Surprise!

As you all probably know by now, I am the queen of surprises. I pull them off often and well. I am exceptional at surprising my mom. Since I am the youngest, my parents are now empty-nesters. Going strong for three years now! Ha! Anyway, life is so much different when you don't have 4 kids around anymore plus I love being at home so I make it a point to go to Colorado as often as I can.

This year was my mom's 50th birthday. She was adamant that she was NOT going to be celebrating. Little did she know that my dad and I had been in cahoots since November about it all! We planned a surprise party with some of her friends and coworkers and Bryan, Nereida, Heather, Zach, Nana, and I all flew in to surprise her as well. And boy was she surprised!!! There were a few times in the weeks leading up that the secret almost slipped, and it got so difficult to contain my excitement that I avoided talking to mom except via text for almost 2 weeks. Little did I know that Bryan and Nereida were in the same boat! So we all flew in Thursday afternoon and my dad, who told my mom he was driving to work, came and picked us all up. There were just a couple of slight issues, but nothing that was solved quickly. The biggest thing was my mom stayed at work much longer than I had anticipated. So I got Bryan to get a hold of her and tell her he needed a recipe so he could make dinner for Nereida. And then BAM! There everyone was to surprise her when she came home from work. We talked, laughed, and enjoyed family and friends the rest of the evening. We were all betting that mom would cry, but instead she was so utterly surprised she was speechless. She could not believe that we were all there; that Nereida was able to get time off from her new job, that I was able to miss class, that we were all there. It was the best surprise I have ever pulled off. And it was SO great to be home with the whole family as well. 

How adorable is my nephew??

SURPRISE!!!

Happy Birthday!

The cake, made by the one and only Lynne Martin!!

Now for the videos. My dad recorded mom coming in, but she saw him with his camera before she walked in so so got really confused as to what was happening. But, the videos are spectacular! They show how truly surprised she was. The second one is from my camera. Heather, Zach, Nana, Bryan, Nereida, and I were all hiding in the kitchen so it was like a double surprise. The best part is when Zach starts crawling away and almost gives us away! Ha

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMMY!!
3-25-2012

Birthday lovin'

So last Wednesday I turned 21.

 

It was a splendid day AND I didn't have to work, although I still had to go to school...

After classes, my dear friend Bekah took me out to lunch and I had this amazing burger from Chili's...

 

A guacamole bacon burger.. just to die for. The rest of the afternoon was fairly uneventful, but it was nice to just have a day to do nothing. I didn't even do any homework, even though this was 4 days before finals started. Ha! Then I went over to Amber's house and we proceeded to go to this sweet restaurant/bar/lounge place with Jenna called Spark. It is on University Ave and it way cool.

When we got there there was literally no one else there, but after a little bit people started coming and filling the place up. 

Love this girl.

And yes, that sure is cotton candy on my straw haha.

Jenna love

The drinks at this place were seriously to die for. So good.

After a very fun eventful evening, I went home, had birthday cake and ice cream and then just crashed. It was such a great day and I really do have such amazing friends and family. And then to add to the birthday fun... Saturday I went to lunch at Olive Garden with Nana and then that night went shopping at City Creek with Camille. We had such a great time, and then had an entertaining experience trying to get out of the parking garage. Let's just say it is very difficult with a clutch because it is extremely steep and there was a lot of traffic for some reason. The car in front of my kept rolling back and I was really afraid he was going to roll right in to me at one point. Then we paid a dollar to park there. Talk about cheap parking! She then took me to this amazing place, Leatherbys for dinner. Holy crap this place is amazing!!! It's also where I got this amazing concoction...

Melted peanut butter and hot fudge on ice cream, what more could you ask for??? 

It was such a great birthday and I could not have asked for a better time. Now that I'm all "legal" to do anything except rent a car, I need to find something crazy to do.....