Best Birthday EVER

I turned 29 today. That means this is my last year in my twenties. Then I will hit my thirties. *GASP* I don't feel nearly mature or put together enough to be in my thirties. That sounds so very adult. Despite my reluctance to grow one year closer to thirty, this was seriously my best birthday ever. First, Chad paid for me & a friend to go get pedicures. So, my sister-in-law (Angela) and I went yesterday. It was heavenly. I got to sit in one of those magical massage chairs and the lady used some sort of mystical hot rocks to massage my feet. It felt soooooooo good. And my toes are a delightful pink now. Much prettier than before!

Today, Chad took me to Woodland Park Zoo, which is my favorite place in the world. I love watching the animals. The gorillas are my very favorite & today I got to watch a brand new baby gorilla run around and play right in front of the glass. It was so stinking adorable. We also watched a zoo keeper feed/train the red pandas & a (very brave) zoo keeper move & wash a set of humongous snakes. I loved it. My dream is to go back to school once the kids are all grown and get whatever degree I need to feed animals at the zoo. That would be the best. Also, while we were at the zoo, Chad said I could get a pet turtle. Yay! Look out Pet Co, here I come!For dinner, Chad took me to a brand new restaurant in the international district of Seattle. It was a New Orleans style cafe specializing in crawfish boils. It was super authentic. They brought out a steaming pail of crawfish, corn, sausage & potatoes and dumped it straight on the table. No plates, no forks--just a roll of paper towels and optional bibs. Yummy! It was my first crawfish boil experience. They boil the crawfish whole & then you snap their heads off and peel the tails. The truly brave suck the delicous boil "goo" from the heads. I passed on the head goo, but loved the crawfish tails. And it was pretty fun playing with the whole crawfish before we ate them. Being at the restaurant helped ease the pain of missing Mardi Gras a little too. For dessert, we skipped the traditional cake and opted for delicious frozen yogurt & a fresh custard filled cream puff.

Then, when I got home I found all sorts of treats on my doorstep. There was lotion (in my favorite Bath & Body works flavor) from Christa and an army of the cutest penguin cupcakes ever made from Jessica & Shelly. What a perfect day. Thank you to everyone!!! Maybe being 29 isn't so bad after all...