Birthday loVe-

This past week 2 of my most favorite people in the world celebrated their birthdays. I'm so sad I wasn't able to be there with them to celebrate their special days!

This is my older brother Aaron.

How lucky am I to be related to such a handsome guy?

Pretty lucky I'd say!

Aaron and I had the typical "brother-sister" relationship growing up. Aaron knew exactly what to do that would bug me (and usually did it) and knew that by doing so... I would say very choice words to him (I'm sure I will never live that down). As we got older we grew closer and closer and now we are the best of buds! It was so fun being back home and getting together every Sunday to have dinner. I really miss spending that time with him. Aaron is such an example to me and I am SO lucky to have his influence in my life. He is the most dedicated (He will not eat chocolate... I don't know how that's even POSSIBLE!?) and persevering person I have ever met and I strive to be more like him daily! He has taught me so much and I love him more than anything!

This is my best friend Shan.

(With her cute nephew and niece)

We have known each other practically forever! We met in the 7th grade and have been inseparable ever since. We've had so many fun memories together. For our senior trip, my parents took us to Cancun and had such a blast!

We did everything from sleeping in huts on the beach (without getting much sleep from the little creatures trying to eat us all night) to swimming with turtles in the ocean!

We swam through this cave.. it was so beautiful!

We found a coconut sitting on the ground and decided that we wanted to get the milk out! Throwing it on the ground didn't do much good so we decided to use surgical scissors to cut away the outside layers... without much luck!

Shan is such an amazing girl! Pretty soon after we got back from Cancun she had to have hip surgery (1 hip that summer and the other the following summer). The recovery took some time but she is so strong willed and she is now doing better than ever! This past week she was able to climb to the top of Mount Timpanogos... what an accomplishment! Shan has been there for me through thick and thin and I don't know what I would do without her. She is like a sister to me and I look up to her so much! Love you Shan, hope you had the best birthday!

xoxo