Happy Birthday to Moi!

Sometimes adult birthdays can be less than spectacular. Just another day filled with the same errands, the same to-dos, the same "stop"s "don't"s and "where in the world did you get the marker?"s. And as an adult, I think I should be pretty ok with that. But truth is, I like to feel special on my birthday. It seems deep down I'm still five years old I guess.

And as it tends to be with birthdays, the ones that should feel special sometimes don't, and the ones that seem fairly ordinary turn out to be pretty special. And so it was with this one. I turned 31 on Monday, which seems pretty ordinary to me (minus the fact that I am now - officially - in my thirties. blech). But fortunately, due to the wonderful people I am blessed to have in my life, it turned out to be extraordinary.

It started with Friday night, when my older sister took K1 and my younger sister took K2 for the weekend. B and I headed up to Vail after work to have dinner with my cousin who was up their skiing with her husband. We met up with them and another couple who had joined them for the weekend, and had a fabulous 3 hour dinner. A dinner that didn't even start until 8:30 pm. It's not often these days I am eating dinner at 8:30 pm - and I can't remember the last time I got to enjoy a 3 hour dinner. Afterwards B and I headed home, getting to bed by about 2 am. It was such great couple time, and such great adult time.

Saturday morning we got up and grabbed an early lunch, then headed to the temple to do a session which was a wonderfully peaceful and much needed respite from the holiday madness. Saturday night B took me to The Fort (a really nice, gourmet steak place). Yes, for those of you that know me well you are probably wondering why B would take me to a steak place for my birthday. I wondered that too. The ambiance was beautiful, and the dinner highly romantic, but I told him for his next birthday I'm taking him to tea at the Brown Palace. Payback's a bee-otch. After that, he took me to a play, which was a lot of fun.

By Sunday it was back to reality, in that we had to get the kiddos again and attend to our weekly duties at church. My actual birthday was a great day, with phone calls and emails from so many people - I can't believe how many people remembered (particularly given the closeness to Christmas - I'm used to people overlooking it). And so many warm wishes and kind words - what a fabulous way to remember how much you're loved. B came home with a dozen long-stemmed red roses, plus two white ones to represent the two of us. Ahhh, so cute ;). And I ended the day with a fabulous girl's night out - 5 of my girlfriends for dinner/dessert, sans kids of course!

So all in all, I couldn't have wished for a happier birthday. It's wonderful to know that your small place in this big world is noted and needed by others. I gather so much strength and happiness from the amazing people I know. Love to you all.