AUGUST FIRST IS NATIONAL GIRLFRIEND'S DAY!

my friends are the absolute best. sometimes they appear in my posts, but i never really say how much they mean to me. we tell each other almost everything, and do almost everything together. when I found out oscar insurance was spreading the word about the CDC's national girlfriends day on august 1st and the importance of keeping each other accountable for our health, i totally wanted to help out. 

 jam jam jam. i think it was justin beiber. 

during my freshman year of high school, i joined the cross country team. the friends that i made and i are still running and love to stay active. just the other day, my friend ceci shared an amazing peanut butter raspberry smoothie recipe with me. (i'll be sharing it with you, soon!) it's the small things that help all of us stay healthy!

oscar insurance is taking a whole new approach to healthcare by integrating technology and creating an easy experience for their customers, allowing them to keep a tab on their health 24/7. they've kindly put together a chart (above) detailing all the important checkups, appointments, and screenings you should have in each stage of your life! each small step makes a difference, and can even save lives! If you want to find out some more information on them, check out they new jersey and new york health insurance plans. cheers to a healthy future for you and your gals, and don't forget about national girlfriend's day! -m

HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY AMERICA!

yes i am fully aware that today is the 12th of july and that fourth of july was last week. that's why the title says happy belated birthday.  we celebrated the fourth for almost an entire week, and it was like a huge extended (really extended) family reunion. plus having no computer access or internet made it a bit harder to share our weekend with all of you! but here i am, and get ready, because there are pictures AND a video. bam!

each year at my lake house, the campground next door always hosts a fourth of july parade where people decorate golf carts, bikes, floats, scooters - if it has wheels, it's there.  we decorate two golf carts and not to brag but, we've won three years in a row. yeah, you're dealing with pretty much royalty.

my cousin has the prettiest eyes!

this year we started a new tradition of having a big family picnic on all the big lake holidays (think memorial day, the fourth, labor day, etc.) it's one of the best parts of the holiday.

i'm so lucky to call all these people my family. they are the absolute best. 

chocolate sodas date back to my great aunt - and even farther. i'll hopefully snag the recipe to share with you guys soon!

to finish off the night, we set the shutter speed and ISO low, lit some sparklers, and got some amazing pictures! i hope you all had a great independence day weekend, and happy belated birthday america!

ARIZONA | PART ONE

here it is! after two weeks, i finally got our spring break trip recap up! i can't wait to share everything with you, and i've broken it up into two parts because it's reeaallly long. so, here's part one!

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i suppose i should start at the beginning. we set our alarms for 4:30 am on saturday, march 28 so we could catch our plane at 6:05 am sharp. me, being the nervous hypochondriac freak that i can be almost had a panic attack on the plane because i had'nt flown in three years. i'm not even claustrophobic! i'm a lot of things, but not that. anyway, i calmed my sh*t down and we got on our way. during the perfect sunrise, i might add. 

we landed safe + sound in AZ, hopped off the plane, onto a shuttle, and into a rental car, bound for our hotel. we stayed at the hyatt at gainey ranch in scottsdale. SO BEAUTIFUL. on the way there, i was taking pictures of every succulent/cactus i saw. which was a lot. with the occasional portrait of my sister. ^^

once at the resort, we headed straight to the pool to test out the new go pro we bought a few weeks ago! needless to say, the pool was amazing (as they usually are in AZ, having no beach) and the weather was perfect every day!

the hotel also had the prettiest/coolest/artsiest balconies overlooking the hot tub and pools with bougainvillea draped over every wall. gimme all the floral walls.  

cactus candy. have you had some? no? buy some. 

because of all the cacti and flowers and awesomeness, there were a lot of spontaneous photoshoots. lots. of. them. people. 

like this one of our tattoos. (similar here, here, and here!)

this picture makes me heart eye + dancing girls emoji. ^^

or like this one during sunset. actually this one had a reason - it's a part of an upcoming DIY, so stay tuned my friends.

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to change the subject, one of our favorite restaurants we went to during the first part of our trip was blanco tacos. really, really good tacos.

they had a whole wall of jarritos - only the best mexican soda ever created.

we also went to starbucks, because we are a basic white family. and we rode bikes. and recorded it with the go pro. so yeah. very basic. in our defense, we were going to climb camelback mountain, but then the hotel staff yelled at us because it was 2 pm and the sun was at it's peak and we how could we be so dumb and you should probably reschedule. so we waited until the next morning, and boy were they right. if we would have gone at 2 in the afternoon, i think i would've vaporized into thin air.

 waiting for the hiking shuttle. ^^

before we even set out on our hiking adventure, i was already dripping sweat. boy is that arizona sun hot. but the views made up for the insane heat.

 and so did the cacti.

 once we finally made it to the top, we stopped to rest for about a half hour. it was sooooo pretty up there. these are just a fraction of the photos i have. such an awesome sight. i definitely recommend it. just make sunscreen and loads of h-two-oh a priority!!

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and that concludes part one of this two-part special brought to you by me. stay tuned for part two! (THERE MAY OR MAY NOT BE A VIDEO) -m