Birthday Party

I've had some good birthdays in my life. I've had some other not so great ones. This year definitely goes into the good birthday category. It was so, SO great.
I was planning on not doing much for my birthday. Go to work, go to plasma, maybe dinner with a friend and probably end up watching a movie at Katie's house. Hang out with the married friend, that's how I roll. :) My friends had a different, MUCH BETTER, idea.
Aubrey planned me a party at my favorite pizza place, Pizza Pie Cafe. It was packed! Luckily we had a section reserved.
So my day. I started out with the crying episode over the candy bar letter, followed with the temple and breakfast. Work was normal until around 3 when Katie showed up with cupcakes for the office, thus alerting everyone that it was indeed my birthday. They gave me the rest of the day off. That's always nice. So what did I do with that new found free time? I went home and did the dishes. :( They needed to be done and now I don't have to worry about them for the rest of the weekend. After the dishes was plasma, where it was threatened they would sing happy birthday, luckily I escaped that AND the double sticks they were threatening. Lucky me.
After plasma I was off to Pizza Pie. I LOVE MY FRIENDS. So many great people in my life came.
Katie, Marc and their baby came. This was the only picture with Katie and I in it.

The random people who didn't fit into any of my other picture categories. Dustin from Alaska, David from Plasma (that band on my arm is compliments of him), Trent from my ward, and Laura from a previous ward.

My cousins! Emma and Rick on the left from my mom's side and Connor on the right from my dad's side. Too bad McKenna wasn't there as well.

The girls from Aubrey's ward. Her roommate Erin and Liz, who was actually roommates with my cousin Carli. Small world.

The mission girls. Emily, Pamela and Sarah. Sarah actually drove all the way from West Valley just for my birthday. Happy Birthday to her on Tuesday!

Me and Aubs. What a great party she gave me!

I was really excited about the "dense" cake! And I blew out all 27 candles. I almost didn't make it. Hopefully my wish comes true, too bad I can't make another one.

To finish up my night my home teachers Kory and Josh + Trent dropped by. I have home teachers! and they actually home teach me! And they come to my birthday party! BEST HOME TEACHERS EVER! And aren't they just so handsome too?

So basically what I'm saying is that it was an awesome birthday. Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes and all the support you have always given me. I love you!

Make a wish!

Last night we braved the wet snow to celebrate Chinese New Year. A student from BYU who is from China brought back a whole bunch of floating lanterns when she went home for the holidays and then she invited all who wanted to participate to come and light a lantern.

It was so fun to look up and see them floating away into the snowy night.

I guess you're suppose to write wishes all over the lantern and then you let them float away and they will all come true. Or something like that. I was a little bit late so I may have missed the explanation. Most people just made a wish in their mind and then let the lantern float away. That was the option I chose.

It was a really fun activity and I think we've decided to find some more lanterns and make a date out of it.

Here's to hoping my wish comes true in 2012.

What a weekend.

This weekend was crazy! I'm learning that I'm just not as young as I use to be and staying up really late multiple nights in a row just isn't as easy as it once was. But it's still really fun.
Thursday started off the madness of it all. I'm a mentor for 4-h and we went roller skating. I had not been roller skating in about 8 years, but I managed to not fall down a single time. Go me! Sadly though, the skates gave me a couple blisters on my right ankle and my back was pretty sore by the end. After dropping off my mentee I got a text telling me about a s'mores party so I headed over.
I was instantly a hit with my awesome jacket my brother gave me for Christmas, not that that's important, but it was still fun. We sat outside with the coals for a long time and had a delightful time. When the coals died down we headed inside and played around on the guitars. (I just sat and observed since my guitar skills are non-existent). We had a nice chat and finally headed home at 12:30. Night one over.
Friday night I took my friend Aubrey out to dinner for her birthday. We had a lovely time at Brick Oven and then headed to a birthday party for another friend who shares the same birthday as Aubrey. After a couple games of Bananagrams, an amazing trampoline routine, and the movie Thor, I headed home. This night wouldn't have been too late (I got home around 12 ish), but Aubrey's birthday was Saturday and I still had not finished her present so I stayed up until 2 binding the quilt that I actually made for her last year. Hurray for finally finishing.

Saturday was Aubrey's birthday party and I went over early with her to help her set up. What a party it was! So many people and such a great time. I stayed and helped with clean-up and then helped her carry her stuff in when we got home. It was a 1 am bedtime.
Sunday I had a baby blessing to attend at 9am. Thanks to my multiple late nights I woke up at 8:40 and only barely made it to the blessing.
It was a fantastic weekend, but man, I really can't stay up so late all the time.