a utah visit

I took a short trip to Utah sans Samuel (poor Samuel had to go to school and work) for my cousin Alexis's wedding. It was a perfect mid-week break from the work grind to see my family. Plus it's always a party when Megan is involved. She's definitely the fun twin. 

Alexis got married in the Oquirrh Mountain Temple on Thursday and it was seriously the sweetest ceremony. I'm so happy for her. She is just the cutest and handled the freak snow storm like a champ!

The groom's peeking out on the left side of the photo. ^^

For some reason I never got a picture of them together? But they are the cutest, picture-perfect couple. Like seriously all their bridal pictures are to die for!

Her reception was at the Sleepy Ridge Golf Course in Orem and the set-up was stunning!

Props to Aunt Michelle for all her hard work.

Love these cutie cousins of mine and the little baby on the way. Friday we had a baby shower for Maddie's little boy who is due in April. 

Meg and I with cousin Jenni at the sparkler send off. You can kind of see in the picture but Meg had a blow horn instead of a sparkler which was totally random but brilliant!

After the wedding festivities Meg, Jenni, and I headed to Provo for visit with some of my favorites from freshman year. It was a total blast and I laughed until my face hurt. I love these people tons. And shoutout to Jenni for all the pictures. 

Obviously they're excited to have me back...

Friday morning we had the opportunity to walk through the Provo City Center Temple open house.

It was SO beautiful and it was great to be able to go with lots of family. 

Utah was great but definitely missed the warmth and my lover boy.

valentine's weekend

We spent most of Valentine's weekend at the beach, like 3 whole days worth. We started celebrating with a beach day then dinner and a movie. Even though it was nothing extravagant, it was probably one of my most favorite days. Mostly, I just love spending tons of time with Samuel. It has been hard the past couple weeks with work and school and I just straight up miss him!

Saturday morning Samuel brought me home flowers and the sweetest letter. It was a total win in my book because it was 100% a surprise and that's BIG for Samuel. Usually he has to tell me what he's planning. 

After a lunch date at the donut shop down the street, we hit up the beach with some friends we love. The boys talked about business ideas while the girls dreamed up trips for the summer. 

 I love my forever valentine and I can't wait for the future surf dates and other San Diego adventures that this year will bring. 

wils ft. suspension bridge

Round 3 of WILS -- Why I Love Sam!! 

(previous here and here)

Today was Samuel's last day of freedom before he starts work tomorrow!! I'm having all sorts of mixed emotions over here and so is he. He's really excited to be busy again, learning more about practicing law, and working for a new office but he's definitely not too sure about his 5:30 am wake-up call. With his work day + business school night classes I won't see my baby from 5:30am-8:00pm and 10pm on Tuesday nights! But I'm so proud of him for getting this spring/summer law internship and being willing to work along with school. And I love Sam because this morning he suggested we take advantage of his last free morning with a quick trip to the Spruce Street Suspension bridge. (I've been wanting to go for a while now).

The Suspension Bridge is in the cutest neighbor right next to us. And you would never guess it's located right between a bunch of houses. Like hey, can that be my backyard?...

We had the whole place to ourselves which was perfect for one last morning with my bf. 

 Also someone, aka Sam, got a little "creeped out" -- his words, not mine. Because it's a suspension bridge and it was a particularly windy day, there was a lot of swaying going on. Sam's not the happiest when it comes to heights and an old bridge from 1912 didn't make him feel any better. But I love Sam because he still had fun and didn't mind all the pictures. Sure proud of my #instragramhusband.