I turned 30!

This year I pretty much had a birthday month instead of just a day or a weekend celebration.  I got to go on a girl overnighter with some neighborhood friends the week before my birthday, and it was so much fun!  We stayed at another neighbor's house up in Coalville.  We drove up together, ate dinner, changed into comfy clothes, then watched 2 movies, ate treats and talked till way too late.  It was a blast.  The next morning we slept in, ate breakfast, then cleaned up after ourselves and headed out.  I tend to forget how beneficial things like this are for my emotional state until I do something like this and realize how much I needed to get away and be with other girls.

Kerry and I just don't really do big birthdays for the two of us, but for Kerry's 30th I put a surprise party together with friends and family, and I told him that I really wanted a party for my 30th, too.  Even though I don't buy into the idea that busting into a new decade of life changes who you are, I do think that it's a great excuse for a get together.   We had friends and family over for cake, ice cream and some games in our backyard.  Too bad we didn't think when we first planned stuff that the it was getting darker so much earlier than in the summer, so we forgot to figure out lighting.  Oops.

The weekend after the party I got to go on a long-awaited girls weekend with my friends Brianna, Jenny, and Erin.  We had decided last fall that we needed to do a girls weekend before we all turned 30 this year.  It got postponed a couple times, but we finally nailed it down to this September.  We stayed at a hotel downtown, got pedicures, ate at The Melting Pot (a fondue restaurant.  Fancy!), and then did a ton of shopping.  I forgot how fun it is to shop with other girls!  I usually have at least one kid with me, or if not, I'm on a pretty tight time schedule, so I can't look around and take my time.  I loved being able to ask what they thought about an item, and seeing the things they chose was just as fun as getting things for me.  After a long day of shopping, we walked to an Olive Garden that was close by and ate dinner.  After that, we all headed our separate ways home.  Sad!  It was so fun to take a break from real life, but I have to say I was excited to see Kerry and the kids when I got home that evening.