Maybe you haven't heard me say it enough yet, but I love birthdays. Not just mine. I love everyone's birthday!
They should be celebrated all day long. So that is what I did.
(But really, why would anyone not like their birthday? The opposite of loving that you were born and that you are still alive to experience life is like wishing you were dead right? And that is heartbreaking. So love your birthday okay? Whatever it takes to make that happen for you, do it.)
Anyways, I decided it would be the perfect day for a girls day at Lagoon since Frightmares was open, most of our husbands don't like roller coasters anyway and I haven't been on a roller coaster since 2011, before I had kids. Lucky for me Becca, Lindsay and Tyne were all able to come!
Fun fact: all 4 of our preschoolers are in the same preschool class together!
As soon as they opened the gates at 10am we were there.
The weather forecast showed an 80% chance of rain. All day long. BUT actually the weather was perfect! It rained for maybe 30 minutes the whole day. So since the weather forecast scared away most of the crowds we got to nearly walk onto all the rides. After riding Wicked 3x in a row without even having to get out of our seats I lost count of how many times we rode each ride! The Rocket I know was 3. The workers remembered us when we'd go back to the rides though. We're like regulars now.
Cannibal was our favorite though! One time around it got a little windy on Cannibal and the waterfall got blown into our faces, but it was so stinkin fun!
We did 3 of the haunted houses, but the clown one (which was only 3 spiders scary) was pretty sweet so we went back through that one a second time. We had our formation down too. I was in front, then Becca holding onto me, then Tyne and Lindsay in the back of our sandwich. Worked Perfect.
We stayed clear until 10:30pm!
We talked, we laughed, I ate dippin dots and I can't believe we lasted over 12 hours.
Friday night Ashley took me to Thai House to get Mango Curry and Mango Sticky Rice! Same place we went last year, that I have been craving to go back to ever since. So good!
Thank you Ashley!
Wednesday my mom came down and took us to Tucanos for our birthdays. #freebirthdaymeal
Also, I never knew that kids 6 and under eat free there! Best deal ever! We ended up running back in to get some passion fruit mousse before we left. We didn't use our free meals last year so it's been a couple years since we've had some.
Thank you mom!
Also, Kyle got up and made me breakfast before I went to Lagoon on Saturday. This is what we call a Chaz bagel. It's a mix of 2 Gandolfos breakfast sandwiches. Fried egg, turkey, swiss and avocado on a toasted bagel. So good!
The week before that my dad took me to lunch at Costa Vida for my birthday (mom has been sick with pancreatitis again darn it).
Thank you dad!
The kids were asleep when I got home from Lagoon (obviously, cause it was almost midnight) so they sang and we ate cake Sunday morning. My favorite Dairy Queen ice cream cake.
The kids sang a version of Happy Birthday that is one of those songs that never ends, but I was loving that they just kept going!
Kyle knows how much I love experience gifts so next week he is taking me to see comedian, Drew Lynch! And for his birthday we are going to a Jazz game at the end of the month. Making memories together are the best kind of gift. Especially when quality time is your love language.
Kyle knows how much I love experience gifts so next week he is taking me to see comedian, Drew Lynch! And for his birthday we are going to a Jazz game at the end of the month. Making memories together are the best kind of gift. Especially when quality time is your love language.
Kyle let them pick out the card and draw on it. Again I am super impressed with the version of our family that Kasen drew. First time I've really seen his drawing look like people! And the part about hiking is so funny because Tai keeps telling us that next time she wants to hike the Y. Whenever we go somewhere she wants to know if we're going to hike the Y.
Thank you for all of the birthday wishes! One of my brothers even remembered this year :) And a huge shout out to those images that were FRIENDS memes! Yaaassss!
My favorite was this list that my mom posted on Facebook for me though. Similar to what I did for Mother's and Father's Days this year.
In
honor of your 31st Birthday, I am sharing 31 memories. Happy Birthday
to my daughter and lots of love to you today and always.
31 memories with you:
1. The first moment I saw and held you. I cried with joy.
2. How you liked to rub strands of my hair between your fingers as you fell asleep when you were an infant. That habit transferred to the silk edges of your blankey.
3. Your favorite blankey and how I managed to buy the same blanket 3 different times before it went out of production and you held onto that last one until it was so worn. Then your excitement as a teen when you discovered that I had tucked it away for you.
4. Playing chase around the partition in the house when you were a toddler and hearing you squeal and laugh when I would backtrack and catch you.
5. Watching you line up all of your Dr. Suess books down the hall end to end, having me read each one to you, and then placing them back in the line.
6. Watching you meet your new brother and announcing to the nurse that he pooped in his first bath.
7. Letting me pick the gravel out of your ice cream cone after I dropped it on the ground and being ok to eat it.
8. Watching you learn to ride your new pink bike.
9. Holding my hand when you were 3 and we took a small plane from Maitland to Sydney that was more turbulent than I expected and telling me I would be ok.
10. Your excitement at announcing that we were expecting your little sister and getting to take her to school for show and tell.
11. The first time you tried making cookies by yourself and used 1 cup instead of 1 teaspoon of baking soda.
12. Getting rolls of film back during your early years as a budding photographer and seeing that most of the pictures were of Socks. That was back in the days before digital cameras.
13. Sitting for three hours at a time to braid your hair into corn rows.
14. Coming home from work to a spotless house.
15. Listening to you quote nearly every line from Emperor’s New Groove
16. Listening as you read Harry Potter books to us.
17. Teaching you to drive and watching you drive around the block over and over when we were visiting friends in a small town and I could see all around the block as you would make your way around.
18. Skiing
19. Karaoke on our cruises
20. Feeling safe enough to talk to me about sex when other friends didn’t dare ask such questions of their parents.
21. Crying and letting me hug and reassure you when you thought you were going to get fired barely 3 weeks into your first job because someone scammed you.
22. All of your graduations.
23. All of the fun vacations. Camping, Bryce Canyon, North Carolina (& listening to you sing banjolo at 1 am in a hotel room), Disney World, Tuachan, Vegas, Huntington Beach & Sea World, Caribbean cruise, Yellowstone, NYC & the Bahamas, Bear Lake,
24. All of the one-liners you come up with and your wit.
25. The time you tried talking me into just going through a red light that was taking forever to change, and then after it finally turned green seeing police lights come on and the car behind me get pulled over by the police car that was behind them. I can imagine what the conversation would have been like had I taken your advice and ended up being the one pulled over. “My daughter told me to”.
26. Game nights
27. Conquering my fears and going skydiving with you.
28. Spending time scrapbooking together.
29. When you rode the train to come to Sacramento to help me move back to Utah.
30. Seeing your face when I was able to come to the Temple to see you be married.
31. Watching you become a mother for the first time.
31 memories with you:
1. The first moment I saw and held you. I cried with joy.
2. How you liked to rub strands of my hair between your fingers as you fell asleep when you were an infant. That habit transferred to the silk edges of your blankey.
3. Your favorite blankey and how I managed to buy the same blanket 3 different times before it went out of production and you held onto that last one until it was so worn. Then your excitement as a teen when you discovered that I had tucked it away for you.
4. Playing chase around the partition in the house when you were a toddler and hearing you squeal and laugh when I would backtrack and catch you.
5. Watching you line up all of your Dr. Suess books down the hall end to end, having me read each one to you, and then placing them back in the line.
6. Watching you meet your new brother and announcing to the nurse that he pooped in his first bath.
7. Letting me pick the gravel out of your ice cream cone after I dropped it on the ground and being ok to eat it.
8. Watching you learn to ride your new pink bike.
9. Holding my hand when you were 3 and we took a small plane from Maitland to Sydney that was more turbulent than I expected and telling me I would be ok.
10. Your excitement at announcing that we were expecting your little sister and getting to take her to school for show and tell.
11. The first time you tried making cookies by yourself and used 1 cup instead of 1 teaspoon of baking soda.
12. Getting rolls of film back during your early years as a budding photographer and seeing that most of the pictures were of Socks. That was back in the days before digital cameras.
13. Sitting for three hours at a time to braid your hair into corn rows.
14. Coming home from work to a spotless house.
15. Listening to you quote nearly every line from Emperor’s New Groove
16. Listening as you read Harry Potter books to us.
17. Teaching you to drive and watching you drive around the block over and over when we were visiting friends in a small town and I could see all around the block as you would make your way around.
18. Skiing
19. Karaoke on our cruises
20. Feeling safe enough to talk to me about sex when other friends didn’t dare ask such questions of their parents.
21. Crying and letting me hug and reassure you when you thought you were going to get fired barely 3 weeks into your first job because someone scammed you.
22. All of your graduations.
23. All of the fun vacations. Camping, Bryce Canyon, North Carolina (& listening to you sing banjolo at 1 am in a hotel room), Disney World, Tuachan, Vegas, Huntington Beach & Sea World, Caribbean cruise, Yellowstone, NYC & the Bahamas, Bear Lake,
24. All of the one-liners you come up with and your wit.
25. The time you tried talking me into just going through a red light that was taking forever to change, and then after it finally turned green seeing police lights come on and the car behind me get pulled over by the police car that was behind them. I can imagine what the conversation would have been like had I taken your advice and ended up being the one pulled over. “My daughter told me to”.
26. Game nights
27. Conquering my fears and going skydiving with you.
28. Spending time scrapbooking together.
29. When you rode the train to come to Sacramento to help me move back to Utah.
30. Seeing your face when I was able to come to the Temple to see you be married.
31. Watching you become a mother for the first time.
So that was my birthday. I am 31 years old.
<3 <3
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