Medical School Prom LOLZ!

If you ever had worries that high school was ending just entirely too soon or that you just really wanted to relive your life between the ages of 14 and 17, don't worry! Med School Prom's got you covered. ;) 

Last weekend was an absolute blast. Prom (ha, still sounds so funny saying that!) on Friday, Brunch on Saturday (pics to come), and Easter on Sunday! Michael and I got all dolled up (correction, I got dolled up, Michael just put on a suit), and dropped Lydia off at a babysitter's at 8pm. SO LATE! 

Then we picked up Lizzy and Jake and drove to the Jewish Community Center for the dance! 

And surprisingly it was awesome. The theme was Enchanted Forest and the entire venue was decked out with balloons and backdrops and med students in sparkly dresses and nice suits. We even saw Snow White and the (drunk) seven dwarfs! Ha. 

We ate a quick buffet style dinner that was catered by Mazza's, took a few bites of Costco chocolate cake (only the frosting for me, the cake part for Michael), and then hit the dance floor! Hence our faces are all red.

It got smokin hot in the little dance section, so every few songs we'd go outside for a second to cool off and then freeze and come back in, haha. We danced for quite a while, and then all took pictures and decided we were pooped and ready to go. It was....

9:40pm. 

WHAT?! Hahaha we are getting old and lame.

We were starving so we loaded back in the car and headed to Hires for a post-party treat. (By the time we'd gotten to the buffet the only option left was a vegan califlower curry...?)

Hires//

Oreo peanut butter shake was delish. 

Hot fries. No description needed. 

So all in all prom was a hit! And made even more hilarious by the fact that Michael and I actually went to prom together in high school, so it really did feel like reliving the glory days ;). 

Because He Lives

Happy Easter! This year Easter has taken on a whole new meaning for me.

Basically all because of this little girl :). Growing up I've heard a thousand times, Families are Forever. Which is beautiful. I've always loved the concept (except when your sisters steal your clothes or break your ipod and you think, do I have to be with her forever? ;) ). 

But this year, with a daughter of my own, I literally cannot picture eternity without her. And on a similar note, I cannot picture it all just ending after this life. There is no way that these bonds are not divine. It is such a comfort and blessing knowing that because my Savior suffered for my sins and then overcame death, I can be with these two for eternity. Sometimes in all the activities of the church (callings, visiting teaching, family home evening, activities, standing in the hall with a baby for all three hours of church, etc), it is easy to lose sight of what it is really all about. I love this quote from Joseph Smith, "The fundamental principles of our religion are the testimony of the Apostles and Prophets concerning Jesus Christ, that He died, was buried, and rose again the third day, and ascended into heaven; and all other things which pertain to our religion are only appendages to it." It puts everything into perspective and reminds me that it really is all about the Atonement and Resurrection of Christ.

And I love how succinctly Elder Dallin H. Oaks puts it,

"The Resurrection is a pillar of our faith. It adds meaning to our doctrine, motivation to our behavior, and hope for our future." 

Church yesterday was a wonderful mix of music, speakers and lessons centered on Christ. Also, this fantastic 65-year-old lady in our ward played a piece on her neon pink violin - she is my idol. Then Michael let me take a 2 hour nap while he did alllllll the dishes from our party the day before (major brownie points for like the next two months), and then we went to Michael's Papa and Nana's house for Easter dinner!

Sarah and Paige at Papa and Nana's! (Please note the U flag. To say "huge fans" would be an understatement.)

Paige's adorable boy William. Is he not the cutest? He even did a couple dancing/singing performances for us :).

Cousins Lydia and Lucy! She is the sweetest little babe ever. Thanks to Mama Joan for the coordinating Easter outfits! 

Attempt at getting a standing pic ;).

Hallelujah! He is Risen.

Click here to see Mormon.org's new video for Easter!

PS both photos of the Oakland temple were taken by amazing sister Olivia!

Spring Breakin' It // 2k16 ft. Laguna

Does this title make me sound like an obscure rapper slash Justin Bieber? 

Okay good that's definitely what I was going for.

So the guys actually got time off from medical school! A week at the end of February for spring break. This. never. happens. Woot woot! We made the most of it and invited two couples and their babes to come to Laguna Beach with us. SO fun! 

Obligatory Banzai Bowl stop immediately after I picked them up from the airport. Michael's absolute favorite food on earth. I don't know how to adequately put into words how passionate he feels about these. HA.

Our days pretty much consisted of visiting parks, beachin, perusing downtown, playing games, sitting around talking, and eating (way too many chocolate covered almonds, oh Costco).

Lizzy and little miss Lyla, the cutest 18 month old (and best helper, always feeding Lydia or playing with her).

Libby, Mat and Owen aka the squishiest funniest little boy ever! I seriously just love to snuggle with him because he is so comfy. And I don't quite get the squishiness with Lydia haha.

One morning we walked five minutes from our house to this tiny (slightly ghetto?) donut shop! My low expectations were completely exceeded - best maple bar we've ever had. (Libby even said it was better than a Cougar Tail?!)

Lydia was so close to crawling on the trip! (Now she races around the house and gets into ev.er.y.thing.) But at this point there was a lot of scooting, a lot of rocking, and a lot of general adorableness if I'm allowed to say that.

LOLZ would you believe me if I said this wasn't actually planned? (The matching pose and sunnies that is, the matching swimsuits definitely.)

Babies in swimsuits - I die.

Pretended to think animals were cute for ten minutes so Lyla could see the doggies ;). 

Group bath for the win!

And closing out with my little family :). Can we just live in Cali already please?

Imaginary Closet

Shopping with sisters is the BEST. I think I prefer doing pretty much all shopping alone. If I'm grocery shopping with friends, I feel rushed and then always get home and realize I forgot things. Clothes shopping, I never know how long is socially acceptable to stay in one store and I usually end up making mental lists of things I like and then the next day I go back and try them on. HA so lame I know! But shopping with my sisters means we all take as long as we want and BONUS you get immediate honest feedback if something looks awesome or if it's a little too billowy, too tight, too tacky (common error on my part ;) ), etc. Needless to say shopping with my fam last week was so fun! We all love clothes but have totally different styles. Olivia's got the chill San Francisco vibe down to a T. Lots of black, lots of tennies, the perfect just-woke-up wavy lob, pretty effortlessly awesome. Isabel basically can pull off anything and owns everything Madewell. It's weirdly impressive how well she knows their website and she always perfectly mixes nice with casual (ripped jeans with a cute blouse and killer shoes). Emma has mastered tomboy cute, with her daily rotation comprising casual tees and jeans and sneakers and hair tossed up in a ponytail. I am ... who knows ;). 

So here are a couple imaginary closet items from last week with the seestas! (And find a description of my imaginary closet from a past post here.)

J.Crew blazer in their signature color. Michael has caught on - anytime he sees something in that perfect orangey-red he points it out, "That's J.Crew Red right??" haha. I always love the fit and concept of blazers, but realistically I have no idea when I would really wear one. Not around the house with Lydia, not to church, so... maybe a date night?

Presenting... Madewell mom jeans!! Emma was rocking the coolest mom jeans all week and so I had to try on a pair. The stiffer material is surprisingly comfy! I love fashion right now because I feel like anything goes - skinnies, flares, crops, now mom jeans - yay 2016. 

Coach sunnies in a dark tortoise. I ran in here to pick up a purse for my dad (to give to my mom - don't worry) and spotted these while they were wrapping the purse. Really oversized, but I kinda like them! 

Aaaand Michael got to shop for gumballs with Lydia ;).

Family, Meet SLC

Once upon a time, in a land where houses are teeny tiny, 5 people stayed in my basement! 

Namely my three little sisters plus my mom and dad. Partay!

Laptop filling in for Dad ;).

Their four day stay included lots of eating out, shopping, 

laughing, and staying up way too late talking.

I'll include some of the places we ate at and what we liked!

The Original Pancake House // 

California Omelet (light cheese! they give wayy too much) is great. 

Split that and substitute the included side of buttermilk pancakes for any of their fun flavors.

Cutest people, right?

 Only slight bummer was that it was exactly when Lydia was teething. Which apparently for her means being suuuper clingly - no one else could hold her basically the entire time! If she was hungry, I was the only one who could give her a bottle. If I left the room, she'd scream until I was back.
So not like her! Poor thing. So we just did lots of cuddles and tylenol and 3am bottles :/. But at least

now she's got two bottom teeth to show for it!

Dinner at Cubby's! My AZ fam had never been (even though it's a classic in Provo and now Salt Lake), so it was fun to introduce them! 

Cubby's //

Tri - tip steak salad, of course. Fan fave forever and always amen. Cilantro dressing is killer.

Buffalo chicken salad was just what you'd expect - yummy and muy buffalo saucy!

Sweet potato fries are great per usual. Michael loves the rosemary fries here but I actually don't think they're that amazing? You decide.

I can't vouch for their sandwiches but they all look awesome!

My sweet dad. So patient with all of us girlies HA! There's a special spot in heaven for 

dads with all girls, I think ;).

So my sisters had never been to Ikea!!! And I needed to get a few things (highchair, desk), so I thought this would be the best two hour adventure. I am seriously in love with Ikea! 

(Contrary to this snapchat) they weren't quite as pumped as me. I think I built it up too much by saying it's kind of like Disneyland but with cheaper food? ;)

Peek at the chair I got for my new desk.

Then we drove down to Provo to try out Nico's (Kortni Jeane's husband) new restaurant, 

Good Thyme! 

Chef Nico! Lydia (who had been all sorts of clingy, remember) LOVED him! 

Giggled at him for a good 10 minutes. So I think she's already into boys.

The food was amazing! The concept is similar to the restaurant Lemonade (in CA) wherein you see all the different dishes and you walk down and point at which ones you want. Which is perfect for someone like me who A) is way too indecisive when it comes to food and would rather share everything and B) likes to see my food before I have to order. Also the food was so fresh! 

We all ordered the Protein Plate, which means you choose 

three cold sides (aka unique salads!), one protein and one hot side. 

Perfect meal! Heavy on the veggies, you get to totally create your own meal, etc.

Good Thyme //

Jicama apple slaw was really refreshing! Great bright flavors.

Beet salad (not pictured) was unique and a hit!

Whatever meat this was (can't remember) was TO DIE FOR. Seriously the most flavorful steak I have ever had, and I'm not a huge steak person! The chimichurri sauce was EXCELLENT.

And then after eating so healthy you have to reward yourself with some ice cream, naturally ;).

Roll With It (attached to Good Thyme) is the coolest (hehe) ice cream concept. Apparently Kortni's brother (who runs Roll With It, I believe) first saw the idea in Thailand! Cream and toppings are poured onto a wide shallow pan, then constantly stirred, then once adequately hardened the ice cream is scraped up into rolls! (I only got the scraping part on snapchat - shoot!)

Roll With It //

Salted pretzel caramel with vanilla base (not pictured) = awesome. We all loved the added crunch of the pretzel bits.

Oreos and peanut butter with chocolate base was a personal fave. Give me 

ALL the chocolatey peanut buttery things. 

One morning, Michael and I were even able to sneak away from Lydia long enough to go to the temple! My mom meets Lydia's new apparent requirement of being blonde, so Lydia liked her. Lydia's a little (lot)... hairist. She is only happy being held by blondes! So now that the blonde lady at my gym's day care isn't there, we are running into some serious clinginess issues (hence I've gotten pulled out of gym classes the last FOUR TIMES!). Hahaha. 

Finger courtesy of Isabel.

Well this post is getting ridiculously lengthy so
my mom's birthday celebration pics
 are coming up later!