my happiest of places.

my favorite thing on earth is sharing the things that i love with people who haven't experienced them yet. for instance, making someone watch ever after when they've never even heard of it. or forcing someone to get lasagna fritta at olive garden when their tastebuds have yet to taste the best dish in the world.
so you can imagine that i was in my happiest of places when i got to share arizona with my favorite humans last weekend, and i was even happier when they fell in love with it almost instantaneously.

and that's why i don't even feel bad about the fact that i'm about to bombard you all with way too many pictures from our trip. i know that a majority of you don't know my friends and my roommates in person, but i like to think that showing moments like this, moments when we're all completely and utterly happy and together, gives you just a taste of how happy they all make me. 

started the morning off right by touring the gilbert temple. walking through that sealing room and knowing that there's a really really good chance that is where i'll be getting married hit me right in the heart. 

we headed downtown to the water tower plaza for the farmer's market. man, did that sun feel good on our limbs. and maybe i cried while there because i was just so dang happy and maybe i didn't. you'll never know.

of course we had to add lolo's on the 'eat'interary after mike threw a tiny little fit about it not making the original cut. and then it was off to tempe town lake to go longboarding. i would also like to point out that i already had tan lines by this point. holla, zona.

club can't even handle this group rn.

or this man who really wanted to be in our pictures.

perfection. (also known as the moment i realized i could ride a longboard and pull off a snapback.)

after the sun set, we gathered with all of my guy friends from high school and a bunch of alyssa's friends from high school, and we headed out to the desert for a giant desert bonfire.

no one's really sure why alyssa got a 2 minute #mikeswindle hug, but she definitely did.

on sunday we had to go back to the temple to get some roommate pictures, of course. and i'm willing to wager that there's not much that is happier than a roommate laughing picture in front of the temple.

apparently picking citrus off backyard trees is an arizona thing? the non-natives were amazed that we have oranges growing just right there!

we had a little paddle boating action after church on the lake in hannah's neighborhood.

after homemade pizza and games on sunday night (my go-to when i have to entertain), we drove out to my mom's school in the desert. brittney had seen videos of the school and fallen in love with it, so on her request, we went out to star gaze and see the desert tortoises.

we were all severely depressed monday morning as we set out to drive back to utah. we weren't even very upset that mike accidentally slept in and made us leave behind schedule, because it meant just that much more time in the sun at hannah's house. #swindlestruggles

(thanks to kells again for some of the pics.)

i think i'm finally getting over the arizona hangover but....take me back?
zona forever.

you can let the light in.

have i mentioned yet that everything is better in arizona? 

and that includes wearing your roommates' clothes and taking outfit pictures in the sun. 

thx to my kelli bb for the amazing pics.

sorry that i'm not quite over the zona hangover yet. it's slowly getting better, but i'm gonna ride this high right on in to my last zona post tomorrow. hopefully the sunlight in all these pictures (and the fact that i have a tan line right now) will be enough to convince you to visit that beautiful place.

p.s. i am meeting my blog besties this weekend and i am so ridiculously excited it's insane.
link up

how to: road trip

well guys, i'm finally back from my beautiful, warm, perfect arizona trip and i couldn't be more upset with utah at the moment. why you gotta be so boring and cold, utah? huh?

anyways, i have some fun pictures and better stories for you tomorrow, but i'm overloaded with work today so i have to make this one kind of quick. which brings me to.....




the best quotes of the road trip:
#204doesZona #onecrAZyweekend
k=kylie, h=hannah, a=ashley, l=lyss, b=brittney, m=matt, kel=kelli

"five minutes in and we're already looking at puppy pictures." -kel

"ke$ha is my road trip best friend." -k

"what frequency does this run on? what if i hacked into the government?" -m, about our walkie talkies

"wait, if he's going to be YOUR first kiss, he has to be MY first kiss!" -h

"if it doesn't have chocolate chips, it's not a granola bar." -m

"for some reason, i feel like that truck is part of sex trafficking." -h
"what did the driver look like?" -l
"he was very bearded." -b

"either hannah's pee spreaded or i peed too. the whole back seat is pee." -b

"coming to wendy's and not getting a frosty is like coming to earth and not getting a body." -m

"matt has now started referring to the cargo holders on top of cars as 'nap centers'" -kel

"he also thinks the hashtag for the weekend should be #weekend." -kel

"okay, this guy is really good at describing a man." -h, as luke bryan sings 'country man'

"it's so sinful i'm gonna die!" -h, as we passed through vegas. said in agnes' voice from despicable me

"GUYS. can we stop at the world's largest thermometer?" -b

"golden nugget?! that's where it all happens!" -h, reading signs on the strip

"and that was the last time we ever saw mike swindle..." -everyone, in so many different occasions

"i mean, i wouldn't mind getting pulled over and getting frisked by a police officer." -b

"wait, it's like really hard to get cop selfies!" -b

"i mean, if this is the end, i feel pretty good about my heaven vs. hell chances. like, we said a prayer before we left." -l
"yeah, and i've only said 'shit' once this whole trip." -k

"I'M GONNA SHOOT THE GAP!" -l, right before getting pulled over for an unsafe lane change

"guys, let's play the polygamist game. you have to pick 5 guys you want to marry and then order them and give them days of the week." -l
"BOB SAGET!" -b
"richard simmons! winston churchill!" -h
"bob ross! joseph stalin!" -b
"johnny bravo! LEONA LEWIS!" -b

"tim mcgraw will be my sunday husband. like, can you think of a better man to take your children to church with?" -k
"um...jesus?" -b

"oh my gosh, he is totally a thursday husband!" -h

"i just feel like by my third husband, i'll be ready for someone my own age, you know?" -k

"whoa whoa whoa. i think i just experienced what it's like to be on drugs. i think that car was flying." -h

"oh, i could NOT play the polygamist game if john krasinski were involved. he would be my every day husband." -k

"WAIT. you know what would be hell? playing the polygamist game with only your ex-boyfriends." -k

"oh, i dated a guy who looked a saguaro once." -l

"guys, if he's colonel cadbury, we are like the cream inside!"  -h, on the renaming of lyssa's car

"wait, i just came up with something: i'm smitten when a man purrs like a kitten." -h

"they went the wrong way again? yikes. #swindlestruggles." -h

"that should definitely not be a thing." -mike swindle, after we told him via walkie talkie about #swindlestruggles (spoiler alert: it's totally a thing now.)

"aw guys, we never heard my mom do the dolphin noise! ooh, we should call her. you'll think a dolphin is on the phone." -h

"so i think they need a navajo res horseback riding bachelor date." -a

"i've always wanted to watch all the star wars movies in a row. but i would prefer to do that with a boy." -k
"ooh, let's do that if we're 25 and still single." -l
"you know, most people decide to go on a vacation or something like that if they're not married by a certain age." -k
"it's okay. if we're both single at 25, we're going to marathon all the star wars movies." -l

"MORE ROCKS SHOULD BE PURPLE." -k
"purple mountains majesty, y'all." -l

"wait, like why am i not a twangy male country singer?" -k

"guys, this is like my element. i just wanna go out and be a wilder-woman!" -b

"we're at the point in the road trip where we just need to be at disneyland." -l

"i'm safe! it's because i ate the immunity berry!" -b, in one of her accents again

"there's never anyone fishing or swimming or anything. the virgin river just doesn't look like it gets very much action. WAIT." -k

"so many songs about bovine."  -l, after i started singing this song


so the big 'how to'? just travel with your friends, and a 10-hour car ride will go by in a breeze. you might even laugh so hard that the driver has to calm down so she doesn't swerve in between lanes and get us in a laughter-induced car wreck.

oh, and why am i back in utah again? ugh.

totally posted

where our roots have grown so deep.

this post is my centennial birthday gift to my favorite state.

the kids i nanny wanted to go outside today and i had to say no, because at 9 in the morning it was already over 100 degrees.
then i went to the outdoor mall and discovered, regrettably, that i am not quite tall enough to really benefit from the misters.
then my dad came home after a 12 hour shift in the heat and fell asleep immediately, because that's just what the arizona heat will do to you.

so i guess the middle of the summer isn't exactly the best time to explain why i'm in love with gilbert, arizona, is it?
but after 19 summers here....i still can't get enough.

i love arizona because we make food with prickly pear cactus fruit.
and because we have an indigenous lizard called a gila monster that no one else knows about.

i love arizona because we have desert mountains with tall saguaros and bushy chollas.
and because we have sunsets that show every color of the rainbow.

i love arizona because we have food straight from mexico.
and because the more sketchy the restaurant looks, the better the food will taste.

i love arizona because we learn about our state geography in elementary school.
and because we grow up on country music.

i love arizona because we have cities, small towns, and my own little gilbert, which is right in between.
and because i rarely go to the store without seeing someone i know.

i love arizona because when people come here, they come back again and again.
and those born here love to stay.

i love arizona because it is my home.
and because it always will be.

[oh and don't worry, i only stepped on 5 pokey cactus sheddings
in the process of taking these pictures.]