Surprise Birthday Weekend

Oh what a weekend it was. Yes, I now today is Wednesday, but I was way too exhausted to get any kind of post up for Monday. My body is still recovering from the crazy week that was study time and there was no rest this weekend because, HELLO, family time!

Friday I headed to the gym to waste time before my flight. It felt really good to BE at the gym after passing my NASM PT exam. Everyone was super excited for me which was super nice, too. I had a fantastic workout, showered and changed then headed to airport. It's so nice having MAYBE a five minute wait to get through security, cheers to tiny airports :)!

Flight was a lil delayed, but thankfully not as much as expected. I was meeting my family at dinner so I had to dress fancier than normal on the plane. Super fun wearing my felt hat to cover the crazy hairs.

 Thankfully the flight was super uneventful, I even had my own row and we landed pretty close to the expected time. I scurried to a cab, so I could meet the famjam at Ruth Chris' for the big 30th birthday dinner. The family was done eating when I arrived but they had ordered my meal and it came quite quickly.

Oh yes, I SAID FAMILY because we flew SPORTYSPICE in from Arizona as a surprise. I wasn't able to see the exchange happen but saw video and it was so perfect. Lil Babyspice had NO IDEA! After a month of planning it was so nice for everything to come together for the special moment. Being together as our family of five was so incredible, I can't even describe the feeling.

 Once dinner was over, we all headed home for some drinks, hang out sissy time and prep for the next day. Everyone was pretty tired so it was a midnight bedtime with an early morning. Sportyspice and I jumped up early, headed to Trader Joes to grab a few snacks for the fiesta. The party was at a winery and we had all the girls sign up to bring bread, cheese, fruit and crackers to share, we just wanted to get a few extra special pieces.

We tried to keep as much of the guest list a secret as possible and it was fun watching Babyspice's face light up each time someone entered the room. Once everyone arrived at my parent's house we all caravanned to a gorgeous winery twenty minutes west. It was thankfully a GORGEOUS day and we arrived early enough to grab a two tables.

The day was spent wine tasting, snacking, eating cake, taking pictures and just celebrating our darling 30 year old. She has a fantastic group of women who support her and we were so thankful they all took time out of their weekend to join in our plan. Everyone was so wonderful during the planning process and I was beyond thankful everything worked out so well in the end.

Happy happy happy birthday, sweet darling girl!

As evening rolled around people began heading home, with one friend staying with us for the evening. The four of us headed out to dinner while my parents went to different functions and it was so fun being back at our 'family' place. The rest of the evening was spent watching movies, drinking more wine and just chilling out together.

Sunday morning I was up early again to head down south to visit my bestest friend and her brood. It was a morning full of kids, feedings, naps, chatting up, hugging and advice. I'm happy with life in Tennessee now, but man do I miss my gal. So glad things we were able to catch up for a short time.

Too soon the morning turned into afternoon and then evening and we were eating dinner then getting ready to head to the airport. The weekend was such a whirlwind trying to get everything perfect but also just being together. We hadn't just been a family of five in so long and I just tried to soak up all the moments because we all won't be together again until November. I'll be honest, I cried when they dropped me off at the airport, I just did not want to leave. It was quite sudden and unexpected, but hugging my dear family peeps broke my heart again. Being a grown up can stink, but I'm so thankful to have something so special.

I miss you family, so much! Can't wait for Thanksgiving, it's going to be so fun!