april 14, 1987

yes. yes i am. last wednesday i turned the big 2-3. 

(that would be grandpa who turned 87 on the 8th - the blurred man, not the monkey)

it was a really great day to say the least. i didn't have any expectations 

and that might just be why i loved it so much. 

                                                                                           

it started the night before when ashlie's roommate melanie made me a delicious birthday heart shaped sugar cookie. love her for that.

then i slept over at their house and woke up to this. 

around 8:30 we went to magleby's for breakfast, got ready, then headed over to byu to look for my scriptures. bless the soul who took them to the lost and found. 

i had to fill out a slip about the item lost. i put "priceless" for the value and i think the office girl hated it. 

                                              

she loved this.

after lost and found time we went to the temple and it was quite the adventure. i'm retarded and forgot my renewed recommend thinking my old one would still work since it was still april haha..don't ever do that. but the nice old people let us sit in the lobby while they worked things out and we had a great time people watching. we even saw eve of the future! neither one of us had done sealings before so we did that and i loved it so much! except for the part when i had to kneel across the alter with a complete stranger. that was a bit stressful so i avoided eye contact and reminded myself of the service i was rendering. speaking of, i did some work for "mary", "mother", and "harriet beecher stowe" i think Heavenly Father knew it was my birthday!

                                   

after that we hit up panda express. it was a happy moment when i looked up at these signs and could not only read the english but the chinese at the top! thank you mission.

                                   

for about an hour or so i met up with my old companion sister cydne baird (evans) for some frozen yogurt. we got to live our dream of riding a moped and i even kept my skirt on for old times sake. my favorite part of this picture is the five shades my skin is sporting. mish still hasn't worn off my body apparently. 

cyd had to go to a meeting at the mtc and was already a bit late so i volunteered to walk to ashlie's. i'm grateful for the weather being so wonderful and even more so for this man behind me.

 ..aaaand for ashlie picking me up about two blocks into it.

 

that night ryan took me to La Caille.. and from the picture you can probably tell how beautiful it was.

thanks self timer! you always pull through. 

i was so jealous of this man when he got an "anniversary surprise" (which is what he called it) and i hoped with all my heart that ryan told them it was my birthday so i could have one too. 

luckily ry guy pulled through! this and that voss million dollar artesian water from norway were definitely the highlight of my evening.

after dinner and a little moonlight dance fest in the woods, we drove back down to provo and ryan gave me a private (but not really private i guess) show in this underground parking garage.  

i thought all the fun was over but as we walked in the door this was all happening. ashlie had decorated and put out all the things necessary for a movie night slash hand puppet making (love her for that). i was so touched with how much work and time both of them put into making it a nice day and i think i can say it was the best birthday i've ever had. thanks to everyone else who sent nice text messages or fb posts, it was appreciated.  i'm not obsessed with the idea of being 23 but how could i not welcome the change after such a lovely day? so 23, welcome. but 24, i'd rather you never happen so..dont. 

aaaand i'm sorry if i sounded like a narcissist in this post and/or like i just won an academy award and was thanking all the people who got me to that point. it won't happen again.