another year older

these beautiful things were delivered to our doorstep yesterday morning from my sweet mom and family... tulips are my FAVORITE and these are some of the prettiest i've ever seen! i love all the colors!!!

we had a wonderful day celebrating my birthday yesterday, though it didn't start out too great! we spent much of the morning crying together, sad that we weren't at home. i missed my sweet family more yesterday than i have before...but, ryan was a trooper and we enjoyed the rest of our day. he made me a delicious breakfast-eggs, toast, and egg in toast with some of my mimi's yummy spiced tea. then, later on in the day, we got to ride to Ltrain for the first time here in Littleton and it was a GREAT experience! it was a super easy and convienient way to get downtown denver.


once we got downtown, we went and had a late lunch/early dinner at my favorite place--the cheesecake factory! ryan got the biggest burrito i've ever seen...and almost finished it!!


(it's kind of a bummer picture-wise that it was just the two of us, because we could only get shots of each other, and then, of course, those silly shots with ryan sticking his arm way out holding the camera and shooting us-not so great for seeing the scenery...though for all of those out there who like only one of us, you can enjoy these pictures! ;)

i really loved the part of downtown that we were in. it's called the 16th street mall, but it's not a mall like the galleria or the summit. it's just a street that goes on for blocks and blocks with different shops and restaurants. the middle of the street is kept up really nicely with benches and everything. the only traffic allowed on this particular street are buses that will take you up and down the blocks for free! it's really a very nice place. i think maybe for the first time since we've gotten here, i thought, "i really, really love this place!" it's definitely my favorite so far! so, we had lunch and then we kind of meandered.. i got a few pictures.







we did something VERY exciting! we have this FABULOUS camera that takes amazing pictures that sometimes come out looking like we are professionals...we have been looking at getting a new zoom lense for it (we have been jealously eyeing my brothers for months now). the price on it has been great, but we just haven't really had the extra money. well, my grandmother sent me a birthday card this past week and inside was not only some money for me, but also some for ryan (because she missed his birthday)...and it was enough for us to buy the lense for OUR birthdays!!! so, we finally got it! =) i'll have to post some pictures that we take with it soon. it's a pretty sweet dealio!

after this, we hopped back on the Ltrain (i don't think that's actually the name of it, i just like to call it that...) and headed back to littleton. it was a much more crowded ride (being later in the afternoon), but so much better than fighting traffic! after getting back home, we hung out for a while, then went to the library for a few and then went to see prince caspian. can i just say i was terribly disappointed. i mean, i actually dis-enjoyed it so much that i wanted to leave in the middle of the movie. it's been a few years since i've read the book, but certainly it wasn't ALL fighting, was it? i mean, i felt like i was watching braveheart or lord of the rings. terrible, terrible, terrible... but, we did get student tickets, since we are in seminary (the lady was like, "well, i guess you have to study there like anywhere else.."), so it didn't cost us an arm and a leg to get in (just an arm!).
so, my first birthday as a married woman was not too bad. i loved being with ryan and celebrating with him-he is absolutely the BEST husband in the world...he even made me a birthday cake because i couldn't find one i liked at the store. it's been a very, very long time since i've had a homemade birthday cake, and it was my absolute favorite in the whole world-party cake (the funfetti kind). it was even better than the cheesecake! (we had the birthday cake on wednesday night, since we knew we'd have cheesecake at the CF).

(we got the honey bee kind because for every carton you buy, money is donated to the research on why the honey bees are disappearing. did you know that 1/3 of the honeybees in america died in 2007-that's an ALARMING number..and no one knows why! so, buy some honey bee ice cream and do what you can to help this cause...)
(notice ryan's new doo)