Spring break done sprung

Friday March 11

After work in the morning I drove to Casa Grande to meet up with my mom, Kenzie and Avery to pick McKenzie up for her to spend the weekend in Tucson.

She is weighing her options about what to do after she graduates, and obviously being a Richardson going to the UofA is an option for her. So she wanted to spend the weekend in Tucson to test the waters. 

While we were in Casa Grande my mom took us to lunch at Cane's. She had never been there before and just impulsively ordered 25 chicken fingers for the four of us to share.... that's a lot of chicken fingers.... we were treated like royalty... and got lots of leftovers.

Unfortunately the weekend that McKenzie decided to come to Tucson was the weekend before Spring Break so Tucson was really quite barren... so we didn't do too much. I did have to do some things around campus so she got to meet one of my institute teachers, check out the journalism school and the newsroom... really nothing exhilarating haha. 

Kenzie and I did some shopping while she was there. We were planning on taking her senior pictures so obviously she needed a new outfit. Unfortunately we didn't find anything all that great so she just ended up borrowing some of my clothes for the pictures... I think it was part of her plan all along haha just kidding.

We also watched the heart attack game against Oregon. I hate over-time... but I am very happy we got it to over-time, that's the way to go down in my opinion.

Saturday March 12 

I made Kenzie wake up bright and early to take pictures to get the best light.... and to avoid the huge crowds that would come throughout the day because of the festival of books.

We did two sessions of photos, one in the morning with U of A clothes (even though she still hasn't committed) and then one in the early evening with cuter clothes. 

So here are some from the morning:

After the morning pictures Kenzie, Rory and I went to IHOP for some breakfast and then Kenzie and I went to explore the Tucson Festival of Books. Since the festival is always the weekend before Spring Break I always leave before it starts, so this was actually the first time that I attended the event. I also had to do a broadcasting project while I was there, so I was killing two birds with one stone.

Eventually it was time for the evening pictures:

After taking the pictures, we picked out some good ones, edited them and then picked out the best ones.
Rory, Kenzie and I then went to dinner at BJ's and contemplated leaving that night. But I was pretty exhausted and it was late so we decided to leave to Mesa on Sunday instead.

Sunday March 13

We left in the morning to make our way back to Mesa. 

When we arrived, we hung out for a little bit waiting for everyone to get home from church. Then we went to Granny & Master's house/trailer for some steak lunch and for some swimming. Avery has been taking swim lessons for a couple months and has become quite the swimmer. Last summer she was terrified of swimming out even with floaties on, so it's fun to see her swim on her own without floaties. 

After hanging out in the San Tan Valley we made our way back to Mesa and I went over to Zach's house. Sadie and Trev came too for a good old fam game night. We played scattergories, which I had surprisingly never played before. We also played Phase 10, but discovered that our bad sides come out too much during that game so it's best that we play other games from now on... hahaha.

Monday March 14

I just discovered that a Kneaders was built near my house so it was a necessity to go there as soon as possible. I went with Zach for lunch on Monday, but they accidentally gave our order away to someone else, so we ended up waiting half an hour for a sandwich and a piece of pie... it was ridiculous... but still delicious.

Zach and I also went to go see Zootopia, I just can't get enough of this movie, it's just too dang good.

For FHE Avery taught the family about Jesus and played a game where someone hummed a song about Jesus and we all had to guess what they were humming. And since it's March we also spent time filling out our brackets and drinking shamrock shakes! A classic Richardson family home evening.

Afterwards Zach and I went back to his house to play games with Jonah, Scitt, and his friend Rebecca. We played Scattergories and Liar's Dice... two games that do not make you hate everyone by the end of it haha.

Tuesday March 15

Zach and I hung out with my mom and Avery in the morning. We went to the riparian reserve by the library, played around, looked at some ducks and some turtles, and cooled down in the library. 

Avery was pretty cranky and hungry so we didn't last all that long there before we decided to go to Dairy Queen for some lunch and a treat.

There was a little bit of a meltdown at DQ when Avery got a crazy bloody nose... seriously blood everywhere... but she was a trooper, we got it all cleaned up and then dwelled on it for the rest of forever as most 5 years olds would.

Later Zach and I went to his house and watched the finale of the Bachelor. I haven't been watching all season, but you don't really have to watch the whole season to understand what's happening in the final episode. I was pretty bummed that JoJo didn't win... during the never ending finale she became my favorite. Who knows, maybe I will watch the next season of the Bachelorette. 

Wednesday March 16

Rory, Zach and I decided to ditch Mesa for a day and go party in Sedona. 

We went and hiked Devil's Bridge, a very popular hike in Sedona which I had never done before. It's really not a difficult hike... that is of course unless you are hiking with Rory. Getting to the base of the bridge wasn't difficult.... we were just really confused on how we were supposed to get to the top.

We didn't follow the rest of the crowd which would have lead us to the trail that took us to the top of the bridge. Instead Rory decided that climbing up the slot between the bridge and the mountain is the way to get up there... it wasn't... but it was an interesting adventure... that's for sure.

Once we made it up and down the slot we finally found the normal trail up to the top of the bridge. It looks a lot more terrifying looking at it, but when we were actually on the bridge it wasn't terrifying at all.

After the Devil's Bridge adventure we ate some lunch at a pizza joint in Sedona, then we went to go wash off at Slide Rock. 

I love Slide Rock so much... my favorite place in Sedona by far. Unfortunately I always go when the water is still freezing so I have never gotten up the nerve to actually swim in the water, but one of these days I will.

I always stop at slide rock whenever I come to Sedona and I always recreate a picture I took in 2013 when Sadie and I ditched school to come here:

After spending some time at Slide Rock we drove up to Flagstaff for an early dinner. One of Rory and my's coworkers suggested a Mexican restaurant, and it was delicious... even though they messed up my quesadilla order, but it's okay because they gave me a discount for the inconvenience.

After eating we made our way back to Mesa, and called it a night!

Thursday March 17

St Patty's day: A very big deal in the Richardson household. The leprechauns wreaked havoc in our house once again, and our traps failed to trap them. Avery was actually really terrified of the leprechauns and was very upset by some of the things they did to our house. 

Throughout the day we kept making traps and trying to catch the leprechauns. We were unsuccessful this year but they did leave us quite a bit of "gold" aka reese's and twix.

Since the Arizona primary is this upcoming Tuesday and I am registered in Maricopa County, Rory and I decided that instead of driving up to Mesa to vote we would just go and vote early while we were here, and so we did. Get out and vote people!

As you may remember from an earlier post the Blood Orange Ginger Lemonade is back at Cafe Rio, so Zach took me over there for lunch so I could reunite with heaven, and it was just as good as I remembered it being. 

Later in the evening Granny & Master came over for a classic Irish dinner, and by Irish dinner I mean not an Irish dinner at all. It consisted of: stew (which is actually irish), pierogi (which are Ukrainian, but involve potatos so I decided to make the exception), bread, cream soda and fruit skewers (representing a rainbow).

After the dinner was a tough time for me. Arizona vs. Wichita State in the first round of the NCAA tournament.... it was heart breaking and horrible and hard to watch.... and seeing York and Zews crying just broke my heart. Wichita State really deserved it with the way they were playing, but doesn't make it any less sad. Oh and my brackets are done for.

After the game and waiting for some photos to post up online, Zach and I went to go meet up with my mom and Kenzie to see Allegiant. I really liked the movie, but apparently it was nothing like the book, so maybe if I had read the book I would have a different opinion. I haven't read any of the books in the Divergent series and so I have been watching the movies objectively, and overall I think they did the movies really well. My mother, on the other hand who has read the books, has some less positive opinions about them. OH WELL.

Friday March 18

I failed to mention this earlier, but my family has recently become obsessed with Grease Live! and over the break I think I watched it at least 20 times... not even exaggerating. But I don't really mind. Grease was my favorite movie when I was a kid and so it's pretty cool to see how much Avery loves this updated version.

So I spent the morning watching Grease Live! with my family and then watching everyone's favorite scenes after we finished the whole thing. 

Eventually Zach got off work and we went to go get lunch at chick fil a and hung out for a little bit before he had to go back to work.

Sadie got back from her cruise on Friday so we had a fam party once everyone got off work... at 10 pm. We decided to go to Dave & Busters, and it was a grand old time as usual. I found myself addicted to the game where you try to knock off the coins once again, I didn't cash in quite as hard with that game as I did last time, but still did pretty well. Zach played a ball drop game and landed in the jackpot on the first try... so he is crazy... but he won us 400 tickets so I'm not complaining haha. Instead of cashing in on mediocre prizes with our tickets we decided to buy some appetizers with them instead, and that was the right move. 

Saturday March 19

Since I had been hanging out with Zach all week he didn't work on his talk that he had to give on Sunday really at all. So when I went over to his house on Saturday morning I made him write his talk while I played Mario Party with Scitt. After Zach was pretty much done with the talk we went to lunch at Chipotle and to Bahama Bucks afterward. 

Saturday night I hung out with Sadie! We were planning on going to see the Easter Pageant... but of course this was the one night that was in Spanish... so that plan failed. So instead we went to San Tan to go shopping, tried to get some gelato at frost but failed because the line was too long, got some shakes at Chick fil A and then went to Discovery Park to rollerblade... I haven't roller bladed since before Sadie's mission so I was a bit rusty, but it's all good it was still a blast. We got to talking a lot about life... and how freaking terrifying it is and unknown and crazy... but even though life is so unpredictable and I never know where it's going to take me, I'm happy I've always got Sadie by my side no matter what! She's the bomb.com.

OH ALSO ON SATURDAY I found out that my roommates Annabeth and Jordan got engaged.... two days before I found out! I'm so excited for them! (And no Jordan isn't actually my roommate, he just is at my house more than I am, so I think we should start making him pay rent... haha just kidding).

Sunday March 20

Since Tom was still in Honk Kong I had to work at the Wildcat at 12, so I had to leave Mesa in the morning... no fun. Luckily work wasn't all the stressful except waiting for Tom to give me to a photo... lol just kidding Tom, it was okay. 

I feel like Spring Break is supposed to refresh you to be able to take on the rest of the school year... I feel so not refreshed... But I hope this second half goes by just as fast (if not faster) than the first half did.