"Welcome to the United States"

After a long day of traveling, we had finally made it to LA, where a big group of us were looking forward to seeing family and celebrating all week long.

Two girls just ready to party it up in the USA hehehe.

This for me is where the trip really begun haha. Thank you to koru lounge benefits, where we got to eat, shower, and chill before we boarded our long as flight ahead. I always love starting a trip off here and it was even better doing it with a big group of us who were just so excited to go to the states!

There were nine of us total traveling on the same flight which you can imagine caused a wee bit of stress but also a whole lot of fun haha. I had never traveled with so many of us but I was grateful for the experience I have with flying and for the things my parents taught me that got us through that long day of traveling. 

Loved traveling with baby.

Our crew hehe.

We were so dang lucky to have the coolest rental car ever hehe. I got to live out my Dom Toretto moment and drive a black dodge challenger and boy was it fun driving that bad boy around hahaha. I honestly can't count on hand how many races we got into with other car enthusiasts hahahah. Enjoyed driving that car a bit too much I might say haha. 

Broom Broom.

Pool days! Arizona summers are always terribly hot haha. So this was a must, in hopes of staying cool while we were visiting hehe.

Dev and baby.

Did some shopping of course hehe, and just had some chill times together at the house. Laughing, catching up, and enjoying one anothers company hehe. 

Target is the place to be hehe.

We went to the Mesa Temple! It was so nice walking on the temple grounds as the sun went down. There was a new visitors center built and it was one of the coolest ones I've ever been to. It's quite interactive and just includes a bunch of neat things for people to see. It ended up being such a nice time spent together. 

With our sweet nephew.

Nanny Nora.

w/our Aunty Vanya.

Proud of my sissy for graduating high school! She was the last of us, so it was a bit tender to watch her walk across that stage where we all walked and graduated. So excited for the next chapter in her life, BYU Hawaii here she comes!

Some of her support that was there cheering her on, on the day of her grad hehe. That's always one of the best bits of things like this, is seeing how others come together to come along to support and it's always the bestest of times seeing people that you don't get to see all the time. 

Some other pictures from her graduation night. So so proud of our boo boo girl. 

It was nice to sneak off and celebrate at the Bradburys for a bit afterwards. I love Aunty Jackie and am grateful for her. Was nice just being able to be together that night, especially that sweet nephew of mine.

Sea sider chick.

The lots of us hehe.

Tutepourangi.

Aunty Jackie.

Kellyn also graduated from institute. Was a bit touch and go for a bit on if she was going to actually graduate, so we're proud of her for that one lol. 

Love my sissys.

LOL. This photo literally kills me.

A couple more pictures from institute graduation. It was nice running into family friends that we've made through our ward and stake. It was lovely catching up with them while attending things like this. Again, always nice celebrating with family too.

Jayda and I hehe. 

Sister Dowell, one of our favorites.

It was a full on year with graduation celebrations. We had two cousins graduate this month as well and they had a grad party the same night as institute graduation, so we went off those ways right after that. It was a full night of partying, it was so nice being together and celebrating all the graduates. 

Harley girl going to SMU.

Em attending ASU in the Fall.

Loved catching up with some of my favorites! We love the Bradbury and Picketts. So grateful we grew up together and grateful for all our close relationships together. 

Huddy.

Zane, love this tall kid lol.

I got to go through the Gilbert temple and took out my endowments and it was a beautiful experience. I was incredibly grateful that I got to attend with so much support from family and friends. Grateful for the gospel that teaches us the importance that families are together forever and the blessings that come from being in the temple. 

My sissys and I.

W/ Jayda.

Jayda and Paora.

The girlies.

My people.

Nana Kura.

Mama.

Shel.

Toro.

Some of my favorites from Ahwatukee ward hehe.

Aunty Vanya.

Sheldyn and I snuck off one morning and went to the Mesa temple, just us two and did a session through that temple and it was so lovely being able to go off and do that with her. 

Some random food pics haha. One of the best parts of being home is the food lol. I miss so many places when I'm away from the states, so I seem to always have a wee list of places I like to go to when I'm home hehe.

Big DQ fans.

All the heart eyes for CFA.

Love me a warm pretzel.

The older cousins and I went to country swing dancing one night for a little bit, just to scope it out haha. It's one of my favorite places to be haha and we had so much going on in our week that we only had a little bit of time to fit this in but I'm grateful we got to go at all. Always fun times there, especially with these peeps hehe.

Funnest of times in the USA!