And the years, they just keep coming

As much as I loved Thanksgiving, a day that I have not been looking forward to reared it's ugly head that weekend- my 30th birthday.  (By the way, if any one is curious about my final 30x30 update, you can find that here.)  On Friday we headed over to Kirk and Debbie's house to celebrate my and Andrew's birthday. We ate chili, opened presents, had delicious desserts and just had a great time.  It was a nice start to my twilight years.  :)

The girls enjoying their chili.  What?  You don't look like that when you eat chili?

Had to post two pictures because apparently it is impossible to have both girls look the same way and (heaven forbid) smile at the same time.  Who knew?

Gramma putting Audrey to work.  She doesn't seem to mind.  :)

Aha!  I suspected more play than work over there.

Charlotte helping me open my presents.  The one she's opening there  is a towel rack for our new bathroom.  She gave me the "Mom, you're nuts" look when I expressed excitement over the towel rack.  I guess I really am getting old.

Charlotte ran off with the camera at some point and took a couple of pictures.  When we were looking through them after I put the pictures on my computer, we got to this one and Charlotte cracked up- "That's Audrey's butt!"

The five alarm fire that was my birthday cake.

Ready to huff and puff.

Uncle Andy had his own fire ball going.  If the picture looks smoky to you, that would be because the room was smoky- there were 57 candles burning at once.  Geez, we're old.  :)

For my actual birthday, I was woken up with breakfast in bed- the first I've ever had!  Charlotte and Matthew made me eggs, bacon and bread and brought it down to our room.  It was pretty awesome.  Charlotte was quite proud and proceeded to eat half of my bacon and most of my eggs.  I love her.  Afterwards, we hung around Kirk and Debbie's for awhile and then headed out to meet our good friends, Dave and Carla, for lunch.  It was so nice to spend a nice long lunch catching up with old friends.  I can't imagine a better way to spend my birthday.  While I am relieved there are no pictures of my breakfast and my rocking bed head (nobody needs to see THAT), I am disappointed I didn't pull my camera out at lunch. We'll have to get pictures of them at Christmas!

After lunch, I killed some time shopping while Matt stayed in the car with our napping girls.  We met my extended family for an early dinner at Bravo! Italian.  It was quite yummy and it was nice to continue my celebration with my wonderful family.  (By the way, does it seem ironic to any one else that for my 30th birthday (AKA my entry into old age), dinner reservations were made for 4:30?  I'm surprised they didn't make me order a senior special of an early bird menu!  Actually, it was designed so my brother could make his 7:20 flight, but I still felt the sting. :) )

Me and my girls after dinner by the tree at Zona Rosa, the shopping plaza where the restaurant was located.

Isn't this tree lovely?  I love Christmas.

The fam.  Best thing I've made in 30 years.  :)

After dinner, the first generation babysat the third generation so the second generation could go out sans children (OR my parents, aunts and uncles babysat my kids and their cousin so I could go out with my cousins for my birthday.  However you want to phrase it.  Are all these words necessary?  I must be getting wordy in my old age).  I met my in-town cousins, brother and sister-in-law and my dear college friends, Megan and Jiao (watch her!) and their husband/fiances (Andrew and Jason, respectively) for appetizers and dessert at Julian.  The restaurant was AWESOME and I loved everything about it.  I was excited to eat there since the chef, Celina Tio, was not only on Top Chef Masters and the Next Iron Chef, she is also a James Beard Award winning chef.  Sign me up!  We finished the night off at a bowling alley in Mission, KS, location significant because in Kansas, bowling alleys (and bars and restaurants and everything else) are smoke free.  Sign me up!  Good for all of us, but especially Stephanie and Megan, the two preggos of the group.  Megan was adorable with her belly and totally made me want to be pregnant again.

All in all, it was a pretty darn good birthday.  I may even go out on a limb and say it was my best.  I spent the entire day surrounded by my family and friends.  Each and every person I spent time with that day has made my life full and beautiful.  30?  No biggie.  They were an amazingly wonderful and blessed 30 years and I can't wait to see what the next 30 have to bring.  My cup runneth over.