9.30.2010

Birthdays past.

Yesterday was one of the best birthdays ever.  I am still putting together the "party post", so if you haven't sent your pictures, there is still time!  I think it is going to be great.

I have had some AMAZING birthdays.  I have been really blessed with some fantastic people in my life that have made sure that I always have a good day.

My first memory I have of my birthday is when I was six or seven, I went to dinner and bowling with my dad(I am not sure it was really a birthday, but in my mind it was).  It was a big deal, because at the time my dad was travelling a lot, and not home very often.  I dressed up in a new sweater and I remember hoping that I looked nice so he would be proud of me.

The next memory I have is when I was twelve.  My parents and I went to dinner just the three of us (a big treat with five siblings) to Olive Garden.  My mom gave me my very first piece of jewelry worth any money.  It was a beautiful pearl necklace that is still in my mom's jewelry box. 

When I was fifteen, I had a surprise party that I helped plan.  Oh, that was fun.  When I turned sixteen I could finally drive and date.   I was able to get my license really quickly, but I didn't date for a few months (not by choice, I just wasn't asked.)  When I was seventeen we lived in Moscow, and again, my dad took me out to dinner.  The next day I went to London for a school trip.  When I turned eighteen, it was my first year at college.  My roommate Anja, and a few other friends arranged for the radio station to play an announcement that it was my birthday.  Talk about feeling special.  I loved it.  When I turned nineteen, I was in Moscow again, but I don't remember what I did.  I have blocked out my twentieth birthday for several reasons.   Twenty-one, I was preparing to go on a mission, and spent a quiet day at home.  I was supposed to go to dinner with some friends a few days later, but do you remember the sniper in the DC area?  Well he was around then, so we cancelled.  It was a good thing too, there was a shooting in the parking lot near the restaurant we were planning to go.  When I turned twenty-two I was on my mission, and it was a preparation day, I went to ice cream and had two cakes from different people that I was meeting with (no wonder I gained so much weight on my mission).  When I turned twenty-three I sat across from Ben at school.  A week later he asked me out on our first date.  Twenty-four, Ben and I had been married for just four months, and I was madly in love with my him, and he bought me a ring, which I wore everyday until he replaced it with this.
The next year was quite a tough year for me.  Ben and I had tuition, car repairs and medical bills, so we had to save up for my birthday and celebrated by going to dinner at Rodizio Grill in Salt Lake.


Rodizio Grill for my 25th birthday.


Twenty-six, Jack was just two and a half months old, and we were packing up our stuff to begin Ben's job with the State Department.  Twenty-seven, I was in Utah.  Ben was busy with UNGA (United Nations General Assembly), so Jack and I went to visit family.  Twenty-eight, was awesome, Thomas was two and a half months old, I had cupcakes from one of my favorite places in NYC and Ben surprised me with this.

Here we are, all caught up on birthdays gone by.  Aren't you excited to find out what happened this year? 

8 comments:

Camille said...

Sounds like you have had some fun over the years!
And that gaining weight on your mission thing - totally normal. I put on FORTY. Isn't that terrible?

I'm glad you had a fun birthday!

A Daring Adventure said...

Holy cow!! Ben is super duper great at picking jewelry!

Jill said...

Oh Emily - I'm so sorry that I didn't send you a party picture to celebrate your birthday yesterday. Please know that I thought about sending you a note just prior to midnight on Tuesday - and all day yesterday as you enjoyed your special day.

I hope it was a great one - and that people sent in tons of great pictures of their celebrations.

BTW, you definitely know how to live it up on your birthday. I need to take some lessons!

Lisa said...

When we get to Mexico do you think that Ben could tutor Chris in gift giving? I want some of that. :-)

Rebekah said...

For your birthday, I went to Red Robin with my sister-in-law, her mom, and her Grandma. I said to heck with calories and fat grams (because it was your birthday) and ordered the guacamole burger!

Jen said...

Wow, that is an awesome sparkly! Way to go, Ben!

A Daring Adventure said...

This week's State Department Blog RoundUp is up- and you're on it!

http://bit.ly/9xcXjv

Have a great weekend!

Jessica said...

Wow on the jewelry! And by the way, I celebrated your birthday by taking a day off of cleaning the house and took a bath and read a book throughout the day.

I had to take a few breaks to take kids to school and pick up and make them food but anytime that wasn't spent on that I used to relax instead of filling it with more work. Laundry, cleaning the bathrooms, mopping the kitchen floor, could all wait...and they did.

Thanks for inviting me to celebrate!

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