My Next Decade

I've always considered myself an old soul.  I have often felt older than my age, seem to be a bit boring at times, and enjoy the sound of silence more often than not.  After getting married so young, and even having my first baby at what now feels like such a young age, I have often been self-conscious of my age and the things that I was doing as a 25 year-old versus what others that age were doing.  And honestly the older I get the more I realize just how young I really was!  But I don't regret one moment of my twenties.  I accomplished so much (a great marriage, three beautiful kids, a college degree, exciting work experiences), lived all over the country, made wonderful memories with family and friends, and grew and matured along the way.  It was a great decade, but in a weird way I've always been looking forward to thirty and being able to feel like my age had finally caught up to where life had taken me.

So unlike many others, I have welcomed my thirties with open arms.  I feel more comfortable in my own skin than I ever have before, I have the greatest people surrounding and supporting me, and 99% of the time I feel truly happy with this life I get to live.

The day of my birthday was truly one of the best days I have had in a long time.  It started out with a prenatal massage and pedicure with one of my besties, who then treated me to lunch and a birthday surprise.  I have been patiently waiting for both that massage and pedicure for nearly 18 months, since the last time I had them scheduled I ended up going into labor and having to cancel them, and they did not disappoint.

After lunch I met the family back at home and we loaded up for a weekend in Utah.  We had a full agenda of Easter BBQs, baby showers and conference, and we were excited to spend time with the people we loved.  Since usually we don't get to be around our families on our birthdays and I knew we would be in Logan that night, I started dropping hints about getting together with people to celebrate.  After a while I just flat out told Ryan we should plan a get together somewhere, but he ended up being kind of weird about it and saying he just wanted to go out with me.  Plus it was a pretty busy weekend with multiple parties and family gatherings, so he assured me we would just celebrate at one of those points.  I thought it was kind of weird, but also figured he was planning a special date night or something.  He had mentioned wanting to go to The Bluebird for dinner since that is where we went on our very first date, and I thought maybe he had something nostalgic for the two of us planned.  So that was that--we would take advantage of a free babysitter (thanks, grandma!) and go spend some time together.

When we first pulled into Logan we had a few hours until his mom would be home from work and we could go out, so we decided to head over to campus and walk around with the girls.  We obviously go to Logan all the time, but for some reason we have never taken our girls over to visit the places that hold so many wonderful memories for us.  It was the BEST afternoon visiting the bookstore, taking pictures on the A and eating Aggie Ice Cream at 4:30 pm.  It seriously made my heart so happy and was the best birthday present ever.

Soon it was time to head back and drop the girls off for our date, so we said our goodbyes and off to dinner we went.  Dinner was as nostalgic as ever, with Bluebird's watery salads and all.  I love that Ryan's family lives in Logan so that I can take some sort of trip down memory lane every time we visit.  That town just holds so many special memories for me.  After dinner we decided to browse around a few stores, and then head back up to have cake and ice cream with the girls.

When we pulled around the corner to Ryan's parent's house, the street and driveway were packed with cars--many that I recognized as belonging to siblings, grandparents and friends.  I immediately knew something was up, and was so happy to be welcomed home by so many of my favorite people.  Ryan and Kyrsten had been scheming for weeks to plan and little surprise party to celebrate my big day, and so many people came out to support and show their love.  It meant so much to me and it was such a fun  night.

It was honestly one of the best days ever.  I felt so happy and loved the entire time, and who couldn't feel good about turning another year older if that means more time and more memories with the greatest friends and family on the planet.