One year older (and wiser? the world may never know...)

Today was my birthday. I'm 26. Officially on the downslope of my twenties. That's kind of a sad place to be. Once your out of your twenties it feels like you're not really part of the "young adult" club anymore. You're just adult. Maybe you're too old to hang out at young hip hang outs or concerts. Hopefully not. I know a lot of really cool thirty-plusers who are still hanging with the best of them. Either way though, I'm not a young college kid anymore. It's especially apparent since I work at a University and those freshman keep getting younger and younger. I still feel like I just barely graduated from high school but we've got people in college now that graduated eight years after me. That's crazy.

It's because of this afore-mentioned job that I found myself waking up at 4:00 AM on my birthday. I'm all for living your birthday to it's fullest, but never have I seen so many hours of my birthday one after another. This is how I felt:

I had volunteered to help with this Golf Fundraiser for the Business School and it was up in Midway. We had to be there at 6:00 which meant we had to leave Salt Lake at 5:00 which explains why I was up at 4:00. As my husband, family and former roommates all know, I'm not at my best first thing in the morning. My sister Kelly likes to make fun of my groggy morning face as I look all confused around me at the world and try to figure out what's going on (sweet kelly of the morning).

So sure enough I was stumbling around getting ready in the dark so I wouldn't wake Adam and feeling all sorry for myself for having to get up so early (and on my birthday!) when I went down to my car and saw this on the seat:

My sweet perfect husband had taken the time the night before to write me this wonderful letter and leave it in my car so I'd have something happy to see in the morning. I didn't get a chance to read the letter till later in the morning but I cried through the whole thing. I am the luckiest woman in the world. Have you ever heard of the five love languages? My top love language is definitely words of appreciation and so this letter was perfect. I needed nothing more all day. Man, I really love this boy. He thinks of the most perfect things all the time to make sure I feel loved.

So I got to drive up with three wonderful people (my co-workers Sue and Ami and Ami's husband Todd) that made me laugh and made the earliness fun. Sue was nice enough to buy eclairs the night before so we'd have a yummy birthday treat. We had talked before about stopping for breakfast at McDonald's in Heber before we got to the golf course so all of us had planned on that. Unfortunately, Mickey D's wasn't planning on it and the restaurant wasn't open at 6:00 am (only in Heber...). We were really bummed. And hungry. So eclairs it was. That's a sweet way to wake you up (thanks again, Sue)!

The golf course was fun and the world was surprisingly beautiful that early in the morning (the sunrise, the green grass, the morning mist blanketing everything..). Sue and I got put at a whole with two guys from the Utah Blaze Football team. They had a huge inflated helmet out on the fairway and if the golfers could hit it they won season tickets to the Blaze. As the four of us sat there all morning (two Blaze guys and Sue and I) it came out that I had never been actual golfing in my life. That became the group's conquest for the rest of the morning-- to get me to hit my first golf ball. They all three gave me lessons on how to hold the club and the right arm and leg positions and the whole works.

So, finally after all the golfers came through I took a swing. After hitting the grass a couple times I finally hit my ball and let's just say it wasn't exactly a hole in one. Ah, well. At least the lessons were fun.

We had to pick up signs on the course which meant we had to drive a golf cart around. I had never done that either and Sue kept being so nice and letting me have/do anything I wanted since it was my birthday. I think driving the cart was way more fun than the actual golfing. Maybe I'll start a second job...

All in all the day turned out to be pretty fun. And they fed us a yummy steak lunch, so who can complain about that? Ami and Todd and Sue all made it a great day.

I got home after work (had a great visit from a certain BFF named Les) and met up with Adam when he got home. He said I could pick the place for dinner and I picked my old Logan favorite (which they've now opened in Centerville), Firehouse. Mmmmmm. I'm hungry just thinking about how good the food was. Foccacia bread, Cordon Bleu pasta, FH'zookie... I could die a happy woman.

When we got home Adam asked if I was ready for my present. I said yes and he said, "Okay, there's one hidden in each room of the house on this floor.. good luck!" FUN!! My sweet husband made my presents a treasure hunt? Oh, he really is the best. And especially living in this house cause there are so many nooks and crannies and fun cupboards in every room (this never would've worked in our apartment). I loved it. It was way fun to go around the house and find the presents. Adam really does birthdays well (remember last year when he toilet papered my house and then texted me every hour? he does a great job of making me feel remembered and loved which is really the whole point. Stuff, schmuff, this is the good stuff).

It was a wonderful day. Thank you to everyonewho called or texted or facebooked or dropped by-- I've got the best friends and family in the world.

Oh you thought the story was over? Yeah, so did we. Until we woke up the next morning to find this:

Turns out (to keep the tradition of "TPing on Steph's Birthday" alive) my siblings Ryan and Kelly came over in the middle of the night and toilet papered the INSIDE of our house (darn living in a place that EVERY relative has a key to!). They may have won the battle...