we should all live in Arizona together

Over the holidays, we had the most amazing treat.

Our friends Britany and Bryce drove from California to spend a few glorious days with us!
We hadn't seen them since their wedding, 1 year, 3 months and 26 days before.

We were meeting them in front of the movie theater - we were planning to go see Les Misérables with Dusty's family.

Dusty and I stood out front, knowing they were drawing closer and closer.
"I think I might throw up a little," I said to him, choosing to be overly dramatic in my total excitement.
I was way too emotional.
Which, we found out later, would make seeing Les Mis a pretty bad idea. 

Bryce is a pretty tall guy. So when I saw a long arm waving in the distance, I knew it was time to scream and run and lose all (if any) remaining poise in the crowded mall area. 

Britany and I ran to each other, our purses swinging, and we hugged in a very violent but short-lived hug (neither of us are very touchy-affectionate people, so this may have only been the second or third time we had ever hugged), which was broken due to the fact that we both were bursting out crying and needed to hide our faces for a while. 
We had mere minutes to compose ourselves before the movie started, and then we spent the next three hours bawling our eyes out. 

The next few days, however, consisted of a lot of staring at each other dreamily, laughing, joking, shopping, watching Pitch Perfect (yes, we've seen it!), laughing, sarcastic joking, eating great food, and other shenanigans. 

Through it all, the same thought kept running through my mind: we should all live in Arizona together. 
Amiright? Amiright??
My life would be so much easier if all of my lifelong friends would just bite the bullet and move to the greatest, most wonderful place I have (anyone has) ever lived. 
Making friends as a married couple is fun, but there's something about those one-on-one friends made in childhood, or high school, or college that is so unique. It's vulnerable. They enter your life when you're still becoming who you are, when you're dreaming of your "adult" life and who you're gonna marry and what job you'll have and whether or not you should have bangs that year. 
Brit and Bryce are that "it" couple for us, because we met them as individuals, hung out with them on double dates, and then got to experience each other's engagements and weddings! 
And even though we're now married friends, deep down Brit and I will always have that year in college that we lived together and saw each other cry and rolled our eyes a lot and watched movies and had a funny quote book and shared secrets and pet peeves and she dealt with my messiness because she realized she loved me. We bonded with all the nonsense, before we had to live with men and grow up a little.
So what it all boils down to is, we should all live in Arizona together.

Becky, Britany, and I!

They left on January 1st, New Year's Day, after an amazing visit.
It was Dusty and I's 2nd anniversary!
We took lots of pictures together this trip, because we had somehow managed to only gather a few pictures in college together.
Britany understands me somewhere in my sarcastic core in a very special way, and it's friends like her that make me realize that growing up without a sister isn't all that bad - there are kindred spirits to be found all over the world.

She's also really pretty, and I'm only friends with attractive people.
I'm joking!
Kind of.

August 2010 - January 2013

Ya wild animals.
Thanks for all the good times.

And hey - may the wind be always at your back, may the sun shine in your faces, and may Arizona be your forever home someday.

In love,
Cait