Bud and Sara grew up in the same small mountain town in California, and first met when they were 17. After graduating high school they dated for one summer, before moving away to different states for college. While they really wanted to be together, they knew they were young and needed to give each other time to grow as individuals. Eventually, they started dating again, fell in love, and moved to Utah together after college. Since then, they have moved across the country together a few times, traveled around much of the world, and started a farm. They got married in 2016 at an orange grove in Southern California.

Sara and Bud bring out the best in each other. Bud is patient, intelligent, adventurous, and endlessly calm. He can play most instruments, and can fix nearly anything. Sara is bold, loving, and brimming with life. She makes people feel understood and loved, and makes life- long friends everywhere she goes. She's often the person who her family or friends turn to for help. When they are together they feel unstoppable.

Bud and Sara moved to their home in the mountains of western Colorado six years ago. They live in a small and supportive community where everyone seems to know each other. When they look out the windows of their home they see mountains on all sides. The winter is snowy, spring and fall are perfect, and summer is hot. In the winter they ski (a lot), in the spring and fall they hike, run and mountain bike, and in the summer they jump in the Colorado River and go rafting.

When Sara was 18 she was diagnosed with a genetic condition which would make pregnancy extremely risky. Because that diagnosis happened so long ago, Bud and Sara have always embraced the idea of adopting. Now at age 34, they've spent half of their lives together and feel ready to build their family. (They really want two or three kids, and are very open to sibling adoption.)

• Occupation: Farmer
• Favorite Movie: The Sandlot
• Alter-ego: Tornado Scientist
• Favorite Food: Burgers
• Random Skill: Pac-Man Master

Sara is a passionate, outgoing, fun-loving person who always seems to be living life to the fullest. She's a farmer who loves working in the soil, doing things outside with the people she loves, eating tacos from the local taco truck, and reading fiction novels on the couch.

After spending the last 10 years as a teacher and farmer (and a stint as a raft guide), Sara started a local community-based vegetable farm three years ago. The farm provides food for the community and also hosts a summer job-training program for local teens. The young women she mentors and the farm- community she has built are the things that she is the most proud of.

Outside of work, Sara spends lots of time with Bud in the mountains and desert - skiing, rafting and biking. They also spend a lot of time together at home cooking, snuggling and reading. Sara studied Spanish Literature in college, speaks fluent Spanish, and loves to travel in Latin America.

Sara is excited to raise kids and be a mom. Her parents are divorced and she was raised in blended families with lots of love and affection. She feels lucky to have a loving family with many great role models and mentors. Sara's family has also experienced a lot of loss and health issues, a reality in life that has made her empathetic and deeply value the life and time she has with her family and friends.

Sara can't wait for the chaos, joy and growth that parenting will bring to her life with Bud.

• Occupation: Conservation Director
• Favorite Movie: The Big Chill
• Currently Reading: The Milagro Beanfield War (so good!)
• Favorite Food: Tacos al pastor
• Days Skiing This Yeas: 53 (so far)

Bud is a thoughtful, patient, and deeply caring

man. He is confident and calm, and always has time for others. He loves helping people and is always involved in the community. He's a quick learner and handy, and is often who friends call if they need something fixed, to borrow a tool, or if they just need a hand.

Bud has built a life and career around building community. After college he worked as a street outreach worker and housing case manager for people experiencing homelessness. After going back to school for a Masters degree, he worked as a community planner, focused on making housing more affordable. Today, he works as a program director for a local conservation organization. He loves that his job often gets him working outside with local farmers and ranchers, Mesa dog hopping along at his side.

Bud has a strong sense of adventure, and loves to spend as much time playing outside as possible. In the winters, he likes to wake up before sunrise, climb up a local mountain, and ski back down before going into work for the morning. He also loves biking, rafting, and running-especially if he can get out with a group of friends. More than anything though, he loves reading a book on the couch with a strong cup of coffee.

Bud is fun, easy-going, intuitive and will make a great dad. He's excited to read books with his kids, build forts, and take them on adventures. He's been working on his dad jokes for at least 20 years now and can't wait to be a dad.

Our adventures together revolve around our love for the mountains and desert. Our little mountain town has a lot to offer--we can ski, bike, run, hike and raft, all from our front door. Most of what we need they have access to in town--the local library is a great place to find a good read, there's a nice community center with a pool, parks, and a great public school system.

Our town is also home to a group of close friends and neighbors--many of whom are having kids and starting families right now too. We're all excited to raise our kids together.

Daily life together is an adventure--Sara works running the farm from March to November and Bud is often at the farm on evenings helping with irrigation or doing tractor work. Similarly, Bud's work takes him to wild open places throughout the area--he ends up on high altitude ranches, in protected wetlands, wildlife corridors and the forest. Fortunately, both of our jobs are family-oriented and offer flexibility for family and kids.

Our home is peaceful and relaxing. The inside is cozy and (usually) clean, full of books, blankets, and our sleeping pets. Our garage, however, is chaotic and packed with toys-- skis, bikes, paddle boards, a big whitewater raft, tools, and (for now) a tractor. We love cooking together, and alternate taking the lead on what to cook and grocery shopping.

Every year at the end of the farming season, we pack up to take an international vacation somewhere - usually to a beach or new city. We love traveling to nearby Mexico because Sara is fluent in Spanish, we love the culture and food, and there is always so much to explore. We're passionate about raising our kids to understand and appreciate different places, cultures and languages.

Bud's family is large and jovial. His dad is one of five brothers, all of whom are pilots in California. Thanksgiving and Christmas with Bud's family is often 40 relatives gathering for big meals, singing (there's a family theme song), and games. Bud's mom is from a large Irish Catholic family that hosts a week-long reunion every summer at the Jersey shore where 50-100 relatives gather on the beach for a week.

Sara's side of the family is smaller, but close and intimate. Her dad lives in Tennessee

with his girlfriend, her mom is in Texas, she has a sister and nephews in Kauai, and a brother and cousin in LA. Her family talks on the phone and facetimes often. Most of our holidays are spent traveling to see family, or inviting family into our home in Colorado.

After we got married in 2016 we rescued our cat Gary. Gary is a big cat with an even bigger personality. When he's not snuggling on the couch, he's out exploring the neighborhood--where he's famously known and loved by all our neighbors. In 2020 Bud found Mesa, a three-legged black lab in need of a home. Mesa's primary goals in life are to catch squirrels, chew her bone, and to be as close as possible to Bud for optimal petting and snuggling. She goes with either Bud or Sara to work every day and is never alone.

We celebrate holidays with our own developed traditions. We're not that big on gifts,

but are very big on experiences, trips, and shared time together. We love Halloween,

and celebrate D?a de los Muertos to remember the loved ones we've lost over the years. At Thanksgiving we share meals with family and friends and like to smoke a turkey. Christmas is spent with loved ones and the days before or after are spent skiing and playing in the snow. In the spring and summer we watch a lot of baseball and try to make it to a few Dodgers games (go blue!). On the 4th of July we raft on the Colorado River with friends and throw a big bbq.

Thanks for getting to know us. In this profile we've tried to reflect who we truly are. All of the exciting things we get to do are incredible and enriching--we know we're lucky to have the life we live.

But to be honest, no book can really give you the full picture. No one's life is perfect. Sometimes life is hard. We make mistakes. Work can get hard, the days can get long, and sometimes we're too tired to communicate clearly. We've lost family and dear friends too young.

But, we work through it and come out stronger. We've learned some things. We invest time and energy into our relationships, and they make our lives more meaningful. We are constantly practicing forgiveness of ourselves and of each other. We practice patience and kindness. That doesn't mean that we don't struggle. It just means that when we struggle, we try to bounce back quickly and communicate through it. We remind each other how much we love one another. We hug a lot, we cry sometimes, we laugh a lot. Each year we find ourselves facing some new challenge, and every time we come out stronger in our marriage, as a family.

We are so excited to bring little ones into our family. We promise to try our very best and to be the very best versions of ourselves that we can be for our kids. We promise to love them with our very whole hearts and to keep each other accountable for our actions and our communication. We also promise to remember every day how lucky we are to have the family we do.

--Bud & Sara