It's Official!

Last year around this time, I announced my plans to spend the summer in Costa Rica. This summer is not nearly as exotic, but it's official! This year I'll be spending the summer in... drum roll please... Florence, Arizona! There will be no monkeys, no rainforest and probably no rain.

When my mom mentioned to my great-aunt and uncle that I may be spending the summer in Florence, they said, "Oh, by the prison!" That is correct, Florence is by the prison, but is also by the detention center. As many of you know, I have been doing a lot of work in immigration over the past year, and this summer will be my baptism by fire interning at the Florence Project. Here is an excerpt from their website explaining what they do:

The Florence Project is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal service organization providing free legal services to men, women, and unaccompanied children detained by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) division of the Department of Homeland Security in Arizona. Although the government assists indigent criminal defendants and civil litigants through public defenders and legal aid attorneys, it does not provide attorneys for people in immigration removal proceedings. As a result, an estimated 90 percent of the detained people go unrepresented due to poverty. The Florence Project strives to address this inequity both locally and nationally through direct service, partnerships with the community, and advocacy and outreach efforts.

I'm really excited for this opportunity to use my Spanish and gain great legal experience in a field that I find fascinating. I'll be down there for 10 weeks all together, however I will be returning home for a couple weekends to visit family. Now I'll have to spend my time in between studying and working at my current internship shopping for some scorching desert-heat work appropriate apparel. Wish me luck!

Birthday Adventures

This month I turned the ripe old age of 25, and it was great! I actually feel really lucky because it feels like my birthday has practically lasted all month. It started with our fun dinner out with my grandma at the Cheesecake Factory and ended this last Sunday with a family celebration at my grandparents' house.

On the actual day, Garrett took me out to dinner at Red Lobster. I LOVE seafood! Every time I've been to an aquarium, there are just certain critters that I would really love to eat. I don't know if those giant lobsters they have at the aquarium actually taste good, but they make my mouth water. And Red Lobster was perfect to satisfy my sea-tooth. Plus they have the best biscuits. I think Garrett kept getting more so we could take some home with us. I had lobster and crab and shrimp, and it was really wonderful!

Also that weekend, we went out to dinner with my dad at Japanese Tepanyaki. It was also really great. I ordered the (surprise!) salmon. The chef was so entertaining. I was really glad that we went because there used to be a Japanese Tepanyaki in Bountiful that we loved to go to, but it burned down a few years ago. This restaurant was just as fun, and it was especially fun to go with Lanna now that she's old enough to enjoy it.

I also had great family parties with my family and Garrett's family. It was so much fun, and everyone was so thoughtful. Now I'm excited to use my birthday money on my first set of golf clubs! Mom and I took a class last fall, and we're excited to hit the links this summer.

Thanks everybody for your great birthday wishes!

Dinner Out

I know I've been somewhat remiss in my blogging over the last month, but fortunately February wasn't particularly eventful. The one big holiday I forgot to blog about was Valentine's, which involved mostly hanging out at home and watching movies.* This month, however, should be much more eventful because there are so many family birthdays in it (including mine!). In fact, the birthday festivities have already begun.

In case you didn't already know, my grandma and I share a birthday, and this year we are both having kind of big ones. I am turning 25 and my grandma is turning 80. I always love getting together with my grandma to celebrate, so Garrett and I decided to take my grandma out to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner last Saturday. Heather, Lanna and my mom all came with us, and we had so much fun.

First of all, I had no idea how crowded it would be! Garrett and I got to the restaurant an hour before we planned on eating dinner so we could put our name in, and the hostess said the wait would be 60-80 minutes! Fortunately Mom, Heather, Lanna and Grandma all arrived right when they called us, so Garrett and I were the only ones who had to wait very long. And the wait was definitely worth it! The menu was ridiculously long because there were so many choices. I had the Bang Bang Chicken and loved it, but the portions were really large leaving plenty of leftovers for each of us.

Then we had dessert. It was wonderful. I had the best key lime cheesecake, and when they brought out our plates, mine and Grandma's had "Happy Birthday Sarah!" and "Happy Birthday Doris!" written on them in chocolate syrup. The servers sang to us, we blew out our candles, and each ate our fabulous desserts. Then we all had to roll out of the restaurant. We were stuffed! But it was so much fun, and I had such a great time celebrating with my grandma. I think we just might have to make it a tradition. Yum!

*I don't mean to make it sound like Valentine's was boring. Garrett and I have been so busy this last month that we really needed to spend a day hanging out at home, and it was really great. We ordered Cafe Rio and cuddled on the couch while watching romantic movies like Die Hard 4. Pretty sweet, huh?