28

It's my favorite boy's 28th birthday!

Of course I just had to add a cute picture from when he was young and carefree lol. Law school is stressing him out to the max rn but he just keeps on working hard everyday and I love him for that. 

This year Sam's birthday fell on a Wednesday which isn't fun at all, especially because he has school until 10pm on Wednesdays. He woke up early to go to school but luckily was able to come home for a lunch break. My mom was in town so we decided to have a yummy brunch ready with some of his favorites--acai bowls and breakfast burritos. 

Sam has been getting so sick lately, not just from his #lactoseprobs but also from any processed food or sugar. A couple days ago he threw up after he ate popcorn! We were sad we couldn't make him a birthday cake or treat so acai bowls were the healthiest "treat" option we could come up with. Sam is so disciplined though and wouldn't even let me go pick up a donut for him. But what's a birthday without cake!? so mom and I went out for some cheesecake at The Cheesecake Factory while Sam was in his last class until 10...sorry babe.
Sam was also able to go on a little lunchtime adventure to Cabrillo National Monument which is so beautiful this time of year. But more on that later.

Happy birthday Samuel!! I love you and any excuse to celebrate how wonderful you are!

"spring" break in utah

I've never been happier for spring break and I'm not even the one in school!!

Sam FINALLY gets a little break from school so we decided to take a trip to Utah to visit family. 

Thursday started off like every normal day--I went to work 8-5 and Sam went to school and took a midterm. Sam finished his test we set off for Utah at 8:15pm....yes, I know we are crazy. 

The late night drive is no problem when you have a night owl for a husband who is well trained at staying up until the wee hours of the morning (thank you very much video games). 

**Note: the one and only time in my life I will show praise to video games.

But the two things we didn't take into account were 

1.) night time drives mean cold temps dropping below the 30's & 2.) our car heater was broken. 

Talk about bad combination! So much for "spring" break, we quite literally froze our buns off! 

Around midnight it was already 47 degrees in our car. Bad sign when we still had about 5 hours to go. By 3am it was 26 degrees in our car and we couldn't feel our faces/noses/fingers/toes/bums. I swear we got frost bite everywhere. I was wearing all the sweaters and coats I had, fuzzy socks, Ugg boots, and I used a blanket to make a tent over my body to keep the heat in. 

Sam was totally bundled up--I still don't know how he managed to steer with his hands under the blanket or use the gas and brake pedals with his feet pushing through the blanket.

We were pushing speeds of 100mph, anything to get to our destination faster so we wouldn't die. 

We finally made it to Utah at 6:30am and I've never felt worse. Probably the most miserable I have ever been in my life! Totally laughing about it now but I'm never doing that again. But the cold kept us awake for the drive so that's a blessing I guess.

  

Anyway, back to our trip. 

After a long Friday of road trip recovery, we started off the weekend with Gregory's baptism.

His family just moved back from Australia so it's been awhile since we've seen them. The last time we were together was 2 years ago when we visited them in Ireland. (You can see more about that trip here.) 

We went biking with Meg and Sara to get Cafe Rio because we miss that place like no other!
PS. I almost died biking down the hill on behind Sam's house because I'm the worst at riding bikes and couldn't brake properly. Flashback to when I was around 12 years old and I fell off a cliff on my bike and almost rolled into the river! My family says I am being dramatic when I recall that story but it was very traumatic and bikes have forever been my enemy since. 

Exhibit A:

We had a huge Sunday family dinner with the Plothow gang.
PS. Love you long time Hannah! You're going to be a great missionary in Zimbabwe!

We got to meet our 2 week old nephew Everest Leon Raymond.

And my sisters kept teasing me the whole time about needing to have a baby so they can be aunts. 

We went to Denny's at 11pm with this fun crew just like old times.
You can never get enough of Abby and Landon or Abby's tears over her own jokes. 

We visited some of our Buckley cousins and Bridger.

 We had a yummy brunch at Waffle Love thanks to Sara. Sam forgot his wallet...

Spring break is the best but broken heaters are the worst. It was definitely a trip I will never ever forget. Also I'd like to publicly thank Sam for driving the whole time there and back. He's the best bc he never gets mad at me for straight chillin or snoozin in the front seat.  Love you babe!