hey, you, guess what?! I turned 22 ...

Well, I turned 22 years old this past week. Yup, it's true. As my dad said, I'm there, it's done, I'm grown up. Great pep-talk by the way, thanks Dad! :) I decided that the best way to spend my birthday was to fly to Seattle for a brief vacation. My birthday, thankfully, falls on spring break 3/4ths of the time. So with out even missing a day of school, I loaded up a duffle and flew off to Seattle. I was so excited to see all my friends and family again. I have to admit I was a little nervous that I had been replaced amongst my group of friends, but I found quickly that none of my friends had forgotten me, and I remembered just how much I love all of my wonderful friends. 

So the first day was a family day. I didn't take any pictures, sorry guys! I had a lot of fun running amok with Annabelle and Lucas, my cute cousins. And I got to eat pho and sushi all in one day! Then, thanks to Beth, I eat a huge piece of wonderful carrot cake. MMMM. So good. So Ram and I (my uncle) celebrated our birthday's on Wednesday. And I spent the night there. Then Thursday morning --- MY BIRTHDAY! --- I hung out more with the family, got gussied up, and headed off to Ballard to reunite with my true love -- shoes.

I hung out with Melanie at the store for a few hours then met up with the girls at Velouria and was in heaven. I bought 3 new dresses!! Yay! Happy birthday to me! Thursday night all my friends got together and went to dinner at Thaiku. It was so much fun being together with all of them again. And due to a lot of changes at Market Street Shoes many of them hadn't seen each other in awhile, so it was a fun reunion. We took a ton of pictures, and I'll put a few up so you all can see how cute my friends are! 

Topher and I! TJ and JT! 

Justin! Aka Little Justin! Aka MB! Aka Matt Bauer! Aka BO$$

Autumn, Sarah, and myself. It's kind of like we've never used chopsticks before, never fear that's not actually the case. We're chopstick proficient. 

On the way back to the basement for a super fun party. Yay for basement parties!

Nick and Elise! They're the best. And Elise is my OH! So naturally I love her. And since Nick is her other other half, I also love him! It's one large group of love I tell ya.

We all hung out in the basement for many an hour. I knew I would need to stay up late, and I tried to prepare myself. But I figured I'd only make it until 1. This picture was taken around 2:30, so I did a lot better than expected. Justin and Austin left around 1, then Elise and Nick left around 2, and all us basement dwellers continued to hang out until the wee hours of the morning. 

Well, at around 4 we finally decided it was time to go to bed. Although it technically wasn't my birthday any longer, I still say that whole day counts as my birthday, and it was one of my best. I can't believe I have such a great group of friends out there. I had so much fun laughing and frolicking and being extremely loud. I forgot how loud I can really be, so I apologize for that one, but I loved spending time with each and everyone of them. I also got to see my old boss' from Shoes. And that was a lot of fun, chatting and catching up with them. :) Yay for having a Seattle family!

Speaking of family, I went back to hanging out with my family on Saturday. It was great getting to see all of them. I had a slumber party Saturday night with my Grandma and Mom and Carmel. Carm-ba-loo is 14 now! I took some cute pictures, but I'll just put one of him in. He's my bestest friendest. And I love him!

Well, Sunday evening came quickly, and it was time to head home and back to real life. It was so much fun seeing everyone in Seattle, and spending a ton of money, and getting no sleep. So thanks everyone who welcomed me back. And for those of you whom live in Utah, never fear, I was happy to come home to all of you. Because I love you! 

Happy birthday Jen! Let's do it all over again next year! Ok? OK! 

Oh and for the record, I spent a lot of money and bought a lot of new things, and it made me happy. Happy happy happy! So thanks Shoes and Velouria for filling up my closet with joy.