Today is my grandma's birthday and the day she died. I remember celebrating our birthdays together near the end. It was a sweet way to celebrate my Sweet 16. #OodlesAndGobs
Having now celebrated thirty, THIRTY, birthdays I am thinking back to some of the most memorable ones.
I was young and my parents had gone out one night, leaving me at home with a phone number to reach them in case of emergency only. Not long after they left there was a commercial on TV announcing Celine Dion’s tour dates. When I heard that she would be in Kansas City on my actual birthday (and one day before hers) I freaked out. And I mean that. There were screams. There were tears. There was a phone call to my parents. Although it must have sounded like it was an emergency, it most definitely was not. Once I explained what was going on and that I wanted to go to Celine’s show my mother chastised me for using the emergency number out of context and said that we would talk about Celine at a later time. Fast forward to my birthday. My mom and I were with my best friend and her mom watching Celine pound her chest while singing. It was my first concert and it was amazing. #TeamCeline #MyHeartWillGoOn
In the height of my Jayhawk basketball fandom, my parents agreed to a weekend trip to Lawrence, Kansas where we would check out all things basketball. We had just gotten a new dog and decided to bring him with us, which may have been a decent decision had the air conditioning worked in our hotel room. Alas, the air conditioning did not work; therefore, we kept our door propped open to create air flow. This meant that our dog was on his leash to prevent escaping as he barked at every passerby. #RockChalk
For my fifth grade birthday party I decided just to invite my two best friends. Even though I found out at the party that they did not really like each other it was still one of my favorite birthdays. My parents took us to the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City where we ate at the Cheese Cake Factory and saw a rerelease of Grease at the theater. Once back at home I, along with my guests, were all gifted a Nano Baby (a digital baby). I am fairly certain that we spent the remainder of the party tending to our babies. #GreaseIsTheWord
When I turned 18 I was lucky enough to be in France. I was on an exchange trip with my high school and on my birthday we were in Normandy. “The Normandy American Cemetery is one of fourteen permanent American World War II military cemeteries constructed on foreign soil by the American Battle Monuments Commission.”** It was a rainy day and our group was rushed, so I am especially anxious to revisit this site in a few short weeks and spend more time experiencing this part of history. #ViveLaFrance #BonAnniversaire
For my 21st birthday I hopped on a plane and flew to Texas to visit my best friend who was going to school at Baylor. I had visions of enjoying a nice glass of wine with my birthday dinner, but upon being seated at a recommended Italian restaurant we learned that we had come to a BYOB establishment... empty handed. We stayed. We ate. We laughed at our misfortune. Even once we were in a place that served and sold alcohol it was a game of hard to get. My best friend was not yet 21, so no one wanted to encourage any illegal activity at our table. We stayed. We laughed. And I (eventually) drank. A margarita. Finally. #BYOB
A few years ago I was finally able to convince my parents to take a trip to Colorado to visit friends that they had not seen in years. This became my birthday trip and it was on this trip that I was reconnected with some friends from childhood, and am now happily dating one of them. Along with reconnecting with some awesome people, I was also the designated driver the entire weekend. Although fun, I did get my parents back and made them the designated drivers for my birthday trip to Colorado last year when we stayed at the Stanley Hotel. #DesignatedDriver
Last year, for my Golden Birthday, I went to Estes Park, Colorado with my parents and my boyfriend. We stayed at the Stanley Hotel where we experienced some ghosties, knocked back some drinks at the bar, and made new friends while drinking “tastables” in the third floor hallway. Read about that birthday here. #TheShining #Haunted
I have said it before and I will say it again, I love birthdays! Even now that I am thirty I still love birthdays. I am very thankful to every single person who has ever helped me celebrate a birthday and I look forward to what future celebrations I will reminisce on when I am sixty and can only hope to have as much love around me on my last birthday as my grandma did on hers.
** American Battle Monuments Commission online information
