Best 24th Birthday ever!

From my previous post, most of you know that my birthday was on Friday December 7. Although I am a year older, I don't feel older. I remember when my sister turned 24 and was telling me how old she felt...maybe it is because I work with quite a few older people who talk about their life as in the past and I have most of my life ahead of me, Lord willing.

Thursday night, Ashley, Amada, Blake, Gia, Brian, Bella (baby Davis), Luke and Sarah, Brandon and Megan, John and I went to Cheesecake Factory for my birthday. I had such a great time with my friends. We talked, we laughed, we made fun of each other...all of the usually happenings when we get together. By the end of the evening, the girls were all at one end of the table and the guys were at the other. The guys talked theology and seminary while the girls talked about....well, you name it we talked about it. :) I got some really great gifts, but they def didn't beat spending time with them celebrating my birthday.

On Friday, the parentals and I headed down to Pasadena. I was up WAY too early on my birthday. We got to my sisters place about 11, and then headed to Disneyland! I love Disneyland. I am not even sure why...probably because it makes me feel like a kid. Since it was suppose to rain, and did earlier that morning, there were not a lot of people there, which was extremely nice. My friend Rachel who lives in Costa Mesa came and hung out for a few hours. We left the park a little after 5 to go to Downtown Disney to get some dinner. We ended up eating at the Rainforest Cafe, which is loud and a lot of fun. After dinner we headed back into the park for a couple more hours. My parents had never been to Disneyland when it was decorated for Christmas so we had to go back for it to snow :) We left right around 10 to go home. We literally spent 6 1/2 hours inside Disneyland and went on 14 rides...it was phenomenal. I had such a great time with my family. We constantly laugh when we are together. I am appreciating my family more and more these days.

Friday night I stayed with my parents in the hotel...bad idea. It was a suite, but my bed was the pull out bed from the sofa. Although I was extremely tired, I didn't sleep that well since the top of the bed was in a slanted, upright position. It was horrible. I love sleep, and when I don't get enough rest, I can be a real big...well, you get the picture. So I had to remind myself all day Saturday to be nice, since my filter clearly was not working due to lack of sleep...

On Saturday, we went to Mimi's Cafe for breakfast. I had never been there for breakfast...it was good, but not anything spectacular. Then I had to go...I mean, I got to go to my sisters White Coat Ceremony for PA school at USC. It was not as long and boring as I expected. The speakers were actually kinda entertaining. It didn't hurt that I had my phone with me. I sent a few work emails, sent a few text messages, surfed the web a little...it helped the time pass right on by. Saturday night my friend Carrissa, and also my sisters roommate, came shopping with us and then out to dinner with the fam to PF Chang's. Great food followed by great dessert. When it comes to my birthday, I don't just celebrate for a day, I try to get a whole week out of it. Each place we went, we told them it was my birthday. At PF Chang's, they have this great fried banana thing with coconut ice cream. One word: phenomenal. Then we headed to Coldstones before we went back to Stacey's apartment where I passed out from a food coma...not really. I was staying at her place on her blow up air mattress. I slept so good that night!

Sunday we got up, went to good ol' IHOP for breakfast...they have these really great pancakes right now. I had strawberry cheesecake pancakes....might sound sick to you, but don't knock it 'til you try it. I am not a real big fan of breakfast in general, but these were good! We got home from Pasadena around 3...we made a pit stop in Visalia to see my grandfather. We went out to dinner on Sunday night to continue the celebration, and because my mom didn't want to cook.

All in all, I had a pretty good birthday weekend. The only complaint is the lack of sleep on Friday night, but in the scheme of things, even that wasn't a big deal. My parents told me that this birthday was going to be hard to beat...I told them they better get ready for my silver birthday, my quarter of a century year old party...cuz I only turn a quarter of a century old once!