Thirty, Flirty and thriving!!.... ok Twenty is cool too

Do you remember when you were a little kid and the night before your birthday you just could not sleep?? I mean come on as SOON as it was morning the day is about you. Presents, special birthday meals, balloons, cake, candy, and parties. The thought of it is too overwhelming and sleep would certainly get in the way of your imagination of how the next day was going to play out. Birthdays at my house growing up were Always special.. when you woke up you knew that everyone would be waiting down the hallway in the kitchen with donuts and presents. ( The funny part about this is EVERY birthday for every person in our house hold we always "surprised" them with donuts and decorations. We thought every night before their birthday when they went to bed they better not  see their "surprise" this occured for everyones birthday for everyone in our family but i loved it) I am proud to say that I still have a little bit of a hard time sleeping because of my birthday. I just love them what can I say?? this year was the big 2-0 out of the teens for me. I do have to say this was one of the best birthdays i have ever had. I woke up to my sweetheart who made me JUST what i asked for orange julius and yogurt with granola mmmm.mmmm.mmmm. It was delicious. It was sunday on my birthday so after we ate we got ready for to go to church. ( we are members of the church of jesus christ of latter day saints) and spent a few hours there listening to some wonderful messages. around six luke had invited my whole family over and we had a great little party but I want to skip to the gifts!!! this is the best part about my birthday isnt it always>?? I got soo many great gifts this birthday gift cards, a blanket, a BIKE, running clothes, a blanket etc... it was awesome but my most meaningful gift came from my sweet luke. he gave me five gifts and they were PERFECT. he is such a great gift giver. It always comes from the heart with him. Number one:


                                                           A TRIP TO THE ZOO
You should know i LOVE the zoo. there is just something so magical about it. I love watching the polar bear play in the water, i love the way it smells, i love the safari attire the zoo keepers wear. I love watching the monkeys swing from tree to tree and the way that the lion sits just waiting it seems to attack any chance it could. I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE the zoo. So the day after my birthday we took a little trip out to the Hogle Zoo. Which let me tell you has improved immensely since I was a kid. it is even better than before they have made a lot of renovations to the habitats so that you can get closer to the animals. its awesome.! Luke and i had sooo much fun. We ooooed and awed at the animals and we are always succors for cotton candy, ice cream, and cheese pretzals. Dont even worry we ate all of them :) Yes we are still seven years old and we solemnly swear we were up to no good. We had such a fun time together it was such a memorable event and i loved every minute of it.

(I told you i am a little kid i HAD to touch the snake)

Number two, and three: RUNNING CLOTHES

I love to run. it is something that in the past few years I have picked up and I really enjoy. It makes me feel great and I married into a family of people who LOVE to run. my mother in love Melissa is a BIG runner she is one of my running idols and works at wasatch running. My sister in love karalee is also getting into running she runs a TON and loves every minute of it she just finished her second half marathon. How lucky am I to have people who love running like I do?? Anyways I love new running clothes they make me feel so confident while I am running and for some reason give me motivation to work harder. So being the sweetheart he is my husband got me an awesome pair of running shorts and a tank top to go with it. yeaaaahhh!!! 

Number four: A LOVE LETTER

Everybody appreciates knowing how loved they are or being validated and that is something that luke is really good at. He wrote me a heart felt letter about how thankful he was for me and filled with kind words and it was one of the kindest things anyone could have ever done.

****** Last the best of all the game********

Alright ladies and gentlemen this is my FAVORITE story of all. One day Luke and i were sitting in our kitchen talking about our childhood and I told him about this item I had lost when i was little. ( I cant tell you what it is yet or it would ruin the surprise of course) Anyways it was something that i had briefly mentioned to him. He told me he had a gift for me but he had purchased it off of Ebay and could not find any other ones so I would have to wait a few days after mybirthday to get this gift. I kept trying to make him give the surprise away but he held his own and the only hint he gave me was it was something from my childhood that we talked about... I literally had no idea what it could have been... Soo about a week after my birthday i was getting the mail and this envelope came. I thought that it was probably my present and it was addressed to Luke so i went right ahead and opened it (classy i know i didnt even wait for luke to get home from work but i HAD to know) and to my surprise it was THEE most thoughful, cutest, funniest unexpected thing in the world.... 

***now time to unveil the mystery*****

It was a Machoke Poke e mon card. Now let me tell you the story I had told him. My brothers were very into playing Poke e' mon cards. whenever they got their allowances they would buy packs and packs of them. However I was never allowed to touch them or have them. One time and one time only I paid one of them five dollars ( which in kid $$$ might as well of been like giving him $50) that theif!! anyways I had a winnie the pooh wallet that had come with my winnie the pooh backpack.

(it looked something similar to this)

I didnt have any money so I kept my special Poke e mon card in the wallet and brought it to school with me. I bragged to ALL the boys that i had a cool Poke e mon card ( it wasnt even a rare or cool one ps but i loved it none the less) Anyways needless to say one day I lost my wallet and the card and a little piece of my heart broke that day. Luke and i had gotten into a discussion about playing Poke e mon like i said earlier one day and he remembered it and now i have my machoke card. Isnt he special?? I loved my birthday it was so great. 

I blogged a lot about the incredible gifts of that Luke gave me but I am also so thankful for the other gifts I was given I loved them all SOOO much!! thanks for such a great birthday to all of my friends and family!!

xoxo gossip girl

(PS: mom did you send my winnie the pooh wallet to the D.I?? thats always been a curiousity)