Thanksgiving Break Festivities

It's been such an awesome break and definitely a much needed one. So many fun adventures happened so I'm going to have to go through each day indiviudally to make sure I hit every point.

Wednesday
Since I am such an amazing student, I did not ditch my classes just to go home earlier… honestly I was kind of tempted to, but it was all worth it when in every single one of my classes I got extra credit just for coming the day before Thanksgiving, totally worth it. I also found out half way through my day that my last class was cancelled so that was nice having at least one class cancelled.
After school and after Taylor got off work, we made our way to Mesa! Taylor had an early flight to Utah on Thanksgiving at the airport that is 7 minutes from my house so he just spent the night to save money for hotel/parking and to party with the Richardsons! If any of you were curious to how a roadtrip with me and Taylor would work, it would be something similar to roadtrips of Ted and Marshall in How I Met Your Mother… but instead of tantrum we drank mountain dew.

And yes, we did listen to The Proclaimers

Taylor was kind of going crazy because we were stuck in traffic when the tip off of the Arizona V Drexel happened, once we got off the 10 we were hurrying home, luckily Taylors car is super nice and you don't even realize how fast you are going because of how smooth the ride is (that comment was for you Taylor). Once we got to my house my awesome mother already had dinner ready for us and of course it was delicious. Whilst/after eating dinner my dad and Taylor watched the game intensely but of course it was a Wildcat win. 

Also during the game Taylor and Avery became best friends again.

After the game Taylor and I went to hang out with our BFF Steph Luc. Our adventure started out at Starbucks because Taylor is secretly a typical white girl on the inside. It was seriously a class reunion at starbucks, all kinds of people from my graduating class were there. It's nice to see they are doing well at al their different schools and ways of life.

Then we made our way over to the Gilbert Temple where another side of Taylors white girl came out… we took A LOT of selfies in front of the temple… it was a real struggle to get al three of us and the temple into one picture. 

This was the best we could do. 

Aftwerwards we went to Discovery Park where we played on the swings and reinacted scenes from the titanic… isn't that what everyone does at parks?

We then went to the oh so mysterious house of Steph Luc where we took family photos.

I know, we are adorable.

Eventually we made it back to my house playes Just Dance both standing up and sitting down, watched some Reccess and then the night ended… at least for me.

Thursday

On Thanksgiving day, my family went to my Aunt and Uncles house for Thanksgiving "dinner" ( put that in quotations because it's really lunch). Now this side of the family bleed the wrong colours… they bleed maroon and gold… so in order to save their souls my parents and siblings and I wear sport our U of A gear. So far we have only converted my cousin Brendan, the others are a work in progress.

Frankly, I am not a big fan of Thanksgiving food… I'd much rather eat hot wings… but I do love Thanksgiving as it is a time set specifically aside to think about what I am thankful for in my life. Here are ten things that I very thankful for in my life:

1. My crazy and weird family, both immediate and extended. But especially my siblings who I've grown to appreciate more since I see them a lot less.
2. All my friends in Mesa who didn't shun me because I'm a wildcat
1.  Especially the family: Sadie, Zachary, Trevor, Jacob, Keaton and Parker!
3. My new friends in Tucson who have made Tucson feel like home
1. Especially, Steph S, Lauren, Annabeth, Taylor, Natalie & Steph L
4. The oppurtunity to get an education at the greatest University in America
5. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints which is the foundation of the happiness in my life, even though I can be real stubborn about things. 
6. Netflix which allows me to waste my minutes, hours and days streaming my favorite TV shows
7. Mountain dew in all of its addictive deliciousness
8. The students that I work with that never fail to make my days brighter 
9. All the moms in my life who read my blog that are so caring and absolutely amazing!
10. The freedom I have to make all the stupid choices I want and choose the way I want my life to go

So if any of you know my Mom at all know you know that Black Friday is a big part of her life… If there was one thing that she gets excited for, it's black friday. Unfortunately black friday has turned into gray thursday, but that does not cease my mothers excitement. We started off our gray thursday/black friday adventures at wal mart at 5 o'clock waiting in line to get various things. At wal mart I saw Zachary and Jacob which just about made my whole night. Then we made our way to Michaels to drop my mom off so EJ and I could wait in line at target… but that line was a little too much for us so we headed over to Chandler mall instead to hit up all the deals that started at 8. Tons of shopping got done and many things were crossed off the Christmas lists… Once we got through all the pre-midnight stores we went to target.

Friday 

So midnight rolls around and we are back at the mall to hit up all the sales that started at midnight. Midnight is when all the real madness happens… Last years craziness trying to get into H&M sufficed for me so I didn't stand in line at any stores, instead I watched from above as Victoria Secret opened and the massive crowd of people tried to pile into the store… It's nice every once in awhile to get the birds eye view of black friday instead of being in the crowd.

After the mall we went to Old Navy, that line was riduclous, but luckily my mother is a card holder so we got a fast pass. 

Then around 2 in the morning I was drained so we went home to go and sleep. My mother and EJ are real troopers because they woke up to do the 8 AM shopping… I couldn't of handled that.

I took the oppurtunity to sleep in Friday morning and then I went to hang out with Keaton. We went on many adventures including going to bahama bucks, driving to his middle of nowhere house, going to taco bell, picking up Jacob, feeding ducks, playing frisbee, hardcore parkouring, eating chipotle and going to parks to swing on swings.

Then 6:00 rolled around and we began to pick all sorts of people to go see the Temple Lights. Even though the lights never really change, I always try to go to the temple lights at least once during the time they are open and I am so happy I got to go this year with my best friends.

If only Trevor wasn't working and we could've had the whole fam there.

But have no fear Trev did join us later after he got off work and we watched Tommy Boy.

Zach's mom made a comment while we were at her house about how we were all on our phones together. We spent at least half and hour snapchatting each other pictures of each other… it's funny how we call this socializing and that it entertains us so much.

Saturday

During the day, nothing special really happened besides the errand adventure my sisters and I went on for my parents… they really are lucky I love to drive and run errands for them so much, and that I am willing to take my sisters (especially Avery) with me. You see, Avery loves to be in control of the cart… unfortunately she is three years old and cannot see over the cart let alone push it in a straight line… so it's definitely a task to make her believe she is controlling the cart while you are the one really controlling it. Eventually she will give up though and just want to sit inside the cart...

Apparently McKenzie likes to sit in the cart as well.

The errand we had to run for my father was to get a big bag of swedish fish for his primary class… I don't know why but apparently black friday shoppers love giant bags of swedish fish so there as only one left and it was on the very top shelf at the very back of the shelf… Unfortunately my sisters and I do not have the tall genes in our family so we had to do what was pictured above and we successfully got my father his swedish fish.

Saturday night wasn't really a good night for me or any other Wildcat fan, so I won't speak of the game. But I did get to hang out with my friend/husband Jaxon, he is quite the character and a lot of fun to be around, even though he was cheering for ASwho. But he is a trouper for dealing with McKenzies neediness of Starbucks and the million rounds of hide and go seek with Avery.

He always tries to be the most photogenic person in the room, can't you tell?

Sunday

And now it is Sunday. I was very tempted to not go to church because of all the grief I would get about the game the night before… but I sucked it up and went anyway… and yes I did get a ton of grief… All the moms came up to me sincerely asking me how I was doing while all their husbands were more concerned with asking how I felt watching the game… I really do love all my second moms in my home ward. The rest of the day has been very relaxing watching various Christmas movies and eating perogies! Now I am just waiting for my brother to get home so I can head back to reality in Tucson.

It's been such an awesome and MUCH needed Thanksgiving break. I am ready for school to be over with so I can come back to Mesa, and provide everyone with free dougnuts when I go back to work at Krispy Kreme! I am also ready for my brother Rory to come home in 17 days, it will certainly be nice to have the entire Richardson clan together again.

I will leave this blog with my new favorite youtube video from Kid President