Arboretums and Mountains

This weekend was one for the books. Lots of driving, lots of picture taking, lots of laughing and of course a whole lot of dancing. My kind of weekend.

On Friday night Abby, Zach and I made our way up to the valley to prepare for our early adventure the next day. We met up with Andrew, I drooled over Camila (when do I not, yknow) and made everyone watch "Never Be the Same" videos non-stop, and then drooled over In-N-Out, and just chilled. Our early morning Saturday adventure was taking Kenzie & Keaton out to Superior for a photo shoot. Keaton and I made a deal earlier that they could model for me and they would get free photos (cause they're gorgeous, and you need to keep up your presence on the 'gram). I invited Abby to come along for the party as well so I could learn from her techniques and so that she could get some pretty photos too (we also needed pictures of each other with our cameras, so that happened too). Earlier in the week I found a picture of a bridge on Pinterest, and I tracked the bridge down to be a Boyce Thompson Arboretum and I wasn't going to be stopped. I needed to go there. So our plan was to pick Kenzie & Keaton up at 6:40 so that we could get to Boyce for the sunrise. We had a little difficulty getting one of party animals to wake up, but even though our plan was delayed it worked out way better because the Arboretum didn't even open until 8. And we lucked out hard since it was so cloudy, we really didn't need to be there at sunrise to get good lighting. Clouds are bae when it comes to photographing during the day.
If y'all haven't been to the Arboretum, you have to go. IT'S SO BEAUTIFUL EVERYWHERE. And as a bonus UA students get a discount (will I ever stop using my CatCard to get students discounts? probs not). Kenzie is pretty much a professional when it comes to photo shoots and is very comfortable in front of the camera, and that made it a lot easier for Keaton too. They're kind of the cutest, so much fun and they kept up with me and Abby no problem! The most important part was that we found my suspension bridge, and the hike to the bridge was not nearly as long as I thought it was going to be.
We all need to appreciate Zach for capturing everything behind the scenes:

And now for some of my favorite shots:

Zach is the best pack mule

And Abby gave me my new fav photo:

After a couple hours shooting we quickly went into Superior to visit the world's smallest museum (Superior's #1 tourist trap):

Then we made our way back to Mesa. We dropped Kenzie & Keaton off then we went to Zach's house for a hot second, picked up Andrew, packed up all our stuff at my house, ran to Jordyn's house to pick up a dress and then went to lunch at Floridino's for those heavenly pizza muffins. After lunch the four of us made our way back to Tucson.
We spent most of the afternoon just chilling at 1320 and editing photos from the morning, but in the evening the four of us went to the institute dance (and this time it was indeed an institute dance not a YSA one haha). I feel like I haven't had a good dance party since mine and Zach's wedding, and this dance filled the void a little bit. It was nice to see some of my college friends and institute teachers that I don't get to see at all because I never go to the institute anymore (duh, I work all the live long day).
Eventually we made our exit and tried to watch Footloose at Abby's but it was a fail and everyone was pretty tired so we just called it a night.

Have I blogged about how I am a primary teacher now? I am trying to not broadcast every. single. detail. of my life anymore, so I am bringing down the blogging a little bit... but every now and then I am just going to have to do it. ANYWAY, I am a primary teacher and I teach the cutest 5 years olds. I have one girl in my class who called my Sister Angel Sunshine because I don't have a middle name (logical). My teaching companion was one of my Dad's students in seminary, so crazy! I always meet people who have had him for institute, but a seminary student is a rare occasion, so it felt pretty special. This past Sunday was tough because neither of us brought treats and that was a struggle for the kids, but they survived and so did we.
After church Zach and I went with Abby, Brittany & Andrew up Mt Lemmon. As you all probably know we got hit with a cold front pretty hard this past weekend, which meant a lot of rain in the valley and a lot of snow up on the mountain, so we had to make a trip. Abby & Brittany and the whole Tucson gang had gone up on MLK day, but I was working so I couldn't join them and now there was more snow so another trip was sort of necessary. IT WAS SO DANG COLD! Our car was so warm riding up the mountain and the second the door opened it was like so cool and nice and then two seconds later the snot in your nose has frozen over and you can't feel your ears. I LOVE IT! We hiked a little bit and found an excellent patch of snow and let the fun begin.
There are many great things about having Abby as a friend, but near the top of the list is that she is a rockstar photographer who will take pictures of me and I can take pictures of her (photog probs, never making it in the photo). So of course we needed some good ol' couples pics, and best of all 5th wheel Brittany pics (she is single guys and probably the greatest human, if you need her number let me know).

Do you see how good Brittany is at sliding down hills with me? What more could you want from a woman?

Look at the way the little snowflakes just rest on her hair like it's a pillow. Imagine your face resting on that pillow. That's magic.

Imagine yourself in this photo

I know this looks like a gust of wind and snow but this is actually Brittany ever so lightly throwing snow in the air for special effects. She is just a homie y'know?

I think this picture just says it all, I don't need to convince you anymore

Eventually we were all just a little too cold so we decided to make our way back down the mountain, then not too long after that I journeyed with Andrew & Jenny back to Phoenix. The conversations with these two are always the best, and the weirdest? And usually turns into TMI. But I love these car rides.

Now it my half week working in Mesa. I am loving only working every other week now, I feel like I get so much more time with Zach and my friends and Tucson in general. Zach and I are actually going to start decorating our house soon people now that life has started to calm down (sort of) so STAY TUNED!