One thing I love about Arizona: after an almost-literally-endless spell of blazing hot sunshine, suddenly the sky will melt and you can dance around in the pouring rain.  When the monsoon season comes the raindrops and fat and warm and the horizon-splittings cracks of lightning are awe-inspiring.
This June I feel like no moment goes wasted. One day while restaurant-hopping with our combined gift cards, Dallin and I were playing the question game and he asked me what's my favorite trait about myself.  Obviously that's a weird one to think about, but I'll admit that I like my own ability to keep myself constantly busy with something worthwhile.  Some of the fun things this summer:

• practicing for my future career by redesigning my blog {I don't love the current look but at least I'm exercising my creative juices/learning HTML coding} and meeting up with a graphic designer
• wrestling with the kids & also the pups  
•  going to the gym with Adam and Kale to do some backhand-springs for the first time in months, climb the rope, do handstands on the beam, swing on the bars, and making my traps kill for days by holding myself upside down on the rings
• dates walking around Downtown Gilbert and Tempe, reading at Barnes and Noble, getting free donuts and trying on/picking out ridiculous outfits at Dillards
• drawing in church and going to Relief Society for the first time {I feel out of place}
• making fun foods with the kids like churro waffles and banana bread pancakes
• Rachel and I dividing our closet for when I go to college {we had dreaded this for years, thinking it would be a blood bath, but it was actually quite civil}
• Insidious movie marathons and seeing Jurassic World in 3-D with recliner chairs
• a few short-lived days of a workout schedule getting up early for a half hour of jogging in nature, fifteen minutes of like pushups/squats/situps/etc and finally fifteen minutes of stretching.   It felt great when I did it but unfortunately I'm so much of a night owl I've been ashamedly staying up till 2-3 and sleeping till 11, and then it's too hot to workout past 8.
• trying to figure out stick shift
• visiting Tuscon/Oro Valley to see where I was born
• singing in the car with pop-star voice Adyson and the boys
• Boggle with grandparents 

 Yesterday I woke up super stressed out because it hit me that I'm leaving for college a mere two weeks after West Coast trip, and even sooner than that my best friend in the whole world is going to be leaving for Chicago to serve his mission {as we found out a week ago}.  I guess I'm scared of the future.  What if I don't know how to juggle money? What if I choose the wrong career?  What if I'm unable to travel?  What if I am so stuck in the past that I forgo the perfect opportunity, or what if the perfect opportunity was in the past and I give it up because of impatience?
For now, I'm going to enjoy this vacation and the last precious weeks I have left with my family.

Less then 24 hours after throwing my cap in the air, I was in the car on my way to northern AZ with Dallin, his parents, his stepbrother Cooper, Adyson, Dallin's friend Braden, and Cooper's buds Ryan and Porter.  Alright, so maybe we didn't get there till very late at night, but despite Dallin's truck breaking down, his parent's car getting pulled over on the way to picking up a rental truck, and then Dallin getting pulled over for following his dad too closely when we were finally back on our way... everyone was in a good humor and it was easy to predict this trip would be a blast.    The house was a beautiful Spanish-style two story with an elevator, four bedrooms, two-and-a-half kitchens, luxury bathrooms, fantastic TV/lighting/vocal communication systems and a balcony with the most gorgeous view I've ever seen from a house. Us grads had had less than a wink of sleep in the past two days, but we we figured why not and pushed off our rest off even longer by dipping in the jet hot tub {and ended up doing so every night}.
Maybe it's because I don't think I'll ever be living in AZ again, but the closer I get to leaving the more I realize just how beautiful my home state is.

  There is something so relaxing about spending a day on the boat with the penetrating sunshine and the soft roar of water.  Ok, so it was cloudy much of the time, and on our first day out it started pouring. It was absolutely freezing so all the teens huddled on the floor of the boat with our combined body heat and wet towels for warmth. We all learned how to wake surf,  although I'm ashamed of myself for losing my touch on the wake board after so many years. Sometimes when the boat's tanks weren't filled properly, the boat would jump on every tiny wave, and we would stand as high as we dared on our knees or even brave standing fully on the seat while holding on.  When the song on the stereo gave off the perfect vibe {like Gasolina}, we would have a dance party.
  Ryan and Porter gave Adyson the "friend zone tap" but apparently graduating the day before put me in the "mom zone."  I'm not kidding, Dallin and I started responding to Mom and Dad.  {Why should I be surprised when the church gave me chocolate for Mother's Day?}
We also learned that if Dallin says it's time to get gas then it's definitely time to get gas.  Otherwise, you'll probably run out and have to stop a houseboat.

"SEPARATE THE SADNESS!" aka keep the couples apart for the picture hahaha.


It was so hard to leave.  Although perhaps a little sunburnt and embarrassed from the occasional awkward moment, I'd had an absolute party of a trip.

The convertiple top was down and the radio blaring.  After a quick run home to change out of my cap and gown and darken my makeup, I was on my way to the party at the ranch where hundreds of kids from around the valley had flocked to celebrate.    Oh, freedom!  With the completion of fifteen years of school, it was wild just how the confidence and elation and LIVELINESS cascaded through my veins with every last heartbeat.
  Alright, so maybe showing up a lone girl at a party isn't the best idea in the world.  {I had people to meet up with, but almost all of them wanted to stay outside the crowd and what's the fun in that? Fortunately there was a period during which I was able to dance around with some more adventurous aquaintances.} Although I dealt with some random guys stroking my hair and others responding with "he'll never know" when I told them I couldn't kiss their friend cause I'm in a relationship, I will never get over the thrill of it all.  The drowning music, the blinding lights, the closeness, the heat-- it makes the good young life seem suspended in time.   I love being petite because it means, no matter how crushingly tight the crowd is, I can always slide my way through to the heart of the action.
  When that ended at 1, I headed out the other side of town where Dallin wanted to meet me for bowling, since my school's lockin had been cancelled.  Unfortunately, the Mountain View officials still felt the rivalry too strong for a Highland alumni to join in on the fun.  Instead, I switched my skirt into shorts and met up with a group to play glow-in-the-dark frisby.
    Not even an ounce of tiredness tainted my energy.  Maybe we could thank the sugary drinks, or maybe we could just thank the fact that, for the first time in my life, I didn't have a curfew and I was so pumped to start off my young adult life.  The lot of us drove up north to the desert and cuddled in the bed of the pickup truck and waited for the sun to come up. When there was just enough light, Dallin ran and I walked to the top of a hill {I tried to run but it my party legs gave out} where we watched the best of the dawn over the Arizona wilderness.
  I didn't get home until a little before 7, but at that point I figured I might as well eat breakfast and check some things off my packing list at Walmart.  Finally, I went to bed at 9 and slept for but a few very short hours before the real adventure started that afternoon at Lake Powell.