27!

What? I turned 27? It's sad knowing every day I am one day closer to 30.... but then again my husband's 32 and a lot of my friends are over 30.... so it must be survivable. :)

My bday fell on a Sunday this year--(not to trash the Sabbath but everyone knows it's the year you just gotta deal... knowing it's not gonna be as fun as the other years!), so we had festivities on Saturday! I got to go to lunch with some of my most favorite people, at my most favorite place--The Cheesecake Factory! oh yeah. It was great. I love these girls! Kim, Lindy, Jacqui, Amber, Chandra and me...after a most delicious time! :) (besides the embarrassment of singing and balloons.....thanks to Amber!)

yay! My own birthday cheesecake. Like I said, I have the best friends.


Later that afternoon I went out to the garage and found a present from Collin--a big freezer! yahoo! I have been wanting one for a long time. Collin is so thoughtful in remembering those things...although I am always pointing out things I want, I'm pretty sure. :) We had agreed on no presents, but he used some of his camp coaching $$ so it was a big surprise. It was so exciting! Now hopefully someday I will be able to start stocking it up!

That night Collin and I got our first non-adult babysitter! She was a sweet little 14 year old in our ward, who has come super highly recommended by everyone I know. I figured it would be ok! As we drove off I think we were both a little nervous..... but it ended up being so great to have a little time to get away by ourselves. We went to this:

And seriously... I don't know what my problem was, but I was so emotional! I cried like 4 or 5 times during it! I began reading the Harry Potter books back before they got huge--when only the 1st and 2nd were out. I was in like 8th grade! Anyway, I'm not a super-freak about them (like, ahem, Tara), but I have read them more than once..... possibly more than twice.... and own them all and all the movies. I guess I felt a little attached, and sad to see it end! Plus there are so many super-cry parts in it anyway, I have even cried every time I read the book. So I guess it wasn't a surprise. I'm just a huge dork. And you better believe when we got home I busted out the book and read it again!

The movie was way shorter than we thought it would be, so we decided to take advantage of our "night away" and check out the Twilight Criterium--a big bike race they hold downtown every year. We actually only ended up watching it because Aspen Leaf (** My FAAAVORITE as of lately) was absolutely packed with a ginormous line, and not worth waiting for, sadly. Plus I had never seen one of these races before.

It was so funny to me, because the street would be all quiet, and then a motor cop would come through with his siren, then a dorky looking ref on a motorcycle, then in like 10 seconds hundreds of bikers would speed by, then it would be all quiet again. I shot a pic, but the flash was on so I actually caught them in action. Don't be fooled, you could never see such detail of any of the racers if you were watching from the sidelines.

THIS is what you would really see! Nothing but a blur. For some reason I thought it was pretty funny. And I was also very impressed because man they go fast!

we finished up the night by grabbing some fries at Five Guys (guess whose idea that was) and then heading home. The babysitter reported that Ashlyn had been great! I guess we will never know.... but hopefully it went well! And it will just get easier, right??! :)



So on my actual birthday, I had to get up at the crack of dawn to make it to the church to practice the dang organ, since I obviously didn't make time for it the day before. And it's always fun when our super-friendly chorister decides to change the hymns at the last second and then balks and publicly ridicules me when I can't play them very well! (insert sarcastic tone for that) But, thus is the life of being a pianist called as the ward organist. I really can't complain, it's once a week and I rotate with 2 other organists. But I don't like it.

Later that afternoon Collin made me a delicious meal of soy-glazed salmon and sauteed vegetables, then we went down to the greenbelt and rollerbladed! It was so great! Thank you everyone for thinking of me, and helping me survive getting another year older!