Turning 30

Today is a monumental day - I turn 30. At first I wasn't sure how I felt about it, and when I asked Jay what we were going to do for my birthday (this was a few weeks ago), he asked if I just wanted to wallow in my sorrows. I thought I would be down about turning 30, but really I just feel indifferent. However, in my head, I know I should be thankful to God for giving me the gift of the past 30 years. I know that every single day is a gift.

Anyways, enough with my poor philosophizing, and on to the activities of the big day, which we actually celebrated yesterday. It was a busy day because we had church in the morning, I had a riding lesson in the afternoon, we had bible study at 4:30, then we brought Laina home, got her dinner and a babysitter, and then headed out to the new outdoor area at Park Meadows mall called The Vistas. It was fun and somewhat modern with lots of cool firepits and trendy-looking restaurants. It was COLD though and I absolutely should have worn the new boots I got with birthday money (compliments of my parents - thanks!) instead of the "holey" tights and heels I wore.

First we went to Mikuni Sushi which was pretty good. They were out of some of the fish I wanted to try, like the O Toro (extra fatty tuna), but the regular toro was delicious and we tried a new one with a name I can't remember, but it was basically a white fish and you squeeze lemon on it. Not super impressive, but good. We also had unagi (freshwater eel) which basically tastes the same to me wherever we get it - good. The big star of our sushi show was the "Rockies roll" which was spicy tuna and crab on the inside, topped with albacore (white) and red tuna. What can I say, I'm a big fan of tuna. We should have taken a picture of this one as it was beautiful in addition to being delicious. The bummer of the night was the "crunchy dream roll" which sounded fabulous on the menu, but was really not that great. Over all I did like Misuki, until I found out it was a chain, then I didn't like it as much. I do like some chain restaurants, but something about having a sushi chain just didn't seem right. Oh, and also, it always seems werid to me when you get non-ethnic people serving you, like the super white guy that served us. Oh well.

Then after sushi, we walked over to the other restaurants to check out the menus and find something for dessert. I loved the stylish new Mexican restaurant, La Sandia, and while we didn't stay for dessert, we liked the ambiance and the patio up top with a firepit and bar. I defnitely want to head back there to check out the food - it smelled great! For dessert, we decided on a place called the White Chocolae Grill, even though white chocolate is not my favorite. They had a molten non-white chocolate souffle though which was delicious.

The best part? Coming home to gifts wrapped in paper that Jay and Laina decorated. I loved the coloring and Laina even signed her own name in my card! If you use your imagination, you can see the "L", "i" and "n" pretty clearly from the pic. You can really make out the whole name in person! Jay got me a "task chair" for my workstation in the basement, along with a space heater because it's dang cold down there! It's not as good as a fully finished basement, but it will have to do for this winter ;) Speaking of winter, today is feeling very wintry and I've got pea soup simmering in the crock pot for dinner...should be yummy! I need to get some hot apple cider and a cinnamon stick and turn on the fireplace!