Happy Birthday to me!

We're one day past my birthday and still in the middle of my Birthday Week so, for those of you not on Facebook or Instagram (my mother), I thought I'd share a couple of my Instagrams from yesterday. That and tell you I had a fantastic day that I did not spend at work but doing what I wanted at home, and spending it with friends. It was a pretty great day. And everyone told me my cakes were good so that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.*

*yes, "words of affirmation" is my language of love

Happy Anniversary!

29 years ago on this day, June 24, 1983, my parents got married. And look how adorable they are:

So, Happy Anniversary Mama and Papa!

I love you and am glad you got married 29 years ago.

Happy Father's Day!

Yesterday was my Dad's 52nd birthday and today is Father's Day. My dad is awesome for a lot of reasons, but here are a few you might not know:

Mid 70's basketball picture. What a cute dad I got right? This picture has nothing to do with my reasons I love my dad. I just love it.

1. He makes up silly nicknames and does funny voices with my sister Rachel. (Is that embarrassing for them both? Oops...)

2. Anytime we go somewhere there is a body of water my dad will swim. He empties his pockets of everything important, takes off his shirt and jumps in, in his cargo shorts. It doesn't matter if we're in the middle of a long road trip, we'll stop.

I love this picture even though I'm not in it. We'll just pretend I took the picture... (Jess, Cami, Rach, Dad, Emma)

3. My dad rides his road bike to and from work and occasional long Saturday rides (well, I think he still does a fair amount of riding, maybe not as much as he used to). The summer before my mission we took a lot of tandem bike rides in the countryside. It was always fun even if the thought of a 40 mile bike ride sounded awful at the beginning, it was always fun at the end.

4.  I loved working at his office in the summers during high school and college because it was always cool to see him at work. And it's kind of crazy to see him remove a skin cancer, sew it up and make the scaring minimal. It's almost like, "whoa, I can't believe my dad can do that."

I'm wearing the sweet vest on the left. And I loved these ziplines in Germany. They have the best playgrounds.

5.  Though the last four things have just been some little tidbits about my dad, my number one favorite thing about him is that he's so supportive of me. He encourages and supports the decisions I make and wants the best for me and for my sisters. And, in a spirit of full cheesiness (sorry) I think my dad is the greatest. But then, shouldn't we all think our dad's are the greatest?

Summer Weekend

This past weekend felt like the quintessential summer weekend. We went down to Lake Anna in Central Virginia and enjoyed the boat, the sun and silly Laffy Taffy and Chuck Norris jokes.

(ps. that last wakeboarding picture? not me. that's shannon. i gave up on wakeboarding, it just wasn't enjoyable to me to try and get up over and over. besides, my body doesn't want to turn that way, i'm a downhill skier, not a snowboarder, i just want to have my feel pointing straight. i'll keep to the innertube.)

The Boston Years

I have a handful of girl friends from college that I've been friends with since freshman year. A few of them grew up together, a few of them know each other from the dorms and a few of them I know from the dorms and together we make this random group of wonderful women I wish to be more like.

About a month ago we all met up in Boston. Kate's little Harvard Business School apartment was turned into a major slumber party for seven woman (and a baby!) for a couple nights and we explored Harvard campus and Boston before driving out to Cape Cod for the evening.

I should have blogged about it right when I got home but how can I adequately describe how much fun I had. I love these women. I love their strength, they're struggles and their support. I felt so loved all weekend and remembered how much I loved them all and how much I wished I had lived with them in college. (I was on my mission when they were finally all roommates or close neighbors.) I didn't want the weekend to end, and as I told the girls, I felt a little like Anne Shirley when Marilla is taking her away from Green Gables and Anne says, "Just fixing Green Gables in my memory. In years to come I'm going to look back on Green Gables as a beautiful dream that will always haunt me." (Just substitute Boston in for Green Gables.)

Here are a few pictures from the weekend taken by Cath.

And my favorite picture I took on my phone:

me with Steph's adorable, adorable little girl. seriously, cutest, darlingest baby girl ever. i miss her. seriously.

Oh, why meet up in Boston? We had an idea that we would all live in Boston together someday. "The Boston Years". I think this fall is supposed to be "The Years Abroad". I should probably start planning for that...

Embarrassing moment 2012

Morning commutes are busy, they're crowded, people are hurrying to get to work, and people (including me) get annoyed when people stand on the left when they should be standing on the right. The left is for walkers. And I'm always a walker. I feel like I should get a little extra exercise in the morning. Besides, walking up the escalator is faster. (Except I almost always don't walk up the super long escalators like at Dupont Circle. MUCH too long. See picture above.)

Anyway, this morning I'm chatting with Lisa, we're discussing dreadlocks. And we're walking up the stairs and next thing I know, I'm slamming my hands down onto the steps and my purse is falling off my shoulder into the legs of the people standing on the right and I'm realizing I did not step up high enough and I tripped.

It was so fast. One minute we were discussing hair and the next I'm in giggles of embarrassment.

And the worst part? No one was laughing. If you see me embarrass myself and I'm laughing, please laugh with me. It's funny. And it makes everything MUCH less embarrassing.

Christmas, St. Louis, MO 1987

I'm guessing on the date for this picture. But I'm guessing it's 1987 because I look about four and Jess looks about two and if it was Christmas 1988 Cami would have been born and posing with us. We lived in St. Louis from 1985-1989 while my dad was in medical school. I can't figure out if I have a lot of memories of my actual experiences in St. Louis or if I just think I remember things because we have awesome home videos from those years. Either way, I kind of think of St. Louis as a haven for a toddler. (I highly doubt that is the real case.)

Anyway, point of the post is that, Jess is moving to Brooklyn, NY tomorrow. I am going to miss having her only 10 minutes down the road. It's been so convenient to be able to have her pop over or for us to plan a last minute outing on a Saturday afternoon, or to have her husband, so kindly, help me move something heavy using his big company truck. I'm excited for her to be in New York though, she will love it, she has always wanted to live there, and I'll have an easy place to stay when I come into town. More NYC trips on the horizon? Probably. Hooray!

And if you were wondering, she's also recovering from her bike accident. My mom came out to help them pack up their house and Jess can more or less successfully walk around.