The Big 3-0!

So the rumor is true, I turned 30 this week. As my 20s came to a close, I reflected a lot on the last decade. I am convinced that it was and will remain the most productive decade of my life. I am a little amazed at how much I fit into a short 10 years: served a mission, graduated from BYU, got married, bought a home, bought 2 cars, worked for almost 4 years, had 2 kids, traveled a lot, and much more. As I look forward to the next ten years I wonder what big events will take place. It is exciting to look and think ahead to the future and where we will be in 10 more years. Only time can tell.

For my birthday my mom came up to NYC to visit us for a week. She got here around noon on my birthday. We enjoyed a nice lunch at my place while my girls took a nap. We had plans to go into the city and Charles was going to get off early to spend time with us and go out to dinner. Well, shortly after Isabelle got up from her nap she threw up all over me. Poor thing, was so miserable. Charles got home shortly after that and just in time for her second round of being sick. I was so glad to have my mom and Charles there to help clean up and take care of Anya while I tried to clean Isabelle up in the bath and take care of her. Needless to say our outing to the city was postponed. We did manage to get out for a walk for about an hour that evening (after Isabelle was feeling better). We ordered in Chinese food and enjoyed our time together.

Last night we finally got to go out for my birthday dinner. We went to Pellegrino, a fabulous little restaurant in Little Italy. After dinner we went and got some rice pudding from Rice to Riches. It was a perfect evening out with the family.

Earlier in the day we went for a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. Charles had to work for most of the day, so he didn't get to join up with us till the evening.

Roland flew in Saturday morning to join in the fun.

There is a pizza place in Brooklyn called Grimaldi's that we love to go to. After waiting in line for almost an hour, and still not close to the front of the line, we ended up going to a pizza place around the corner. It turned out to be great pizza too. But that is no surprise, we were in Brooklyn after all.

On my actual birthday Charles surprised me with an Incredible Edible cake, it was YUMMY! What a great choice.

For Isabelle's sake we had to light up candles and sing Happy Birthday, to her it isn't a birthday without it. So Charles put 30 candles in a loaf of banana bread that I had made.

It's getting a lot harder to blow all the candles out in 1 shot. I had to get Isabelle to help me. There is a lot of smoke with 30 candles!

On Thursday everyone was feeling good so my mom, the girls and I went over to Flushing Meadows to see some of the qualifying matches for the US Open. It is always fun to go on the grounds there and be a part of the excitement. We got to see quite a few of the pros practicing and we watched some good qualifying matches. While we were there I bought tickets to come back to the Open. I got tickets for the night session on the first Saturday 9/4 and I got tickets for Charles and I to go the Women's Finals! I am so excited to go. I tried to get tickets for the Men's Finals, but they were all sold out, but I am thrilled to go to the Women's Finals. How often do you have a chance to go to the Finals of a Grand Slam?

My mom and Anya trying to keep cool and out of the sun while watching a match.

Yes, that is Nadal, #1 in the world! It was cool to see him practicing. Man he kills the ball.

Ana Ivanovic- former #1 in the world

Melanie Oudin

Svetlana Kuznetsova

Roger and my mom

Even with the delayed start of my birthday, we had a fabulous week of fun. Here's to the next 10 years!