birthday week in review

since i started celebrating my birthday last week monday, yesterday marked the end of "birthday week." it was so much fun!

  

it started off with a bang on monday when heidi had a surprise birthday cake with candles all lit up when i got back from a run. the same night i headed out to herndon for "meal & mario monday" with james, jillian, joel and mike. despite the fact that joel killed my yellow mushroom character (goomba? vinh, help a girl out here...what are they called?) like a thousand times with his luigi, the food was great and the company was even better. also, i got a 2nd birthday cake- key lime- homemade by jillian, and it was delicious! who gets two birthday cakes with candles before it's even their birthday?! lucky, i know.

 
when i got home i got to open all my birthday presents early since heidi was going to be out of town on tuesday. (also like the best thing ever? being allowed to open presents early!) we had my mom on speakerphone the whole time and texted her photos of me holding up all the new gifts, so it was almost like she made a visit out to dc.

(pardon the cell phone quality) showing mom the new sweater from granny- she picked it out all by herself! a pretty stylin' 83 year old if you ask me...

at midnight i was pleasantly surprised to get a text from an old college friend (austin, can you believe i just categorized you like that?), and the facebook well-wishes started pouring in...yes, it is kind of cheating to have your birthday on facebook i suppose, because then everyone is reminded to tell you happy birthday...but i figure- they don't have to wish me a happy birthday if they don't want to...so i take all facebook birthday wishes in full force. i guess i like the attention (shameless)...what can i say other than thanks! my favorite phone call came around 10am and was a call from one of my oldest best friends, kristin. she had her class of kindergarteners call me and the group of 5 and 6 year olds screaming "happy birthday, brooke! we love you!" into the phone nearly brought tears to my eyes.

on tuesday, my actual birthday, i received lots of texts, calls and messages wishing me a great day- which made my day great. around 6pm, i met up with jillian to then meet up with rob, theresa and katie, to drive out and meet up with brian to go line dancing! it was lots of fun. i hadn't gone line dancing since my 24th birthday (which was also a great time). i didn't know any of the dances, but they had a lesson for two songs, so it was fun to learn them. i also got to blow out candles for a 3rd time since brian brought brownie bites and candles. do you think if you get too many birthday cakes they eventually start becoming un-lucky? yeah...me neither.

 the rest of the week flew by with small group on wednesday, another kickball win on thursday (3-0 record- yesss!), iron man 2 on imax on friday, and birthday hiking on saturday! saturday was probably my favorite part of the week. me, chessy, kristen, emilee, james, brian, mike, heidi and howard drove out to the Shenandoahs and did the full loop of White Oak Canyon's Cedar Run Trail. it was exhausting (8.2 miles) but such a perfect day for hiking and the whole hike was alongside water- which anyone who knows me knows i love.

overall, this past week was awesome- i wouldn't change a thing! (other than maybe getting a bit more studying in...) i thank God that i am surrounded by so many loving and caring friends, and so many people that love the Lord. i am truly blessed. thanks friends, for giving me such a great start to my 26th year. :)

also, celebrating birthdays is A LOT of fun...so whose is next? i want another excuse to do fun things!