The best.

There are a bunch of photographs in flick'r land (from L, Jamie and me) from my birthday weekend, but I'll post a few that I think sum things up pretty well.

My birthday actually officially began when L came into town on Thursday.

Seriously.

She flew all the way from Portland to celebrate. I don't even know what to say. She's pretty incredible :) Jason offered to give us some bff time and stayed away for the night, so L and BG (via phone) were the first to welcome me to 30, at midnight.

The next day, L and I volunteered in the snack stand at AC's football game then headed to my mom's, The momma held the traditional family birthday dinner, for which I chose vegan tacos as the meal. The birthday person always gets to make the food choice and my decision is completely predictable. It's been tacos since like, 1985 or something. Mom always kicks ass at preparing dinner, but this year she *tewtally* raised the bar with a homemade vegan lemon cake, including real lemon icing. As if that weren't enough, she covered the table with a Crayola color book cloth and cups of crayons. It's like she KNOWS ME.

Brookie, John, Brenden, momma, Mike, Jason, Avery and Zakrey and I set out to eat 30 tacos, and I'm pretty sure we managed. Later that night, L and I attempted to complete my origami bird project. We didn't finish, but we had fun anyway.

Saturday, L and I picked up BG who flew in from Raleigh. When we got back to Souderton, we headed over to the Univest Grand Prix with Avery, and made plans to meet my mom, sister and Jason there.


We weren't gone long when I got a text from Jason, saying that a friend stopped over. Within a couple minutes, he texted me again saying that a couple other friends stopped over with their kids. It seemed that everyone was out for the race and considering we only live a block away from the main area, everyone was stopping by. Fun! We headed back home where I thought we'd hang out for a bit, then head back out.


But, once we got home, more people started showing up (including my dad's chiropractor?) and a reverse surprise party unfolded. It was so, so fun and I was completely surprised. There was much blanket-sitting, Strongbow-drinking, and good time-having going on.


And, apparently, Justin got in BIG trouble.


Um. I don't think he cares?

Also, I lit the candles to my own cake. But that was okay because it allowed me complete control over a chocolate covered strawberry chocolate sheet cake from Vegan Treats. Zomg!


My pops made the most yummy food, including his rockin' world famous tabouli, and everyone brought a donation for The OneWay Gallery to benefit the Waterkeeper Alliance. Jason, Avery and I became aware of this group when we visited the gallery in August and saw Magmo the Destroyer's brilliant SAVE OCEAN exhibition. I can't say enough about the art and its mission. Please, visit the links! Oh, and I also got some donations for my camera fund :)

Chris Le played his computer (formerly known as "spun some records") and we kicked it old school style, dancing around the living room. Around midnight, a few of us headed to the Reliance to dance to sneakers-in-a-dryer horrible music. We took one for the team and made the best of it.


L and BG left the next day and Jason and I bummed around the house, cleaned up and ate leftover tacos and cake. I'm not sure if I ever apologized for getting upset with him on Friday night. He showed up late to the birthday dinner at my mom's house. Of course, I didn't know he was running around getting things ready for Saturday. Oops. Thanks baby - and Laura - for everything :)

Now, in case having the most amazing friends and family IN THE WORLD wasn't enough, when I got back to work, there was this:


That was on Tuesday. My coworkers are notoriously late with my gift each year and so when I came back from a meeting on Wednesday afternoon, there was this:

Inside of which was this:


That, is a recycled wine barrel rain barrel from Master Garden Products. I am not even kidding. My coworkers friends are really quite phenomenal, are they not? Of course, they topped it all off with a homemade vegan coffee cake and a sweet card.

So that's it. The big three-oh is OVER. I'm here! And it's been great!

And I'm exhausted!

I just cannot believe how lucky and blessed and completely overwhelmed I feel. I've been blown away by the awesomeness of the people around me. And really, isn't that the best gift anyone could ever have? :)