Best Birthday EVER!

So this past weekend I turned the big 2-9. Yes, that's right, NOT 35 as many friends are trying to say. Heck, 35 would be great, I'd get more buffer on my Boston qualifier time!

I seriously had the best birthday of my life. I've had a lot of really good ones, but this one was the best. I really am indebted to all my friends and family for taking the time to really show how much they care! It was really overwhelming, and frankly, I wouldn't need another birthday party for 3 or 4 years.

I started to write about all the fun things I did, or people did for me, then I realized: All of my (local) friends and family were there, or heard about it. No one else in the blogging world would really care! :) Here are some highlights with photos:

Saturday I ran the Golden Valley 5K. I finished in 17:58 (NOT 18:11 as the official results say). I was hoping I'd have no competition and win, but I guess it's OK that I lost to an Olympian!

Yep, that's Team USA Minnesota's very own Carrie Tollefson. Misty Mike, Fancy Kirk and I had a nice chat with Carrie and her husband Charlie. Mike, Kirk and I are running Boston in 13 days (if you didn't know), and Charlie has run it before, so we talked about that for a while. Anyway, Carrie ran strong and looks ready to kick it in for the track Oly trials. Good luck Carrie!

And congrats to Kirk for his big 10K win!

Later that day I embarked on a fun and very sweet scavenger hunt organized by my girlfriend. I followed clues all around town to various places that have special meaning to us, the last clue taking me of course to her! Very surprising and fun!


I had 2 parties as well. One was a happy hour with lots of friends that I planned, and the other was a family get-together my mom surprised me with on Sunday! I really had no clue my mom was planning it. I had family come from as far away as Madison for it, about 40 in all! It was very overwhelming and wonderful.

So there you have it, I have the best friends, family and girlfriend in the world, all combining to make it a birthday I'll never forget. Thanks guys!

Easter/Birthday Recap

What? Blogs 2 days in a row? That's almost worth checking every day!

So Birthday recap... Well, I had one. Now I'm old(er). One of the kids at tutoring last night guessed that I was 29. That hurt. It shouldn't really hurt much since I'm 28, but apparently I'm at the age now where I do NOT want to be mistaken for someone older. So please feel free to call me immature. I'll take it as a compliment.

Birthday was fun. I had a wonderful birthday breakfast at Anodyne with my friend Erin, and my coworkers (Tim, etc.) took me out for a delicious dinner at Al Vento! I love that place, definitely my favorite restaurant in MN. If you've never been, you have to go and try the 3 seafood antipasti. Just trust me, it's the most delicious thing you'll ever eat. And it's the best Italian food this side of Anna Maria's.

On Saturday my running club came over post-run for birthday cake, bagels and Peace Coffee (so delicious, that might just turn me into a coffee drinker!) Janelle and I share a birthday (week) so we celebrated together. Deb brought this awesome cake!


Here's a close-up on the cake (look who's winning)!


Good times all around, and I love having people over at my house. Which is good since the very next day for Easter I had 28 Meisners at my house for Easter! The Meisners are a great family. We love to spend time with each other, really, we do! We have big family get togethers all the time, next one is in May. Strange, we all get along! And the family keeps growing too, and that's a lot of fun. Meisners come early, stay late. So my house was inundated with family for about 8 hours on Sunday, but it was just a ton of fun. Then I led a group of 15 or so on our now traditional post-dinner family walk (recent tradition, I've started this since I moved back, inspired by the Weans' post-Thanksgiving walks that I used to do back out East). We went over to the Falls (imagine that!) which were beautiful. I got this great picture of my little cousin Zach playing by the falls (note Sea Salt in the background).


Then we returned home and ate ourselves sick with desserts. If there's anything the Meisners do better than anyone else, it's desserts. I'm still feeling ill!

Don't those look delicious??? I had 2 of each.... I love family dinners, is there a better excuse for gluttony than celebrating that Christ is risen?