The Big 2-5! (caution: this post consists mostly of me bragging about my fabulous life)

I'm officially old. Ok, maybe not "old", but it's definitely a grown up age. The past year has been absolutely wonderful and I was a little sad to see it go, but I know the next year will be equally as wonderful. I think this past year was probably one of the best years thus far. I ran my first 10k, half marathon and full marathon, went skydiving, got a promotion, and got engaged to my very best friend. These are all big milestones on my list of "things to do before I die" so I feel like I accomplished a lot. Here is a recap of the wonderful day that was spent commemorating my 25th year of life:

First, I woke up early because Jake had to take his friend the the airport at 5:20 this morning. He made me stay in the bedroom until he got home though because he'd decorated before going to bed the night before. So when he finally got home, I walked out of the bedroom to find this:



Totally Cinderella themed! AMAZING. The Cinderella on the cake even lights up!! We ate some cake for breakfast and opened presents. This is what I got....

From the in-laws:
A picnic set!!

AND tickets to this concert when we go to visit for Memorial Day weekend:

I'm soooo excited about this. You don't even know. Let's just say that an REO song will be an important part of our wedding day. That's how much I love them.

From my parents:

A Crate and Barrel gift card! Sorry, no pictures, but I ordered SEVERAL items last Sunday and they are due to arrive by Wednesday. I'll take pictures when they get here.

From Jake:


A waffle maker!! This is one item I was talking about putting on our registry before we were even engaged! My mom got one not too long ago and loves it so she's going to send me yummy recipes. I'm so glad I don't have to wait until September to make waffles. Oh and he also got me the sweetest card ever. He makes me feel so loved. Not even just on my b-day, but pretty much every single day. I'm the luckiest girl in the world.

After cake and presents Jake took a nap and I went to LVAC to use the elipitcal machine while watching Man Vs. Food (my favorite show) and then to TJ Maxx where I found this for only $8:


Finding pear things has become an obsession. They seem to be growing in popularity right now (or maybe I'm just noticing them more). Once I got home I woke Jake up and we got ready for our day of fun. This is what I looked like:

Ok, I didn't really wear the princess gear out in public, but I did think about it for a brief second.

First we went to look at wedding bands. This was not so fun though. Jewelry salespeople are worse than car salespeople and it's annoying. Also, I decided I'm not going to get a wedding band. My ring is too beautiful to have another ring trying to steal it's glory. Actually, what I plan on doing is waiting until we have lots of money and then I'll get something made to custom fit it. Until then, I'm fine without anything. I actually have a right hand ring that's a band of small diamonds and emeralds that Jake got me a few years ago that will work just fine on my left hand if I don't feel like wearing my engagment ring for some reason (I can't see that happening though).

After the jewelry store we went to buy running shoes. This was disappointing as well. I go to this really cool running store to buy my shoes and we have a friend that works there. She gives me like a 40% discount every time, but she wasn't there today so I paid full price. We actually knew the girl that was there, but I guess she doesn't like us enough to give us a discount. This is sad b/c my shoes are ridiculously expensive. I love them though (this is my third pair of the exact same shoe). Oh well, at least they'll last longer since I'm only running short distances these days.

Thinking about running made me hungry so we went to get some lunch. We decided to go to The District (an outdoor mall) to eat at Panera and walk around. After we ate we went to Anthropologie. So I love this store and I've been in the store about a million times, but have never purchased anything except for the failure of a wedding dress. And that was purchased online so it doesn't even count. The reason I never buy anything is b/c it's sooo over priced, but today I found a dress that I fell in love with and Jake convinced me to buy it so I could dress up for my b-day dinner. Here's the dress:

On our way back to the car we passed by Williams-Sonoma and I noticed something in the window display; a green cake stand! I had to go in and have a look. I couldn't resist. When I started looking for cake stands for our wedding I told myself I wouldn't spend more than $10 on a single one. Well that went out the window when I saw this one. It's perfect though and I'll probably use it as a centepiece on our dinner table or something. Here it is:
It's actually much cuter in person and the green is brighter and is pretty much the same color as the paint in our living/dining room. We came home after that purchase and rested for a little while before getting ready for my b-day dinner. This lady at work told be about this sushi place a few weeks ago and I've been dying to go there. It's a buffet of sushi!! It's called Todai and it's at Planet Hollywood. Here's a picture of us after our delicious meal:

We decided to walk around the Miracle Mile shops after our dinner and we came across another kitchen type store and I found this for only $8:

Adorable, right? Now I need to go buy honey to put in it and all the ingrediants to make waffles. Once we returned home, we checked the mail and I had another b-day present. It was from my grandparents and it's two tickets to see this next weekend:


I'm so excited!!! I'll give you a full recap of the show next weekend after we see it. Well, that's about it for my awesome birthday. Please don't be too jealous. If it makes you feel any better, please know that during my 4 yrs of college my b-day was always during finals week and then my first b-day out of college was spent ALONE in Utah b/c I was helping at a store out there when I worked for Old Navy. The past two years have definitely made up for the 5 years of having not so wonderful birthdays though!

(Sorry this post is ridiculously long)