Monday, January 30, 2012

How to Celebrate a January Birthday...

Last week I celebrated my birthday.  And, it was a big one.  And, it was in January.

Could it be more depressing?

Luckily for me, it was the furthest thing from depressing.  In fact, it was pretty close to heaven.  You see, I got to spend my birthday here and it was warm and sunny and glorious.

Siesta Key Beach, Florida

I started off my birthday with an early morning walk along the beach with my good friends, Brandon Flowers and Taylor Swift.  I looked for beautiful seashells and felt the soft, white sand between my toes. (Which, by the way, is the most amazing feeling a person can have in the middle of January.)  I walked a long way and thought about the past ten years - and contemplated the next ten years - and felt pretty good about all of it.  It was a perfect way to start off my birthday.

When I got back to our condo, I was greeted by my six favorite people who had been hard at work to surprise me.  They had decorated the whole condo with streamers and balloons and they were so excited to wish me a Happy Birthday and to blow their party horns for the next hour and a half.

Andrew didn't make it into the picture - but he's included in "my favorite people."

I spent my day on a lounge chair enjoying things I love - namely, my family, the beach, blue skies, sunshine, and Diet Coke.




Can't have a January birthday without a snowman.  We called this one, "Sno Rida."


Andrew and Isaac

It doesn't get better than this...

My birthday ended with a family dinner, a dessert sampler (that was devoured in about 45 seconds),


And an incredible sunset we watched from our balcony.


I ended the day much the way I started it; feeling so blessed. by people and goodness in my life.  It was the perfect way to go from one decade to the next.  And I hope that this new decade will bring as much joy as the last one.

And when we got home from our trip, I found perched high in our 60-foot pine tree, Andrew's tribute to my birthday.  Lucky for our neighbors, they got to enjoy this beautiful site, the whole time we were gone.  At least there isn't any doubt in anyone's mind just how old I am.



And that's how you do a January birthday!


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Wednesday, January 18, 2012

A Week Away

I am less than a week away from turning 40.  And, I'm okay with that.

Last night as I was lying in bed thinking about the last decade of my life, I thought about where I was ten years ago, and where I am now and about all the things that have happened in between.



Here I am at 30.  We spent my birthday in New York.  It was cold and snowy and Andrew, Abby and I had a great time walking all over the city.  It was only four months after 9/11 and it was sobering to visit Ground Zero.

It's crazy to think that ten years ago, we only had Abby.  She was seven months old and our world revolved around her.  I can't even picture my life with only one child.  What did I do all day?

Andrew was in his third year of medical school, still not sure what he wanted to specialize in.  We were living in our tiny but perfect 820 square foot apartment in Arlington, Virginia.  I was driving my white 1996 Honda Accord and Andrew was driving a 1992 Volkswagen Jetta (a car he claims would have been amazing when he graduated from high school, but had definitely seen better days by the time we got it.)  All our friends had tiny kids - none of them had even started preschool by then.  It was an amazing time in our lives.

It's crazy to think that in those ten "short" years, we have gone from one to five children.  Andrew graduated from medical school and we moved to Minnesota.  We had three great years there while Andrew finished residency and now we've been back in Utah for over FIVE years.

My thirties were a great decade.  I did so much of what I had spent my life dreaming about - having babies and raising lots of little kids.  There was so much joy in my thirties - and not too much heart ache or sorrow.  I will always look back on my thirties as a golden decade, but I am ready to hit the big 4-0.  I'm ready to see what the next decade will bring.  Bring it on, Life.  Bring it on.
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