Life is Worth Celebrating

I was spoiled this past week. We had a friend (Jared) coming into town from Tallahassee last Wednesday and he's here until Tuesday, so part of his visit was over my birthday. I was a little bummed about this at first, I'm not gonna lie. I told my sister that I blame my parents for the way I feel birthdays should be spent: being spoiled. My parents were always really good at making sure that our birthday was OUR day. We could do whatever we wanted (as long as we went to school), choose our favorite meal for dinner, our favorite cake for wishing, and we got spoiled with presents. It was always really fun.

Anyway, I was a little sad that it wouldn't be just me and Lish or just me with my family on my birthday. I especially wanted something special since this is my last birthday as a non-mom. I know, such a bratty attitude! Don't worry, I got over it. Well, I'm sitting at work on Tuesday, talking to my sister to make the time go faster, when she looks up behind me and says, "Oh, hi!" Lish came walking down the hall and I was so confused. He doesn't just come in like that since it's a half hour commute for me to get to work, so I didn't know what was going on.

"I'm taking you out for an early birthday dinner! I thought we'd go to the top of the Joseph Smith Building because you said a while ago that you wanted to eat there."

He is such a smart man! Dinner was fabulous and it was so nice to have that alone time with my husband and to be out and about with him. It was a wonderful night!Then on Thursday, my sister came up to me at work and said, "Whitney, I forgot my lunch today so do you mind coming downstairs with me to get something to eat?" My computer was being really awful that morning, so I was behind on my work and told her to give me 5 minutes, which probably turned into 15. But I finally finished what I was working on and headed down with her, thinking I'd just be gone for 5 minutes at the most. We walked outside and my mom was there getting some balloons out of her van. Courtney yelled "Mom!" to get her attention, and she turned around and yelled, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!" She and Courtney had planned to kidnap me for lunch and I had no idea! My mom had gotten me balloons, a little cake and a birthday present with a sweet card. It was so much fun to spend time with those girls!

Friday was my actual birthday, yes, Friday the 13th. It was a great day! I woke up with Lish singing to me, then had some yummy coffee cake for breakfast, or something similar to coffee cake, that Karen had made. I went into work a little early so I could leave early. My dad took me and Courtney out for lunch and we ate in the shade by Temple Square. Troy and his girlfriend Beth stopped by to wish me a happy birthday too. After I got off work, I headed down to pick up Karen and Scott and we headed down to Provo to meet up with Lish and Jared. We got to walk around BYU's campus, which was fun because I hadn't done that since I graduated. Then we went to the Brick Oven for dinner, which was delicious! And we went to get ice cream afterward at the creamery. It was such a wonderful way to spend the day!

This wasn't really for my birthday, but it was something I had wanted to do since we moved back out. Saturday we headed up to the Hogle Zoo. I got to see penguins and the one year old elephant! We had a blast seeing the animals and enjoying the time outside.Thank you to my wonderful husband and my amazing family for making my birthday so unbelievable! I really didn't deserve all I was given and am so blessed to have you in my life! I think it's been a great start to the 25th year of my life!