTHING compared to the Mariners, so dont worry we are still and will always be Mariners fans!

I think I am going to regret this.

Well,
This is could be my last will and testement.

I just signed up for the Whiskey 25 mountain bike race. 25 miles, back to back two thousand foot elevation gains...pain, agony...I'm scared. Attached you can take a look at the trail. This event is on May 13th, the weekend after is the last race of my normal race circuit...hopefully my legs will have recovered by then.

I am hoping to ride at least 20 miles a weekend every weekend until the race, with a couple of those 20 miles happening in one day. We will see!

If I survive, I am sure I will post another blog about how fun (aka. INCREDIBLE PAINFUL) the race was! Wish me luck...

HERE IS A LINK TO A LARGER FORMAT OF THE SAME MAP!

Spring Specials!

www.clairesjewelrystore.com
Each $34.99
Includes both Necklace and Earrings!

Arizona Mountain Bike Race Series

I got a few photos in the mail from the race photographer. I would rather not talk about how I am doing as far as my race times...but I am having a GOOD time! Here are photos from the first two races. Enjoy.

Clairesjewelrystore.com

Hey Everyone!
I would like to share that I finaly made my dream come true, by having my own handmade jewelry available online!! Please check out...

www.clairesjewelrystore.com

Let me know what you think!

Mr and Mrs Meadows!!

Candace and Tom got married Feb 25th at CLU. Enjoy the pics!

Summit of Mt. Ajo in souther Arizona

This past weekend while Claire was in L.A. enjoying a bachlorette party....I hiked.
I met up with a hiking club called Friends Hike Arizona. It is a really fun group of people, all ages, all skill levels that get together often and hike/ camp. The group I met was about 25 people and were out for a 2 night camp out and day hike to Mt. Ajo in the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument which borders Mexico.
This area of Arizona is known for it's amazing peaks, vast desert, and illegal immigrant border crossings...which would explain why there are more border patrol cars than anything else within the borders of this National Monument.
I picked up a guy who needed a ride on Friday in Phoenix, and made the 3 hour drive South through the towns of Gila Bend, Ajo, and Why, AZ. Yeah....the town name is seriously Why. Weird.
I threw my tent out under a nice Sauagro and enjoyed a crystal clear sky through the mesh roof of my tent as I feel asleep to the sound of the Coyotes. We woke up early on Saturday, had a nice breakfast at camp and drove down the road about 12 miles to the trail head. This is when I noticed what I had gotten into. From the parking lot, if you crain your head back to about 45 degrees....you are looking at the peak of Mt. Ajo, our destination. Good Lord...what have I gotten into.
The hike is only 3.5 miles to the top....I found out it was 3.5 miles pretty much straight up. It took me a little under 2 hours to summit the mountain, where I enjoyed a nice sandwich, checked out the military radio equipment on the summit and enjoyed the amazing views that allow you to see far into Mexico. They say that this peak is the only place in the state of Arizona that you can see the ocean from...our day was not clear enough, but they say it can be done. Time to head down....
Down might have been worse then up, because of how steep and loose the earth is. It's like walking down a 65 degree slope on marbles.
But I made it, and got a great workout in the process. Enjoy the photos.


Here is the view from the parking lot of the trail head. I made a red square around the summit to show you what I had to look forward to!You think that looks bad....check out the view from the summit looking back to the parking lot which I put a red square around....YIKES!!
Here is Kurt (the hike leader), Brian (the guy that road with me) and me in front of the Military radio gear that is perched a top the peak.
Here is one of an awesome arch with a cool rock sticking up on top. On the decent we stopped at this arch and where able to do a little rock climbing and actually get up inside the arch which is much larger than this photo shows. Hopefully I can get my hands on that photo as it was taken with someone elses camera...
And I will leave you with one last photo of me on the summit with my newly shaven head!!!

Claire got a new job!

That's right! I accepted a job offer from ISEC Inc. last night! It is about 2 miles from our house and my title is Marketing Coordinator. I am very excited to put my great Cal Lu education to work. My last day at my current job is Feb 3 th and my first day at ISEC is Feb 7 so wish me luck!
The company website is http://www.isecinc.com/

Which is your favorite??

1. side close up
2. Black and white photo
3. super up close
4. Candace and Tom Kissing