April showers..

..bring May flowers..

..except for the one teeenie tiiiiny minor detail that there isn’t a whole lot of rain out here in the desert.... I do, however, think it’s safe to say I was plenty showered with love this month.

It’s no secret that my true love language/ the fast pass to my heart is through food, and it would be a shame for me to keep the good food we enjoyed this month a secret. The food came from all around town, including 'kitchen a la Shel & Al' --particularly for the best breakfast ever aka my most recent food obsession.. some form of bread, avocado, sunny side up egg with everything but the bagel seasoning, sometimes tomato and/or arugula, often some cheese, but always balsamic glaze (see the last photo). Mmm I’m drooling just thinking about it now!

..I'm also drooling thinking about how pretty my friends are! Shel and I enjoyed a game during 'Spring Training' back in the beginning of the month where we more so enjoyed our friends company in the sunshine than the baseball game, but I think that's the point?

I am especially drooling over these friends, one of whom is getting maaaaarried next month!! All the heart eyes for this bachelorette weekend, pun intended, always ;), especially since it was here in sunny Arizona! ..which I had absolutely nothing to do with.. okay maybe I had a little something. It was interesting to be on the other side of the "count the bachelorette parties" game in Scottsdale, but we definitely had the prettiest bride-to-be and the most excited group of gals celebrate finally getting her officially hitched in June!

We soaked up some sunshine in the pool at our AirBnB, rode in a jeep, party bike, my car, and lots of ubers to all the most fun spots in town. At one of the spots, we randomly got free bottle service because who doesn't want to give free booze to a group of smiling ladies?? Still kinda confused about that part, but I'm not gonna question it too much because it was a blast.

.. obviously I couldn't forget how I am forever drooling over these Arizona sunsets that I have eaten up every single chance I get. Need I say much more?

Have you caught on my love for finding all the best spots to watch the sunset? ..no? Lemme show you some more.. like this rooftop! (Pro tip, the views are 10x better when shared with your bestie!! And a pretty cocktail in hand definitely doesn't hurt!) We definitely loved the picture perfect sunset and took a ton of pictures... I went to airdrop some to Shel a few days later and had multiple hundreds. Granted, all the professionals know how you gotta take way more shots than you think to get that perfect money shot, but gosh am I glad it doesn't cost money to take/send pictures because we wouldn't have any left to enjoy these picture perfect moments!

..and this mountaintop! (that we had to take UTVs to get to, and lemme tell you, what a dusty ride that was, but oh so worth it!) Shel was the mastermind behind this adventure and I cannot begin to give her enough props for finding this and getting us there (perfectly on time, I might add). I also owe her some props for trusting me to drive for a bit. Shel does most (if not all) of the driving out here except of course for when I'm driving by myself (what a neat skill that would be though if I could get her to drive me without even having to be in the car.. smh) and I am very thankful of that fact because quite simply put I don't like driving. However, I had an absolute blast driving the UTV through the dusty desert bouncing over the rocks and chasing the sunset!

..and this rooftop on top of a mountain (or patio/terrace rather). This place was called "A Different Pointe of View" and holy moly was it so incredibly cool to view the city from up here after the sun set and the buildings were all lit up like stars in a night sky.

If you scrolled through all of those photos, you might have noticed the birthday tiara in those last two. The rumors are true, I am in fact an old lady now who has aged off mom & dad's insurance.. and man oh man do my people know how to make me feel special on my birthday, especially the insurance company! I hope you can sense the sarcasm in that, because while my agent was very nice to me, I gotta say, adulting all in all is a bit overrated. Except I guess for when it comes with a bestie who plans a stellar birthday celebration and makes you feel like the most loved person on the planet, then it's alright. The birthday festivities started with a daybed at one of the coolest pool/restaurant/bars in town and ended with dinner at A Different Pointe of View! Thank you to each and every person who has wished me a happy birthday, y'all really know how to make a girl feel loved.

Below are a few more photos of the other end of April birthday girl who came to sunny Arizona to celebrate her special day, Shel's lil sis! (and lil sis' fiancé haha)!! We took them to some of our favorite spots and discovered a little random festival with sangria and craft beer one night (and deeeelicious food trucks- shout out to the street corn and bbq!). If you've got your detective hat on, you've likely come to the conclusion that the UTVs, pool, and fancy dinner were a part of their trip as well, and we loved being able to share all of that with them! While our time out here in AZ is coming to an end, we are taking applications for visitors at our next location here soon, stay tuned ;)

While that was a ton of photos, it wasn't nearrrly as many as were taken this past month. There also were plenty of videos, some of which still might end up on my tiktok eventually, but many that have ended up on my insta or facebook. I know i don't usually post videos on the blog here, and this may not even work right, but this one is particularly special to me.

I discovered Lizzy McAlpine back in 2020 with her album "Give Me A Minute" but truly fell in love with her voice when I discovered her duet with Ben Kessler called "False Art." Since then, I have always been excited when I discover she has released a new song. You can imagine just how excited I was when she released a whole new ALBUM titled "five seconds flat." I knew I had to give it a good true intentional listen, but also couldn't wait when I first heard about it, so I put it on in the car any chance that I could. That, however, meant that I wasn't truly listening. I "liked" a few songs on my spotify, but it wasn't until my darling Shel had it playing on Alexa while she was home cleaning that we discovered "ceilings." Since then, every speaker in the house and cars have become very familiar with the song. Most recently, this was playing on my iPad while I had my phone propped up on the mirror in our living room while I danced to it in my favorite way-- improv twice back to back with the phone camera in exactly the same place. After I finish dancing, and usually take a moment to catch my breath, I throw the videos into my "splice" app and layer them with the opacity at 50% on one video and watch the magic happen.

There I go completely spoiling all of my secrets.. but I'm not even mad, I'll let you in on this one, as long as you promise to at least watch the first bit of the video- or the whole thing if you're feeling wild and crazy, it gets reallllly good at the bridge, but I might be a touch biased.

I hope you enjoyed my little photo dump of a post for the best month in the whole year ;). I definitely love celebrating birthday month and cannot wait to see what adventures May has in store, especially since the month ends with me getting on a plane to adventure off to Aruba!!!

Until next time!