The Big 3-0!

Someday I may post some Vancouver pictures, but for now I wanted to share a couple of quick videos from this past week.

Backstory: Tuesday was my 30th birthday and the weekend prior, I had some events planned with my family. As far as I knew, Saturday was supposed to go like this....My mom, sister and I went to the Farmer's Market early in the morning to stock up on fruits and veggies. After that, we decided to hit MOA (Mall of America) and do some fun shopping. Which we did. The rest of the day's plans were to happen as follows. My sister and I were going to drop off my mom at her place around 1:00 so she could start prepping dinner for that evening (with my immediate family and godparents). Then K and I were going to go get a pedicure and come back around 5:00 for dinner. Instead, when we got back to my mom's around 1:00...well, you can see for yourself. Poor Taylor will be traumatized for life!

I was so confused when I walked into the house because all I could see was Al holding Taylor and a video camera and there were streamers everywhere. I thought, "Hmmm, surprise?... We're having dinner early??" Seriously, I could not figure out why he was filming me, then as you could see, everyone (extended family-aunts, uncles, cousins) came out from behind the streamers in the front living room and scared the *$&#*& out of me! And Taylor. Poor baby. You'll be happy to know that she fully recovered shortly after though. I don't know if it was the noise makers or me screaming that got her going. Probably both. It was so sad! She is definitely more aware of her surroundings nowadays and can get freaked out pretty easily by the oddest things. The latest has been with certain stuffed animals. So bizarre! I know it's just the age she's at though and is part of the many phases we'll go through!

Anyway, fast forward to Tuesday (my actual birthday). I had been instructed by Al that we needed to leave the house by 5:00pm. When we got in the car, he told me to put a blind-fold on and I had to wear it for the drive. That wasn't too much fun. ;)

When we stopped, he made me keep it on while he got something out of the trunk. I was able to take off the blind-fold when he got back in the car. When I did I immediately knew we were at my old ice skating arena in Edina. I had spent half my childhood there so I even recognize the dang parking lot. In the box (the WRAPPED box) were my old figure skates. Man, I was SO confused. We walk into the arena and he tells the kid at the office that we have an hour of ice time rented out. Just the two of us! It was the sweetest thing ever. Granted, I was still numb from confusion and then shortly after that, I was terrified since I hadn't touched the ice in almost 10 years! Taking that first step onto the ice was frightening. It's amazing that you can do something that is second nature for so long, but when you haven't done it for almost as long, your body takes some time to get used to it. I can't say it was "just like riding a bike", but after about 45 minutes, I got a little more comfortable. I think the days of me doing an axle are long gone, but I didn't look as horrendous as I thought I would!

Al took a video of a couple little "tricks" that seemed to impress him. ;) Oh, and he did a spin on his hockey skates at the end of the video which was almost more impressive. HA!

Next post I promise more pictures of Taylor. :)