The big 3-0!

It got here. The day I thought I'd dread. I turned 30. :) Actually, months before my birthday, I started getting excited just like every year (yes, I do start counting down to my birthday approximately nine months beforehand - don't judge :)). Then as it approached, I became kinda bummed about it. Why? I have no idea. ANYWAY - I snapped out of it and became kid-on-Christmas-Eve-excited as usual. I believe I called my mom every day for two weeks to remind her my birthday was coming up. It's our annual ritual, and it's a silly one: I call my parents to tell them, "Hey! Did you know that my birthday is in __ days?" And my mom will say, "I do know! I was there!" and my dad will say, "And it was the longest day of my life!" (He thinks he's hilarious :))

Again, I digress. My birthday was on a Sunday this year (October 24) so naturally, we began celebrating on Saturday. We went out to dinner with Lynn, Kris, Leslie and Skye to Flyte and it. was. amazing, as was the margarita cheesecake that Lynn made for me. WOW. We then went to Patterson House for a drink and that was pretty fantastic, too! I felt like a grownup - ha!

Sunday morning (the big day!) John Michael and the babies made my breakfast, and then we headed to Arrington Vineyards for a few hours with Lynn, Kris, Holland & Quinn; Sam (boss' husband), Shauna (my sweet boss) and Claire (Shauna and Sam's beautiful 2-year-old); and Sam (coworker) and Shelly (his adorable wife). The kids all ran around and had a BLAST! I have never seen five kids who were so dirty! And there were no meltdowns! Miracle, I tell ya. That may have been due to the fact that they had chocolate cake AND cupcakes to keep them occupied, along with the sticks they insisted on carrying while they ran (!).

From there we went to Mimi & PawPaw's for more yummy food. I swear, I know it sounds like I ate the whole weekend, but...well, I think I really did. HA! It was awesome! My mom made one of my favorite meals, a pork loin (a particular one - recipe by Emeril Lagasse - I'm not sure what it's really called; we just call it the "Emeril roast") and a chocolate truffle cheesecake. Double yum.

But wait, there's more! Monday I obviously had to work, and I was actually in Day Three of a four-day training class. My friends Brandi and Shauna surprised me by having an extra slide added to the PowerPoint (they did this during our lunch break - still not sure how I didn't see them!) and bringing ANOTHER cake and more cupcakes! Everyone in the class sang to me, which was half-embarrassing, half-awesome (I can't lie - I loooove birthdays so!).

We celebrated one last time on Wednesday by going out to lunch with some more of my coworkers. Yes, more food.

All in all, it was one of my best birthdays yet. Oh, and by the way, it's 11 months and 13 days til my birthday! :D

Arrington photos!

My world, hovering over a barrel :)

I'm going to try to pretend that this wasn't a trash can, and that my son wasn't playing inside said trash can. But I'm pretty sure I'm pretending for naught...

(These three photos swiped from Kris' Facebook account - taken with his iPhone)

Boys!

"God made dirt so dirt don't hurt."

Addie requested that I wear her tiara, just for a few minutes. It says "Birthday Girl" and she likes to wear it year round. That's my girl!