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.