Max graduated from BYU this April with a bachelor's degree in Neuroscience, and to say I'm so proud I burst at the seams would be a gross understatement. Max is tremendously talented and in my opinion, naturally genius, but that's not to say he hasn't worked incredibly hard to get where he is today.

(i took zero pictures during graduation, and this was the only one my sister sent, which unfortunately won't upload all the way, and our faces wash out ... carry on, the quality will have to suffice for now) 

Over the course of commencement, convocation and all the other graduation activities, I felt a twinge of sadness deep down knowing that our chapters at BYU are officially ending. Max was my tie to that school, a reason to still visit campus and consider myself college-student-ish in a way. Luckily at a University of Utah banquet a few weeks ago, we met with other students and spouses who will also begin Medical School this fall, and I found myself a kindred spirit! When I learned he went to BYU for his undergrad, he whispered "I still bleed blue."Amen and amennnn brother. Always.

birds of a feather flock together....even after 12 years

"In friendship…we think we have chosen our peer. In reality a few years’ difference in the dates of our births, a few more miles between certain houses, the choice of one university instead of another…the accident of a topic being raised or not raised at a first meeting—any of these chances might have kept us apart. But, for a Christian, there are, strictly speaking, no chances. "
-C.S. Lewis

(even when your kindredest spirit takes an "isidewith" election quiz and sides 97% Bernie Sanders... where did I go wrong sara?!)

our first picnic this year

The first Sunday it was warm enough to picnic, we packed our sandwiches and headed to the park for the afternoon. I'm sorry to report that my ee cummings book has mysteriously disappeared, but I guess that's why we have smart phones and the internet, and excerpts like these:

“When spring came, even the false spring, there were no problems except where to be happiest. The only thing that could spoil a day was people and if you could keep from making engagements, each day had no limits. People were always the limiters of happiness except for the very few that were as good as spring itself.”  
- Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast 

“If people did not love one another, I really don't see what use there would be in having any spring.” 
- Victor Hugo, Les Miserables

“It's spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you've got it, you want—oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!” 
- Mark Twain