Happy Birthday to Me!

{thirty}

Last week I turned the big three-o!
28 & 29 pretty much felt like 30 so this birthday didn't phase me much.
I think 40 will the one that will be weird.

On Labor Day we went to Kaysville to spend the day with
the Tew family and celebrate a few birthdays.

My nephew JJ turned 10...
and those candles didn't stand a chance!


Treinta Anos for me...
and Mabel stuck her finger in the cake.
Just like her mama - can't resist some good carrot cake
with cream cheese frosting.

My mother-in-law Georgia turned 62 and let all the grandkids
help her blow out her candles. :)

~30 ACTS of KINDNESS~

Initially for this birthday I wanted to do something BIG. 

Big as in go to South America and help dig a well.

But that didn't quite pan out so I scaled things down a bit.

I decided I wanted to do 30 acts of kindness...
small and large acts to those I know and don't know.
I quickly realized that was a little much to attempt in one day
so I have given myself the whole month
and I have been recording the experiences in my journal.

On my actual birthday Mabel and I donated 30+ pounds of food to
the emergency food pantry at Crossroads Urban Center.
During my final year in the BSW program at the University of Utah,
my internship was with Crossroads, specifically with one of their
 advocacy groups CORC.  We happened to drop off food as
CORC members were leaving to meet for a rally downtown.
We joined them and one of my friends, Reverend Lee,
had Mabel cracking up in no time.
It was great to catch up with CORC members...
several of them had never met my little miss.
I love this girls laugh.

UPS delivered a big box that day and Nate said I couldn't

open it until he got home.  He came home from work 

early and inside the box were new knives!

I have been wanting new knives for a long time...

just couldn't bring myself to spend money on knives even

though I use them a ton.  Thanks Nate!

I have only sliced my fingers three times already.

Then my sister-in-law Kristy came over to watch
Mabel for the night so we could go out on the town!

Kristy brought balloons for me and one for Mabel.

We were both happy campers.

Admittedly, I really wanted a birthday balloon!

I have always wanted to try Kyoto so we went
to Salt Lake to test it out.

GREAT sushi.
Happy 30 year old right there.

After dinner we stopped by Real Foods in Sugarhouse
to say hi to Elisha.  She was giving out samples
of their raw milk.  It's REALLY good.

Dr. Better and my new foxy purse.

We finished the night with Nielson's frozen custard.

Nate was being so funny the whole night...

my stomach hurt from laughing.

A few days later I ran a 10k in Payson.

It was my birthday present to myself and it was for a good cause.

Payson is lovely country to run in...it was my first

time racing in the evening.  I thought I might die when I got out of the car

and it was 95 degrees.  I think I'll stick with morning runs.

Plus I got attacked by mosquitoes!

On Sunday Nate gave me another gift.
A compilation of the sweetest (and funniest) notes
from so many friends and family.
I felt so special reading through them,
Thank you to everyone who sent a note, thought, or memory -
I will cherish these forever!

PS: I have been wanting to get shelves in our office since we moved in
two years ago.  We finally got some, yay!
The office is SLOWLY becoming more functional.