Wow…I’m really 30!?

So this year was my big 30th…and boy did I celebrate! (yes, I know this is a bit late…and no I doubt I won’t do it justice but I’m going to blog about it almost 3 months later…b/c I had such an amazing time!). let me just say, I have amazing friends. my friends went all out this year seriously. We all know I like to celebrate bdays…and I typically celebrate several times each year and this year was no different…I literally celebrated the entire month. I had work bday lunches, multiple bday dinners and 2 amazing bday parties!

So, I began my bday celebrating with an amazing bday bash in Waco. Lisa and Mica know how to throw a party…to say the least. We (aka all of my ‘young friends’) had a blast for the entire weekend…we had everything from water balloon fights, wagon and mule riding, 4-wheeling, hot-tubbing, horseshoe throwing…black and pink themed decorations including balloons, flowers, an amazing banner, ‘kellie’s favorite saying’ cards, advice for kellie cards…we had yummy food galore including catering from my favorite BBQ restaurant in Waco, my aunt Nancy’s infamous potato salad and fabulous cookies, Candice’s yummy banana pudding, a huge cake…seriously, nothing was left out. These girls went all out. My parents volunteered their house (hotel Watson) for us to throw down at this shindig…we stayed all weekend, drank their beer (and apple pie!), took advantage of Barney on-demand, and enjoyed a fantastic breakfast Sunday morning, prepared by my dad himself. The invitees included all of my favorite ‘people of my past/present/and future’…including my best friends from high school and their families, my amazing college roommates and my two very best college friends. My entire family showed up for this big celebration and I couldn’t be more thankful for that. I planned to write this blog long ago…but it’s so overwhelming to write blogs like this, b/c there’s just no way to capture all of the planning, effort, money and time that went into something like this. I can’t show my appreciation enough to all of those involved. The party was amazing. My pictures are so fun to look at. All of the kids that mean the most to me had such a wonderful time playing with each other. The weekend was perfect. It involved everyone that knows me so well and I could not have asked for a more perfectly planned event…or a more perfectly celebrated birthday. Thanks to Mica and Lisa for being the great friends that you are. Thank you for planning such a fun event for us all. Thanks to all of you who gave me such great gifts and made my 30th bday so memorable.

So, I came back to Dallas on Sunday afternoon…and Monday night had another fun celebration. First, I got flowers during the day from a couple of the girls. Then, some of my closest ‘single’ girlfriends started off my week with surprise dinner at Bob’s Steakhouse. I had never been there…they all love it and knew that I had never been…so they treated me to dinner. YUMMY. Wow, it was fantastic steak…and we had a fantastic evening. I was treated at lunch on Wednesday by my team at work. Wednesday night (my actual bday)…we won’t go into the details about what I was ‘supposed’ to do that night…but what I ended up doing was hanging out with Mica and Lisa again. Yes, I am blessed with two of the most amazing best friends you can ask for. They dropped their plans last minute, raced to meet me and take me out to dinner for my actual bday. We went to BJ’s where we could partake in our ‘one big splurge’. The one thing that makes this dinner more interesting is the fact that as they are driving to meet me from their respective homes…a storm is brewing…not just any storm…a tornado. The fact that BJ’s restaurant is a building that is complete ceiling to floor walls of windows…helped us to witness exactly how bad the storm was about to be. We watched poles being blown around as if they were made out of gumby himself. They both had their husbands questioning their sanity as they left their house…but they were absolutely determined to be with me…on my birthday…and they were. As we sat down, we immediately began looking for a place to ‘hide’…our table moved around so nope that wouldn’t work…and we began texting those we loved telling them we loved them. And I laughed…well, after the storm passed us…about the fact that at least if I was going to die that night, at least I would get to die with them instead of sitting at home by myself!

Thursday I had another work lunch with my ‘old’ group. Friday night was a big 6 person group birthday bash. We had a big group Happy Hour and then a few us went out on a couple of boats for a midnight cruise. We had a blast. My single friends are so much fun…we have made so many great memories in the past few years…and this night just added to our collection of pictures! We had about 80 people respond to the evite that they were coming…we owned the bar that night…it was awesome. Later in the month, I had another bday dinner with another set of girls that I just adore…and they gave me even more presents. Wow, I am one lucky gal. I have friends coming out my ears…but blessed with many very close friends that would go out of their way for me at any time. I am thankful for them all…and thankful to them all for always creating such great memories for me. I’m not sure where I would be without every single one of them.

Happy 30th to me!

(btw, i have pics to add to this post, but since this has been written for almost a month now, i needed to get it posted to get one of those friends above, that I won't mention, off my case!!)