One year Older.

Well, I am officially 30!   Look at that.  One minute you are a young and careless twenty year old, and then one morning you wake up and "POOF".  You are Old.  

The strangest thing though:   Suddently, 30 doesn't feel old at all!   How can that be?  

In short, my birthday weekend (and yes, birthdays around here are a three-day event)  was Fabulous!   In fact, possibly the best ever.  

Here's Why:

1.   I was awoken at 5:00 am by the sound of somebody walking through the house.   The paranoid side of me instantly suspected an intruder.    So I sent John to check it out.      That is when we discovered our   year old with a gift bag in hand, trying to hide my birthday gift before I woke for the day.  It was a lovely hand-maid magnet that she made at Jewel's house.    I love how this girls internal alarm clock gets her up early every time there is a reason to celebrate.   Also, I love that she was that excited about my little ol' birthday.

2.   One of the neighborhood girls came over to play on Friday, and in her hand were these flowers.   Her sweet, "Happy Birthday Mrs.Hardy,"  completely surprised me.   How did she know?    Her mom, and my visiting teaching companion later dropped something off as well.   Seriously, it made me feel like a million bucks AND strengthened my testimony of the visiting teaching program ALL at the same time!

3.     I was almost moved to tears on my "Birthday Eve"  when three of my favorite people brought by a cake for me.  In the shape of a camera!  But not just any camera.  MY CAMERA!   I was so thankful for my  sisters - Jewel and Luci, and my new pal Betsy who labored over a hot stove, or at least bowls of chocolate icing, to make me a birthday cake!    (that's right-all it takes is a chocoate cake and you are like, so totally my new BFF!)    Jewel always thinks of some sort of creative cake for me, ( like last year for example) so this really shouldn't have been a surprise.  But  it  was.  And more importantly, I was really touched that they would work together on something so personalized to me.  As soon as they left, I snapped a few pictures of my "camera."

And then I ate the lense, with a small scoop of ice cream.

4.   Even though it snowed all.weekend.long, we still managed to have a lot of fun together.   John and I decided to cancel our much anticapated "Waterton hike" in light of the weather, and instead took the kids swimming in Lethbridge.   It was so cozy, sitting in a hot tub while the wind blew outside, and it was equally fun to fill ourselves up with warm pasta afterwards.    Really, a perfect day!

I feel so glad to be 30 years young, and blessed to have such a generally happy life.  On previous birthdays, people would,  ask me if I felt any "older or wiser."  The answer was always NO.  I mean really, what difference does one day make from the day before?   

But no lie - I really do feel a LOT wiser today.
 I'm not kidding!

It's the strangest thing!