As you hopefully saw in the previous post, a group of girls and myself took a little trip back in May to Scottsdale, AZ. This post will include some really great and funny recaps but I also want to touch on who these friends are and what they mean to me.

These girls, known as the BRATZ, are incredible in almost all ways. They are the type of friends that you never want to lose, never want to hurt, and always want to remember. They are the type of friends that challenge each other in more ways than one and each of them are beautiful women of God. I never thought that friends could be like these girls are to me. Yes, sometimes we are super bratty and sometimes we laugh so hard that our abs ache for days. We almost always eat ice cream, never ever get enough sleep when we’re together and sometimes we talk for so long that we list off every single type of ball we can think of (you’ll understand why when we open “Balls” – the store that sells all types of ball: basketball, meatball, magic8ball, lint ball, etc..). We pray for each other and we group message each other when we need help or just a good laugh. These girls have sharpened and challenged me in my faith and I have no doubt that they will continue to do so for many years to come. It’s not very often that a big group of girls can be friends like we are. Unfortunately not all of the BRATZ could come to Arizona (it was pretty last minute – I’m shocked that we got 8 girls there) but all of the BRATZ mean the world to me and I wouldn’t trade them for anything.

Now, on to the big hike. The mountain is called Black Mountain. I assume it’s called that because when you look at it, it looks black. There is a trail but don’t let it fool you, it’s harder than you’d think.

We decided to wake up fairly early to get this hike accomplished by a decent hour of the morning. We packed our bags,  filled our waterbottles and lathered on the sunscreen before heading out. We were determined to have fun – and to be bratty – but making it to the top was not a requirement. I only took two pictures of us on the way up which is probably for the best. One on the road leading to the trail and the other about halfway to the top. There was a lot of moaning and groaning, a lot of breaks and a lot of forced motivation by the super fit arizona people who hike Black Mountain everyday. We did accomplish our two goals though. We had a lot of fun and we were excessively bratty. Oh, and some of us made it to the top!

There were a lot of pictures taken at the top and zero pictures taken on the way down. We were focusing too hard on not letting our knees go out on us, tripping down to the super sharp rocks, or falling into the many cactus’ that sit very close to the trail. We definitely had our adventure though.

On our last night in Arizona we decided that we were going to climb up the mini hill behind the house to watch the sunset and snap some photos.

We’re also pretty serious chaco lovers…

Now the photo above is a pretty important one. If you look closely, right next to Missy’s leg is a cactus. About 2.5 seconds after this picture was taken that cactus, known as the jumping cholla (pronounced choy-ya), attacked. The attack jumpstarted the next series of photos.

Caroline and I went to work on removing the cactus from her leg with a couple rocks and two bobby pins. The idea was that the cactus would come out with a good pull, but apparently the jumping cholla acts differently than the traditional cactus. The moment it is touched by something other than itself it  latches on to that object. It is called “jumping” for a reason, I suppose. The pricks were dug into Missy’s leg about an inch and our many attempts to get them out were not working. Finally, as a team,we made some progress, but unfortunately Caroline was taken out in the process.the “uninvolved” BRATZ who didn’t know how to help, so they laughed a lot

I am happy to report that all parts of the jumping cholla were removed – although I recently heard from Caroline that she still has marks on her thumb from where it dug into her. It was wild and it was definitely not what we expected to happen on our little hike, but it was an adventure to say the least.

That’s all for now, but still to come is nertz and the drive home. You really don’t want to miss it. 🙂

See you soon,
The Jaderstons