I’m 23!

I’m in a bit of denial about my new age, so we’ll just blow past that and talk about how I spent my birthday!

Solly was VERY eager to be the first to wish me a happy birthday, so he made a point to keep Brady and I up for a solid 2.5-3 hours in the night. How loving. I woke up in the worst shape sickness-wise than I’ve been in this time around. You know when your throat is so tight that, if you move your neck the wrong way, you cough and choke and feel somewhat miserable? That was me. I had no voice, and very little hope for a pleasant day.

I was pleased, however, to hear from lots of my friends and family this morning via text, Facebook, email, phone, etc. Its always special to feel celebrated! Kim actually drove to Starbucks and got me a white chocolate mocha, which was sooo warm on my throat! I felt very loved by all.

My dad’s side of the family is having a reunion in the city this weekend, and we had committed to spending this Saturday with everyone, but we had finally decided that it just wasn’t going to work out with me being in such crappy shape. But as the morning wore on, I was able to find a bit of my voice, and get moving around a bit better. We cancelled our cancellation, and put Rowan down for a nap right away. We rested up a bit in the afternoon, and when Rowan finally woke up somewhere between 3:30 and 4:00, we got everyone dressed and shipped off to the reunion.

We had a really really nice time at the reunion!! We met at my cousin’s acreage, so there was lots of room to run and play, and within minutes, Dekker had taken off with a few of the kids! Laela had also gone, but I thought it was very out of character for Deks to just run along and play with new people so easily! It wasn’t long before he was jumping on the trampoline and having an absolute heyday! Laela was right in there with everyone else, playing on the swings and the slide, and chatting it up with everyone. One of my cousins picked her an apple off of a tree, and while she said she didn’t think it tasted very good, she ate the whole thing. And I mean the WHOLE thing, core and all! Lol! Couldn’t have been that bad, Laela!

After a pretty hilarious attempt at a whole group picture, lots of visiting, and supper, they pulled out a birthday cake for me! Everyone sang and I was even given a few gifts 🙂 It was a really lovely time. Dekker asked me later “Mommy, did you just love your surprise birthday party?” I definitely did 😉 It was a nice evening to catch up with family that I rarely see, and to introduce my kids to the relatives they’d never met.

We’re home now, the kids are down and quiet, and Brady and I are packing madly! We are suckers for punishment, and are heading out to Edmonton tomorrow! We found a hotel that would actually take our group at a reasonable price, and we made some plans to hit Ikea, do some south common shopping, and hopefully the zoo! I am SO excited to go on a little trip with the family, finally pick up some of the furniture we’ve been eyeing online since before we bought our house, and spend some time away, just because. We LOVE to be in our house, and in our town, and I don’t feel the need to escape like I used to feel in our last house. But changing up the scenery, just to be together as a family, is such a treat. I wish we weren’t all sick going into it, but today proved that we’re well enough, and getting better. Mornings are hard, but noses are drying, and again, a change of scenery can be somewhat healing.

Taking the time to write this has given me a nice break from working, haha, so off I go!