Beautifully Blessed: 21

Well, my birthday has come and gone and I am left feeling one day older and super thankful. It’s always extremely humbling to have a birthday…to the point that I usually cry at least one time every birthday. Ha! Kind of pathetic, right? When I was little I would hide behind our couch each birthday and cry and cry because I didn’t want to get any older…my parents called me Peter Pan for obvious reasons. I just knew even back then how sweet life was as a kid and didn’t want those sweet and simple days to disappear. Well, fast-forward about 12 years and I am still crying, but this time for different reasons. I am crying because I am so completely overwhelmed by the abundant blessings in my life. I feel so undeserving of the generosity of words, gifts, and love that are absolutely lavished upon me. I mean, seriously, I am overwhelmed with love.

So I turned the big 2-1. Big deal, right? Ha! This is the birthday I have heard about for years and one that Darin has jokingly talked about for months now. The big day came and well, it was just like any other birthday. Wonderful and special, but still simple. No crazy partying for this girl…unless an exceptionally sweet tea counts for getting crazy. In my family we have a tendency to celebrate birthdays for at least a week…we begin the festivities on the first day of our “Birthday Week” and party until at least a day or two after. Good times for sure!

The big celebration started the night before my birthday by having a super special dinner with Darin and Linda. We went to a restaurant called The Incline, which had the most amazing view. We had the best time talking and laughing and enjoying the view of Cincinnati. So lovely. So blessed to love and be loved by such amazing people. So thankful.

The pre-celebration continued by flamingo-ing our crackalackin’ friend, Miss Jenny’s yard for her big 50th birthday. It was so fun and silly to flamingo her yard at 11:00 at night. Ha! Good times. And then to really bring in my birthday, we drove down my very favorite road (this is silly, but we made it a big deal and may or may not have put our hands up. Ha!). Good times.

This birthday was a little different than my last few birthdays because I fell asleep without anyone bursting into my room and singing “Happy Birthday” at midnight (Miss you, Lydia) and woke up at home instead of in Lexington. A little bittersweet, but mostly sweet because I got to spend the whole day with family. I woke up to homemade signs by my sweet sis (who had made them and given them to mom to hang) and a Cinderella balloon in my bathroom…you’re never too old for Cinderella, right? Ha! That made me feel super special and definitely made my heart happy. After having a pretty lazy morning, mom and I went out just the two of us and got some brunch. That was awesome! Even though I’m living at home, time with just mom or just dad is still pretty rare, so that was a fun treat for sure! Then we did some shopping…because that’s what happens when you get brunch at Crestview. After those fun festivities, we headed home to chill and get ready for a wedding that afternoon.

Around 4:00 we headed over to church for the wedding and I got to wear the most amazing dress that my Sweet D had bought for me. For some reason I really wanted a birthday dress this year…you know, just something to feel pretty in on my big day. Well, I shopped and shopped and every dress I liked was either too expensive or didn’t fit the way I wanted it to. So I kind of gave up on the idea…until Darin and I went shopping the Friday before my birthday and we found the perfect dress. And what made it even more perfect was that it was a gift from my sweet love (which really was the reason I wanted a dress…it’s a lot more fun to dress up when you have someone to dress up for, right?). So that was super sweet and super fun to feel pretty and girly for my 21^st Birthday.

After the wedding, Darin and I left for our grand (surprise) adventure. Oh he spoils me. If you know me well, you know I LOVE cheese. It’s pretty weird I know, but I love it. If I could choose between cheese or chocolate, I would choose cheese every time. Ha! SO, with Darin being the precious and generous man that he is, he surprised me by taking me to The Melting Pot…aka a cheese lovers Heaven. Ha! The concept of The Melting Pot is super fun and completely experiential because everything is fondue style, meaning you dip different sides into a pot of CHEESE and cook your own meat. How fun is that? We were pretty nervous at first to cook our meat because we were afraid we would do it wrong and wind up eating raw meat…but, thankfully that didn’t happen and our confidence level grew with each new piece. Yum! The whole meal lasted about two hours, so that in and of itself was super fun. Mmmmm. After our meal, we went to one of our favorite parks, Ault Park, where I received the most amazing gift…a box full of 99 handwritten love letters. I am a words of affirmation person…meaning, I LOVE and long for affirmative words. SO, I was extremely humbled by all of those beautiful words. To the point of tears. Oh it was amazing. I sat and read every single one as I sat in the arms of the one I love…yes girls, it was just like out of a movie. After spending quite a while at the park reading my notes, talking, and just enjoy being together, we went to Graeter’s and shared the most delicious (and FREE) sundae. Umm, this thing was FOR REAL. Chocolate Bunt Cake + Warm Chocolate Syrup + 2 Scoops of Raspberry Chip Icecream + Whip Cream…yeahhh, talk about a sugar coma. Ha! Mmm, it was so tasty. We wrapped up our night by coming back to the house and spending the last few minutes of my birthday with my parents. It was a super sweet and special day. It’s fun to be a birthday girl!

The festivities continued the next day, where went to Louisville and celebrated with family. AH. I love my family. That was the sweetest gift of all. I loved spending time with everyone and was once again overwhelmed by such generous and amazing gifts…including my very own “fancy” camera. Real technical term. Ha! But really, I am SUPER excited to learn about and use this new camera. I love photography so this was a super amazing gift!

All of these fun and sweet festivities on top of the countless Facebook messages, texts, and phone calls made this girl feel SUPER special. And super overwhelmed.

As I reflected back on my 20^th year, I was reminded of how great of a year it was. SO, I thought I would document some of my favorite 20 moments through pictures… (which turned out to be EXTREMELY difficult to narrow down).

20th Birthday Celebrations