March 2008: Yes, I turned 30, but in Style!!

I am very happy to say that I turned 30 in style. My family threw an amazing, grooving birthday party for me, fiesta I should say. My sister Liz and brother Jesse drove down from BYU for the weekend- no side-of-the road, dead car battery overnighters this time -so all of us kids were there. My Mom and her bf Cheryl made amazing Mexican food: chicken and cheese enchiladas and fideo!! Of course Mike helped too along with Liz. I think I sliced some stuff - risky!

My Mom hired DJSwell, the DJ I did the photography job for, http://www.swelldjproductions.com/ , to come to my party. A dream come true, my own DJ!!! We had a blast. My family was there, with a few choice friends. My lifelong friend Brian and his wife Mindy came, fat chance I was going to get him on the dance floor, although I've seen him do a mean Staying Alive. I do have to say that we have such a fun family; I love my brothers and sisters and their spouses. I don't know many families whose Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt, and Uncle dance along side the rest of us either. I hadn't realize how much I missed dancing. It was sooo much fun. My brother Luke and his wife Kelli are hilarious, they both love to dance and its so fun to watch them together. Vanessa just had a baby so her groove thang didn't get moving as much as she would have liked. She mostly halfed-danced next to the "dance floor" with her hubbie Josh and his gangsta and robot moves. Although she did bust out the Charleton from Fresh Prince per my request. Our friend Aimee surprised us with her dancing moves and joined right in. I'm sure you could have guessed that Mom rocked it down - although she spent the next several days unable to move:-) Dad even came out for a special dedication - September by Earth, Wind, and Fire. My bro Jesse taught me a little Salsa and I even got his roomie Roy out there for a second. Liz knows all the lyrics to every possible song and has the moves to boot. I even got Mike to dance with me some. Don't be fooled, he had fun too. I loved choosing some of the music and Dave, the DJ, did such a great job. No mention of the kids, well it was a kid-free night, wow.

And the surprise of the year, my incredible, drop-everything-for-you type of friend, Janae flew down from Utah just for my party. When I came home to find her there I lost it, lots and lots of tears. Seeing Janae helped me to see that even though my life has drastically changed in a year, I didn't have to say goodbye to what I left and reiterated just how important those friendships I made in good ole Herriman, UT are to me! Its a funny thing turning 30, I found myself evaluating myself and my relationships, where I was in my life, and where I'd hope to be. That can be tough but you know, I'm a pretty blessed person! On my last day of 29, I made a decision to not be sad about being 30 because I couldn't do anything about it, so I just enjoyed it!

Janae was so fun. I made her come on the dance floor with me, and there she stayed for most of the night, surrounded by these dancing weirdos. It was hard to drop her off at the airport and say goodbye. She did say that I had a present in the mail that she worked really hard on, so I am very much looking forward to that.

A wonderful portion of the evening was watching a video Kelli made for me for my birthday. This version on Blogger really doesn't do it justice. I do have to say that I am in love with this song, Stolen by Dashboard Confessional. As our ghetto video camera finally fell apart this past year, I've hardly been able to get anything on film. Along with being a professional videographer http://web.mac.com/dixmix, Kelli is my personal videographer. She collected video from the past few years and created this beautiful little video. I love seeing how much my kids have changed. It is fun to see your life played with a soundtrack. Thank you so much Kelli!

All in all, turning 30 has been pretty great. I have to agree with my friend Alissa, its the admitting it outloud to someone that is the hard part:-) Thank you family and friends for an amazing birthday.