Birthday Girl

Yesterday was my 27th birthday, and it was a perfectly relaxing day, filled with phone calls, texts and visits from lots of my favorite people.  The weather was perfect too.  I spent a couple hours just laying on the lawn while Corban played around me.  It felt serene.

To celebrate, Josh, Corban and I went to the Santa Barbara Zoo on Saturday with the Zooks.  I wasn't in a very photographic mood so we ended up with very few pictures.  But I guess it at least proves we were there -

So here's my favorite birthday story - I teach Sunday School to the 6-year-olds at church and they were very sweet and sang Happy Birthday to me.  One of the boys says, "So how old are you going to be?  I know it's in your thirties!" To which, I smiled and replied, "Nope."  He then gave me a look part way between surprised and confused and asks, "Forties?"  Hah!  Kids are so great.

I actually didn't get to spend too much time with my favorite person yesterday.  Josh had to work a weird split shift from 10-1 and 6pm-2am.  But he still managed to find ways to make my day special, like bringing home See's candy and watching Corban while I took a nap.  And my awesome family took over while he was gone.  I was really spoiled.  Donny treated me to lunch.  Joel gave me a book.  My mom gave me this beautiful bowl (I happened to be obsessed with birds)

and I had dinner with Joel, Andrew, Megan, Kandra and my nephews. My day was filled with some seriously good food. After all of it, I have to say I'm feeling pretty fat and happy.  And very loved.  Thanks to everyone for making my day.  I love you guys!

My Nikon D90 is so awesome...

Josh got a nice DSLR camera for Christmas 5 years ago.  He then dropped it 8 days later (it happened to be the day we got engaged).  It had been on a slow path to destruction and finally crapped out last summer.  We put up with my point-and-shoot for a while but decided we needed an upgrade.  So, we pooled our Christmas resources, mostly from my parents, and bought the Nikon D90 package from Costco -

and it is

AWESOME

Evidence from Death Valley

standard lens

telephoto lens!!

I have yet to release the full potential of our camera, but its made my photos better just by being an amazing piece of equipment. No more blurry shots, no missing the moment because of shutter lag - I just love it.  And its probably the nicest thing we own. So, bonus points right there.