everyone knows i love my birthday. but this was the first year that pretty much all my friends here knew me for my birthday so i taught them early (maybe like a month beforehand) that i loved my birthday and wanted it to be amazing. they definitely pulled through, but i will save that for a later post.
my birthday week was full of flying, yogurtland, good food, good friends, and mario kart. i like to celebrate for as long as possible.
last month, danielle and i went to a dbacks game for fhe (ysa night, discounted tickets, heyo). i love baseball games, they are on my ‘places that make ahlin super happy always’ list. and it was fun to be with danielle because she loves them too and we both got into the game, especially since it was a close one.
obviously i need to get my self an az baseball cap to add to my small collection. go dbacks!
usually when people think of arizona, they think of the hot dry desert. to their credit, this is not very far off. but, a lot of arizona is very different than the desert.
first, gina, dad, and i took a day trip to a campsite out past show low at big lake for a mini family reunion. we met up with the aunts and uncles and ggg and even some distant cousins. it was so beautiful out there, it was well worth the drive. i even found a dog to be best friends with. huzzah.
i went with my friend jaron and some others out to roosevelt lake to go wakeboarding. this was my first time and it was amaaaazing. plus the water was gorgeous and felt so good. i want to get in the habit of visiting lakes.
for father’s day i went up to bagdad to visit my dad. it is much cooler up there than in the valley so it was a great break from the heat. plus it was fun to spend some time with my pops in his stomping grounds.
the last couple days of our east coast adventure were spent in the district. we stayed at the ritz-carlton (heyo, thanks renn) and ventured into the city for adventure time on saturday. we were able to hit a couple museums, as well as shake shack (moment of reverence for my very favorite burger in the world) and i got to see my favorite leslie ostler! what a treat. i could stay in dc forever but alas, i flew out the next day (mother’s day) heading back to the phx. until next time beast coast…
maud baby was so much fun to have on this trip. i love her so much i can’t even stand it. at one point she was babbling so much we just stopped and listened because it was so hilarious. needless to say, everyone was obsessed with her.
gina has been in virginia for the last four years and it is crazy to think how fast it went by. i am so proud of her and all the hard work she put into her schooling and art and scholarship. she is pretty amazing and it was so great to see the end results of her late nights in the studio.
that being said, i am so pumped she is back on this side of the country! just a short ten hour drive away.
yeah i’ve been wanting to use that phrase for a while so it’s happening now.
two months ago my mom, niki, baby maud, and i met up in dc and drove down to buena vista for gina’s graduation from southern virginia university.
the first day was pretty much just us playing around bv. it is a teeny tiny town and so beautiful. we rode bikes, went to a thrift store, and sat on the front porch for hours, enjoying each other and the view. sitting on the porch looking at the mountains and the green and feeling the humidity and reading johnny cash’s autobiography out loud to niki was one of my very favorite moments.
and the university campus is so beautiful! i couldn’t help but take a billion selfys in all the old worn out mirrors we passed.
