Danielle sweetly offered to host a birthday dinner for me at her place. The food was awesome, and we all stayed up chatting until midnight.
Ahh! Strawberry shortcake. My summer birthday always used to include strawberry shortcake, so the cake Danielle made brought back memories.
Jen gave me an amazing gift basket with gardening supplies inside!
While I am sad to leave my twenties, the march of time is inevitable. So I have decided I might as well embrace it and look forward to my thirties with excitement! Hence the photo below. It represents me welcoming a fresh new decade. I look forward to God molding my heart in the next ten years. I look forward to learning more about God and trusting Him more. I look forward (with terrified anticipation) to becoming a mommy. I look forward to deepening the bond of my marriage. And I look forward to supporting Francis as he begins a cool new career.
I insisted that my 30th birthday be epic, if not necessarily smart, so I decided I wanted to climb Half Dome to prove my youth and vitality at this important life marker.
At the trailhead...grrr!
Beautiful view of Half Dome behind me.
It was, as a website had warned us, the Mother Of All Stairmaster Workouts. 3.4 miles straight up. Let it be known, Francis and I are woefully out of shape. But we made it! The payoff was worth it. We were able to watch gallons and gallons of water (melted snow from the High Sierras) rush over the edge of the granite cliff toward the river that winds through the valley below.
Here's Francis giving me a guilt trip so I won't get too close to the edge. He didn't want to lose the old lady over Yosemite Falls.
I'm not sure what that person was doing to the right of us. Something stupid probably.
The Falls and Half Dome in the same shot.
We enjoyed tasty alcoholic beverages and well-earned dinners at the Yosemite Lodge that evening. We'd been discussing having a cold beer the whole way down the mountain.
All in all, an epic way to welcome my thirties, testing the limits of my strength and marveling at God's creation. And as for Half Dome...there's always my 31st birthday...
Well, we can't all stay 20-something forever. *Sigh* But Danielle bid farewell to her twenties in style with a 1920's themed party thrown in her honor. We all dressed up in costume, ate 1920's fare for dinner, then hit up a bar in San Francisco that used to be an actual speakeasy. It was awesome! You needed a password to get in and everything. I would have taken photos of the bar, but they don't allow the use of cell phones or photography inside so as to keep the old-fashioned theme going. The cocktails there were SO good. Each cocktail took a while to make, but it was worth the wait. I had some sort of pomegranate concoction in a sleek martini glass.
Surprise, pretty lady!
Francis sporting a fedora and suspenders.
I had fishnet stockings, long beads, red lipstick and wavy hair. Not too bad for someone who usually hates costumes.
She loves to jump into the recycling box on Sunday evening after I've emptied it. Every Sunday. In the box.
Ya know, when they first told me we'd be headed to small-town Pennsylvania for Christmas, I was like, you have got to be kidding me. I mean, I'm more of an LA/London/Paris/Tokyo kind of guy, ya know? But when they said we might be visiting New York City, that great mecca of cool, I thought, why not? I can spare a few days if it keeps 'em happy. Here I am in Times Square, lookin fresh.
While I was in the city, I thought I might as well check on my investments. My 401K definitely took a hit this year.
Visiting 30 Rockefeller Center was pretty sweet. I have a huge crush on Tina Fey. She is so hot.
They wait in line for hours just to have thousands of people watch them ice skate on a tiny little rink. I have better things to do, man.
I'm a foodie, I'm not gonna lie. But dinner at the family's house was surprisingly tasty. It has a real home-cooked vibe. I dug it.
Then, out of nowhere, I get man-handled by a giant toddler. No dignity. No dignity at all.
We hit the slopes for a little boarding, which was cool. It's no Whistler or Aspen, but I definitely caught some sweet air on the half pipe.
Francis and I trekked down to West Chester to see my best friend from high school, Lisa, and her boyfriend Kieran, their beautiful Cape Cod house that they've fixed up, their cats, their English bulldog Beast, and our friend Shannon, who was also there. We got to play tennis and bowling on their Wii, which was amazing!
After that, we all played a massive game of Monopoly. Lisa and Francis were the last two standing. It got down and dirty at the end. Lisa had to stand up for better dice-throwing action. We didn't end up leaving until 2:00am!
Beast is a beast.
Kieran gave me this great pic of us at my wedding.
We spent New Year's Eve with my parents and a few other family members. The 2010 glasses I bought in New York City were a big hit.
What is that crazy woman doing? you might ask. And rightfully so, for she does appear crazy. In fact, she is twirling an old wooden noisemaker that used to be used as an air-raid siren back during WWII. It is hellishly loud. Perfect for disturbing a peaceful and quiet neighborhood who are just way too lame for the Turner family!
