Quarter of a Century Birthday

Hooray for turning 25 years old! My birthday landed on a Saturday this year so Josh and I made sure to take the day off from our retail jobs. We spent the whole day in Mankato to take advantage of the day off and spend time with family, something we don’t get to do very often anymore. We had a nice brunch in the morning, errand running and decorating my parents’ Christmas tree in the afternoon, and a delicious family dinner in the evening. Josh and my mom surprised me by making rouladen, one of my favorite German dishes!

The next day after finishing a day of work at REI, I went downtown Minneapolis with my girlfriends, Jamie, Corynn and Lara (in order as shown in the pictures). We went to Palomino and had a happy hour full of delicious cocktails (mine were all non-alcoholic, of course), yummy appetizers and a sweet birthday treat! It was great fun to get together with the girls for a night out. 

We also celebrated my birthday at MSAADA...twice actually! Scott (the architect) brought a delicious chocolate cake from the Twin Cities favorite Wuollet bakery. The frosting was like a layer of fudge...mmm. We celebrated twice because we first cut the cake on Friday the 11th, but several people were out of the office that day so we celebrated again with everyone else the following Monday. I’m okay with multiple day birthday celebrations!

Since this post is late, I’ll also write that yesterday was our friend Lara’s birthday (the girl with me in the second photo)! Josh and I joined her and her husband, along with another couple Lara and Erik know from Bethlehem Lutheran Church, at Pizza Luce in Uptown. We all had a beer (mine was root) and pizza. Josh’s favorite was the baked potato pizza and mine was the greek Athena pizza. :) It’s so nice to find time in our busy schedules to spend time with friends. Happy Birthday Lara!

There is yet more to write about these past couple weeks, but my pillow is calling. I can’t wait until morning and go to our 24 week appointment! Can you believe I’m already 24 weeks pregnant?! Me either.