Best Birthday Ever

Last week I turned 30. That's right, the big 3-0. Left the twenties behind and am officially in the next decade of my life. Now, most people have a hard time turning 30 since it does sound a lot older than 29, but, thanks to my amazing husband and great friends, I think it's going to be a great decade for me. To help me ring it in, I got not one, but TWO surprise parties! That's right, 2 surprise parties, and I was equally surprised and stunned for both. The first one was the weekend before my birthday with several couples from our ward. I thought we were meeting up with one of the other couples to go to dinner, we were meeting at their place, so I walk in and BAM- SURPRISE!!! Noise makers, balloons, cake, ice-cream, the whole shabang! Many of the couple that were there have young babies, and they all started crying after the initial "Surprise!" It was kinda funny. Even Justin, who is not startled easily. But- that just says how good of a job they all did at jumping out and shouting it with enthusiasm. I just stood there, stunned, still confused if everyone was going to dinner or if I was just missing out on dinner all together. When I saw the cake and ice-cream I realized it was the latter. I was so impressed with how sneaky Ryan had been with his planning.

On my actual birthday, the 2nd, we had a nice steak dinner at home. I got lots of nice texts, phone calls, emails, facebook messages. It was a great day. (Aside from taking JR with me for a little lunch date just the two of us and having one of his favorite toys stolen within like 5 minutes! We accidentally left it, and when we went back, literally 5 minutes later, it was no where and no one was fessing up to having picked it up. Very frustrating.) Ryan came home quicker than ever from school to help with JR and dinner. I was still praising him for the surprise party, so that whole evening was basically just bonus as far as I was concerned.

THEN...on Tuesday of this week, the 8th, I was getting together with a couple of my old roommates for our monthly dinner club and Melissa said she had forgotten about a work party that she had to make an appearance at, so we had to be done by 8. She was hosting, so we had to leave promptly at 8. We hurried through dinner and a little dessert, and Jennifer and I were kicked out. Ryan had called during dinner and asked me to stop and get some light bulbs at the store on my way home- I almost didn't answer, which would have ruined everything, but instead I just turned to Jennifer and said, "I thought it was going to be important, he just needs light bulbs." She and Melissa both managed to keep straight faces even though they knew exactly what was going on. Anyway, I stopped at the store, and then got home and when Ryan opened the door...SURPRISE!!! It was a bunch of my really good friends from before Ryan and I got married. I was shocked and slightly confused to see Jennifer and Melissa there. Apparently, MY party was the "obligatory engagement" that Melissa had to go to! I was so excited to see all my old buddies. It is rare, if ever, that that particular group of people gets together anymore, just us, so that made it really fun and really special for me. Melissa had made one of my favorite cakes of all time- Strawberry (of course!) Sensation!

So- yes, I'm ready to be 30. With a welcome into the decade like that, who wouldn't be excited about it?! I'm still so impressed at Ryan's sneakiness and all my friends who made the effort to make my day a special one.