Girls Trip 2k23

 The biggest thing that happened in the first week of April 2023 was the Hutchins girls trip (minus Jamie, plus Mint). Otherwise, I played sports, I ran, I lifted, and I went to work. And I had a good time off of work. I got off pretty early on Thursday, so I braved the carved up highway southward to Phoenix. (That snow removal was rough on these AZ roads.)

SO to Mac for headshots. 

I moved in some groceries to the AirBnB and claimed my space before anyone else could beat me to it. Kelly and Vin arrived soon thereafter, and Hannah got there earlier than expected. Mama Sama and I got the rest of our grub at Costco (including pizza for the night) and checked the Apple store to see if they could fix my computer. They could not. Which I feel like they should have told me online. We didn't even die on the way home, but we did enjoy pizza and White Chicks/Identity Thief and watching H/L try some self tanner. 

H and I ended up on the couch that night because it was comfy enough. Mom picked up Court and Mint from the Mesa airport early in the a.m. We had some time to grill Mom by the pool and enjoy mojitos and chinese chicken salad before our pole dancing class. I'm not sure how the back row was doing, but Mint got moved to the front for surprising skills. (And they agreed to take some classes at a local studio in Flag with me). We came away with some laughs, a good time, and a few bruises in unusual places. 

Killing the game.

H and I made some homemade pizza for dinner and we chilled watching Psych for a while before it was time for karaoke. Mom picked up Shan/Mac at the airport and we met them at the restaurant where we booked a private room. Our selection was limited, the videos were asian and creepy, but we (again) had some surprising superstars. Mac jammed out, Shannon killed the Evanescence, and Mint knows almost all the songs played. 

Stylin it up.

We chilled and watched all the Psych episodes with Yang before bed. Mint may have been upset that Court fell asleep on their bed (aka couch). But everyone slept well before we had pancakes and bacon for breakfast with a game of Cards Against Humanity (watch out boys, a game). There was another pool session before prepping for a photoshoot at the botanical gardens during AZ's superbloom. We enjoyed a taco bar for lunch. Let it not be said that we lacked for snacks or meals here. 

H and I drove the crew over. I will say, I was disappointed that there weren't more butterflies in the garden. And that we didn't explore more. But I think the pics turned out and everyone was glad that we were able to move our dinner res up by an hour. The food and drinks were great there, too. 

After a hot tub session and some coochie juice, we showed everyone Austenland - where Hannah is Jennifer Coolidge and I'm her love interest. We had a late night, but I think by this point, Lavinia had made at least 6 positive contributions to the group. 

Almost a real smile. 

Did she convince Mint to do the lion's share of the cooking for our French toast and sausage in the morning? Yes. But maybe she cut up some strawberries. Hannah left after breakfast, taking some leftovers and some heavy baggage. The rest of us went to church, where we ran into my old institute bro - Rod. He's the boss. We snagged some delicious beverages and had burgers and watermelon by the pool with yet another game of Hand and Foot.

I left after that, but hopefully left enough food for everyone to survive on. It sounds like Monday was kind of a wash with a 10am checkout and driving to Mesa to drop off Mint/Court, then back to drop a car off by 2, then waiting around until everyone had 6pm flights. Glad I was only a drive away. 

It was a good time. Rog enjoyed all the tea afterwards, especially since his shed hunting trip proved fruitless.