35, happy birthday to me!

Birthdays are lot of fun when they're not yours. And especially when they're you're kids. I don't think about my birthday a whole a lot these days, but thanks to my sweet hubby and thoughtful girls, this years was awesome!

I made the girls pancakes for breakfast and then dropped them off at our neighbors (they also have three adorable girls and they line up pretty well with our girls) while I went on an eight mile run. So nice! The weather was beautiful, the girls were in good hands and I just enjoyed myself.

Lydia made me a homemade card and cake at school and when I went to volunteer she gave them to me. It was fun to be in the classroom and I took Sophie and Mia with me too. They're so well behaved when we're there that I could bring them each week and it wouldn't be a problem. I love being in Kindergarten and I think it's great that Soph gets to get a sneak peak at what she'll be experiencing in a year and a half.

We'll be gone from church on Sunday so my neighbor (who kindly accepted my request that she sub for me) stopped by so that I could give her some singing time tips. It's funny to think about how far I've come from being terrified to lead music to begin with to actually enjoying it quite a  bit. I love being in there with the kids.

About five years ago Jon's company gave him some gift cards to the Anniversary Inn. With little kids and nursing babies they've just sat and gathered dust. Well, thanks to Isaac 's and Amber for getting the idea rolling we ended up using one of them on my birthday. The girls got to sleep over at Aunt Cathy and Uncle Caleb's and play with their cousins. They were so excited! And when we went to pick them up they asked us to go back to our hotel so that they could stay another night. They got to watch Trolls and play with Roxie. They loved the doll house and playing outside. Mia was our biggest concern, but she had a great time!

And while the girls were having the time of their life we were enjoying Olive Garden and Romeo's Retreat at the Anniversary Inn. This was the longest stretch of time we've ever spent together with no kids. It was a good little getaway and we definitely enjoyed ourselves (uninterrupted conversations and no worries about who was going to wake up in the night) but I'm glad that we enjoy making memories with our girls as much as we do!

 Also, General Conference weekend is always around my birthday. I love spending the day with both families and watching Conference (or looking forward to watching or reading the addresses later) together. Jon's mom and I celebrate our birthdays together at lunch Conference Sunday and Jon always makes me an awesome cake that we take to the Blackhurst side. It's perfect, and a tradition we really like. At least I really like it!

Just after my birthday we drove to Provo to meet up with Nate for ice cream (a tradition the girls say needs to happen WAY MORE OFTEN!!) and got to spend some time with him and Jarom and Brittany and their cute kiddos. It was so fun to be on campus and catch up with family especially since Nate is leaving us once again this summer. Hopefully we'll get to see Jarom and Brittany and company more this summer, but I'm glad for the time we had on this trip. And since Grandpa's house is officially not in the family anymore we decided we'd better go take some pictures in front of it. Lydia was a great photographer and I'm sure Sophie would have been too had she not crashed hard after leaving BYU.

I love this house. I've known it longer than any other place or home I've claimed in my life. So many amazing memories and good times.