birthday fun

sunday was my 25th birthday.

as you may recall, b and i both celebrate july birthdays, and thus have designated the entire month birthday month.

it is so so much fun to have an excuse to do something great every day. [but i think i'm getting spoiled in that department, because the month of june was pretty fun too...trying to squeeze in all these last-minute friend/sight-seeing activities before we moved. so maybe i should just call this "birthday summer."]

birthday month got off to a bit of a rocky start what with the emotional move and all, but turned out nicely. first there was the houseboat, then we stayed with my parents in rancho for a week before heading back to utah.

since my b-day was on a sunday and we try to keep sundays pretty quiet, we did the major celebrating on saturday. my parents, bro & b took me to a delicious teppan yaki place in town -- it was SO tasty but i think i liked watching our chef, vincent, cook up all the food right in front of me even better. wow, do you know how much butter goes into fried rice? UGH. i was glad i opted for steamed rice.

here's vincent, working away. right after i took this photo he flipped chunks of scrambled eggs at us and i caught mine in my mouth. i like playing with my food:



the fam:



me & b:



then we went home, played rock band and watched win a date [which you may ALSO recall was a staple of birthday month 2008 as well].

sunday was my REAL birthday...i turned a quarter of a century. we went to church and it was my first time back in the ward i grew up in since probably last year. it was so fun to see old friends and get caught up.

momma made my favorite for dinner -- tacos and homemade salsa, with pizookies for dessert -- and our friends karly and chris came by. AND, we all know how much i love cookies, so this was a major highlight: deena, the mom of my high school bff kelly, showed up at my door with a birthday plate of chocolate-covered strawberries and cookies. YAY!



my big present this year was a sewing machine!! i was SO excited. mom and i spent all day saturday setting it up and practicing the skills i learned in my sewing class. we went to joann's fabrics to get some supplies, and i walked through the fabric section and noticed some USC fabric and stopped to take a closer look. right there, in the aisle at the ontario, california joann's fabrics, were material featuring the following colleges:

USC
UCLA
georgia tech
university of utah

random? YES. haha i laughed out loud...what are the odds of that? it was meant to be. so i bought half a yard, and my first project was a utah pillow for my little ute fan:



traitor. but after all, it IS his birthday month too.

the day after my birthday, we left for utah :( BUT decided to spice things up a bit with a night in vegas. we stayed with my wonderful friend angela rose, whom i hadn't seen in almost TWO years!!, and i got to meet her little baby colton. he was adorable and we had so much fun catching up.

here's my best shot of colton...sorry ang, not the most stellar photography. you can go to her blog for tons more cute pictures :)



then, my birthday gift to b was to see the beatles LOVE show on the strip. i had never been to a vegas show before, let alone a cirque de soleil show, so i was super excited. he has been dying to see this show ever since it debuted.





the show was a littttttle weird for me...but turns out, if you're a diehard beatles fan [like b] you understand a lot more of it than the average layperson [me]. when we got out, he explained half the show to me and it made a lot more sense.

nevertheless, it was a truly amazing and beautiful show -- those cirque people are INCREDIBLE. if i had half the upper body strength they do, i think i could be the next superwoman.

we slept in the next day and finished our drive to utah, spending the next few days unpacking. i'd say birthday month got off to a pretty good start, and we still have two weeks left! i doubt they'll be quite this exciting :)