You see, I love my birthday. No--I LOVE my birthday. It’s better than Christmas!
This year, though, was the first time in my life I was dreading my birthday rather than counting down the days.
Brad was never a big birthday guy, so it took him a year or two to figure out how to do birthdays my style.
Of course, because of my intense love for my birthday, I was so scared that this would be the worst of them all.
Yes. It was a hard day. Of course it was hard. I missed Brad and couldn’t help but wonder what the day would’ve been like if he’d been here.
But, I had some amazing people around me during the birthday celebrations that turned this into one amazing birthday.
Stephanie was amazing. She knows just how much I love my birthday and how nervous I was for this one. She went out of her way to make sure this day turned out great.
She spent the night at my house with Leah and her girls so that I could stay out as late as I wanted with my friends.
That morning I woke up to a birthday banner, a stack of presents, balloons everywhere, and some excited little girls with birthday batter pancakes full of sprinkles!
Woot! Woot!
We went out to the car to find this:
My step-mom came over early in the morningand decorated my car. It was everywhere! So much fun. I told Steph people would think a bunch of teenage girls were in this car--I guess they kinda were. :)
We took the girles to hit up Provo Beach resort. I swear, the little girls love my birthday too, because I always choose to take then to do something fun.
We went to lunch at Marley’s Sliders, a fun little place with yummy, inexpensive food.
My mom, in giving me a wonderful birthday present, took all three girls home while Steph and I finally went to do something we’d talked about for years.
Rock Climbing.
Holy cow this was so much fun! But I was so scared! Whenever I felt my grip slipping, I’d say to Steph “do you have me?” She’d laugh. When I got to the top and got too scared, I’d say, “Okay. I’m done.” Steph though it was funny.
Whenever I would get too scared to keep going, I’d think of Shea, the main character in my book, who is a rock climbing kick-butt kinda girl. If I’m going to write a character like that I had to be able to do those kind of things too.
Mostly, though, I’d think about Brad. He would’ve kicked butt at rock climbing. We’d talked about going together but never got to it. Part of my new Bradley inspired goals is not to be afraid and work hard to achieve the things I want. So, I’d ask Steph if she had me, then I’d relax, take a deep breath and think of Brad. He wouldn't have gotten scared and stopped climbing, so I wouldn’t either. It felt so good to reach the top knowing that I wanted to quit, but didn’t.
One thing I did realize is that I’m a big wimp. Okay, we knew that already. It takes a different kind of strength to rock climb--and it shouldn’t all be in your fingers. I was so sore afterwards.
After cleaning up and a little shopping, Steph and I met my whole family at Goodwood BBQ. Again it felt strange not to watch Brad massacre a rack of ribs along side my brothers
Somethings were hard, and I’d find myself catching my breath as reality would hit me from time to time. But, because all my friends and family went out of their way to make sure I had a wonderful birthday, it really was a good day.
