Dirty Thirty.

I can't believe I'm thirty years old!!

What happened?!  Where did the time go?!  My birthday came and went in blur of massive amounts of stress and anxiety, mixed with the most fantastic moments of laughter, joy, and tears of happiness.

Not long before my actual birthday, my Grandpa Bown passed away a little unexpectedly.  Although he was old and physically frail, he was a tough cookie!  He had just mentioned to us about a month prior that he was still planning on living for another 10 years...haha, which is just SO Grandpa Bown.

Despite the sadness that we felt with my Grandpa's passing, it gave us a great opportunity to re-unite with family during his funeral.  The best part of it was that my mom flew out (last minute because of the funeral) to arrive in Salt Lake City on my birthday!  It was quite a treat to celebrate with Don, my mom, and Darcee.

Darcee and my Mom were awesome and made me a cake, and then we went out to dinner that night to Bombay House.  But, the best part of my birthday came in the form of reminiscing about past memories.  Back in the day when I was 13, we made time capsules in Young Women's.  There were explicit directions on our time capsules to "wait until your 30th birthday to open this!".

My friend Lisa and I have actually been waiting seventeen years to open our time capsules, so we were both super excited that the day had finally arrived. She opened hers, sitting on a beach in LA.  I opened mine at my kitchen table, with my Mom and Darcee laughing hysterically at my 13 year old self (Let's be honest, I was pretty awesome at 13...see pictures below).

In a letter I wrote to myself, I said, "I am going to attend 4 years of college and no more."  We just died laughing!  At least I knew what I wanted, right!?  We found all sorts of treasures in my time capsule:

-rubberbands from my braces
-notes I had passed to friends in school (major crushes going on!)
-a report card
-a letter to myself
-a letter from my mom
-pictures
-a lock of my hair
-earrings I had stolen from my mom...

The list goes on!  We spent about an hour going through my time capsule, which was boatloads of fun.

We ended my birthday extravaganza with the present from my mom.  This was the BEST present I've ever gotten from her.  Let me give you a quick history.  When my mom was 2 years old, my Grandma made her a Raggedy Ann doll.  My mom has kept her all these years, and still has her!  She created a tradition, and when I was 2 years old, my mom made me a Raggedy Ann doll just like hers.   I loved my Raggedy more than anything!

Somehow, when I got married and moved from New York City, I lost her.  I was so sad, and we've both been looking for her for 6 years.  Well, my mom spent an entire week making me another Raggedy Ann doll, almost identical to the one I grew up with!!!  When I opened the box, I couldn't believe it!  I started crying I was so happy.  She even had the same heart, out of the same original fabric!  

My surprise Raggedy Ann replacement was the best part of my whole birthday.  I love her so much.

I love documenting these types of stories, because they are the ones that mean so much to me.  I just laugh thinking about my future posterity pulling this up, reading it, and laughing about the person that I was.