Today is my birthday (I've got less than half an hour to go). For weeks, I have told Tim that I wanted to go to the zoo on my birthday, to which he replied "But we ALWAYS go to the zoo on your birthday!" I like to think he's referring to my 25th birthday, when we actually did go to the zoo, and not a year like last year, when we flew to Colorado and spent a weekend with my family.
His comment (and my nostalgic view on aging) got me thinking, though, about how different and sometimes memorable my birthdays have been. In elementary school, my mom had several of my closest friends over for parties, and we would do crafts, be silly and open presents.
 |
I think this was my 7th birthday party.
And true story: I've kept in touch with all of the girls in this photo. |
|
|
Birthdays through the end of elementary school and middle school don't really stick out much in my mind (probably mostly cuz I'm old now). But in high school, I remember group birthday parties - most notably with my friend Jen, who was born five days before me, and our friend Megan, who was born five days after me. Our circle of friends would come out and celebrate with us - we'd usually go out for dinner and a movie. We were a tight bunch, so we didn't need to do anything exciting - it was just fun to all be out together celebrating, joking about our Honors English class or the latest project in our German class, or even planning details for prom, which was only a few weeks away.
College brought to my attention the unfortunate timing of my birthday: Finals week. We still managed to celebrate, though, often taking a study break to go out for a few hours. My nearest and dearest cleared their study schedules for my 21st birthday, when I realized the plus to the timing of my birthday meant that the bars were almost empty, as people were holed up studying for finals. Score!
After graduation from college, I moved around a bit, from job to job and state to state. Tim and I have been dating since I was 23, but we dated long-distance for about three years before both moving to Florida, so he wasn't always able to be there on my actual birthday. On my 24th birthday, I bought my first car. I don't recommend doing that, as I was stressed out beyond belief on my birthday and felt bad for my friend Sarah, who was visiting me for the weekend and got sucked in to the car drama.
 |
At the Pittsburgh Zoo with my birthday
celebration buddies, Jen and Megan. |
My quarter-century celebration was quite memorable, as I was living in Pittsburgh - my favoritest city EVER. I had a work schedule that allowed for a social life, so I actually had friends in the city. And Pittsburgh was close enough to where I had grown up that many of my high school and college besties were able to attend the festivities, too. I planned a day to remember - we went to the Pittsburgh Zoo, then went to the river front for dinner and drinks at the Hard Rock Cafe, and then we rode a ferry over to PNC Park to catch a Pirates game. It was awesome.
 |
| Oh, Magic Kingdom. |
On my 28th birthday, Tim and I took advantage of a promotional offer at Disney - Florida residents got in to the park of their choice on their birthday. Since Disney is within comfortable driving distance and we only had to buy Tim's admission, we hopped over to Orlando for the day.
My
29th birthday was spent working two jobs and being 26.5 weeks pregnant. My 30th birthday, as previously mentioned, was spent in Colorado with my family. The traveling part kinda stunk, as I was motion sick and altitude sick on my actual birthday, but the weekend was fun. We were pretty much snowed in, but the place we stayed in was awesome and it was very cool to hang out with my family, which included my 10-month old niece and Elle, who was nine months old.
 |
| We're not in Florida anymore. |
And then this year, we went to the zoo. I've been to the Lowry Park Zoo two other times, I think, but I read
Zoo Story earlier this year and have been wanting to go back ever since. It was hot, but not as hot as it will be in a month or two, and Elle is at an age where she really got in to it. We've been talking about the animals she'd see, she's been demonstrating the animals noises and she was super excited. It was a blast, but exhausting :) And in the end, she enjoyed the animals, especially the monkeys, fish and tigers, but she loved the water areas the most.
 |
| Checking out the tigers. |
 |
| This was quite an adventure. |
After our day at the zoo, we went out to dinner, where I enjoyed a glass of wine, some yummy pizza and free birthday baklava :) Because my eating was less than stellar today, I then headed to the gym to squeeze in a quick treadmill workout before coming home and basically being a vegetable.
Basically, my birthday weekend was pretty sweet. Tim let me sleep in yesterday, and today I opened cards and presents, was relieved from chores, was showered in Facebook notifications, texts and calls, and know that Elle will sleep extremely well tonight.
I loved my day - it was nearly perfect. And it brought to my attention that a) maybe I SHOULD go to the zoo every year, b) my life is quite different from that last zoo trip, from where I live to where I work to the fact that I'm now a wife and mother, c) I like dedicating the day (or, in the case of last year, the long weekend) to spending the day with family and friends and d) I'm very lucky to have such amazing friends and family who have spent so many of my birthdays with me, either in actual attendance or in spirit and cheer. Here's to my 31st year - I'm hoping it's a great one!
