life and Life.

Tovi, Cruz, and I just returned from a weekend in Monterey celebrating our

birthday (his)

anniversary (ours)

birthday (mine).

Totally fun. 

It was a weekend that was full of joy and happy accidents, but absolutely tinged with grief.

We found out that a friend and former roomie of mine passed away after a long struggle with pulmonary hypertension.

Katie, there is no one I know that lived with such a zest for life. 

Your exuberance was matched only by your desire to be with Jesus.

From the amount of times I walked into our room to hear,

"Darling! Don't worry; I'm just studying naked in my bed!"

I know you're pretty stoked to be living in the Garden right now. 

You absolutely taught me to live everyday with celebration and reckless joy. 

Thank you.

And while I spent a lot of the weekend with tears in my eyes, here is some of our joy.

At our anniversary dinner! Five years of marriage!

Cruz was excited too.

Of course I found the most nautical spot in the playground.

Family picture. 

My favorite part of the picture is the foot descending down the ladder.

That kid was not going to wait for us.

We drove 17 Mile Drive to try and get Cruz to nap.

The drive was amazing and clearly he is awake.

We went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and I totally nerded out over the jellies and sunfish.

Should've brought along my marine science species cards (which I still have, y'all).

We took this picture to show how tall Cruz is.

But really it just shows how short I am. 

I hope that whatever you are doing today is full of joy and celebrates the small everyday moments of life.