18.

Today is my sisters 18th birthday and my mom decided to throw her a surprise party. At first I was jealous (because I am SO mature) because my mom has never thrown me or anyone else in our family a surprise party. In part because I remembered my 18th birthday. I was at BYU, I had only been there a few weeks and one of my fears before going to school was knowing I would be there for my birthday and probably wouldn't know anybody yet and that I would be really lonely.

But in fact my 18th birthday was one of the best, in large part because of these girls who are still some of my favorite people on this green earth!

I couldn't find any pictures of the day, I don't know where they went! But I remember staying up really late the night before and joking about how I probably wouldn't go to sleep at all because I was writing a paper I had put off. But I finally went to sleep and woke up to a ceiling packed with balloons! There were dozens! And on my chair there was a card with some of my favorite treats (*cough* Swedish Fish *cough*) and there were all these really cute signs on the door. I had early morning class so I had to leave, but I just remember feeling so happy and loved all day because I hadn't expected any of it! That night we went out to Legendz Grill which was fun too.

Part of the reason I love this birthday so much is because often I feel like birthdays and other holidays become all about presents and being disappointed when things don't go the way you would like them to. This birthday was great because I didn't have a lot of expectations, and really I didn't get any great material things--everything was bought with bought with dining cards or drawn with markers--but I felt loved and I would really give up all the presents for every birthday to be like that.