our birthday week.

rachel came to visit in july. we had way too much fun and didn't take many pictures. this was one of our many toasts from the weekend {since jack had just finished the worst three months of our lives [said may, june, july = studying for and taking finals & boards + hardest two rotations of the year + full blown waiting-for-boards-results-purgatory], he got to come and enjoy this frosty beverage, too}.

{picture by me: view from our room at the spindrift in on cannery row in monterey bay, california}

ok so get this. we were in waiting-for-boards-results-purgatory during the last week of july....which made it really hard pretty much impossible to plan anything {story of our lives, right?} for our birthday on august 3rd {yes, we have the same birthday, same year, too. we turned 25 again, yay!}. we would hear boards results any day now. was he going to be super depressed about bad news? was he going to be tired from his back to back boards/july finals? were we going to be ecstatic & relieved?? when i asked him what his vision for our birthday weekend was, his answer was, "i don't care, i just wanna get the heck outta here."

since he had a final that friday, and started a new rotation on monday, we couldn't go far. so, i chose...a weekend in monterey bay. as our birthday present, jack's parents helped us with our expenses that weekend. beyond grateful. 

here was my planning process: google monterey bay. click on tripadvisor. sort by most romantic. book number one. 

the spindrift inn right in the middle of cannery row. 

woodpile outside our room for our wood burning fireplace.

chowdah sample.

birthday hef.

rom bomb by our fireplace on the ocean.

our adorable bed.

 window seat.

my old man watching the seals and the waves.

 underneath our window seat.

 so, myyyy activity choice for our birthday was easy: birthday shopping {surpriiise}.

tourists.

$100 worth of...socks. yes, just socks.

oops. i got this hat. and i love it.

jack's birthday activity choice: pool with beer & fries.

every morning they served us breakfast in bed. we ate by the window sill and the seagulls came to keep us company.

seal watching.

reading the morning paper like real normal humans. by the fire. on the beach.

lunch stop on the way home from our weekend in monterey in pebble beach. we did the 17 mile drive.

i told jack that all i wanted to do was eat and shop for our birthday weekend. the let down of all the adrenaline from our stressful few months made me want to just sit, bask in our own humanity, and be a sloth. i got exactly what i wanted!

...oh, and a new camera lens (hence all the closeups) from the hubster. 

it's a canon 50mm f/1.8 II lens. i'm still learning to use it...but so far it's been so much fun!

i just love it! thanks babe!