finally, my 18th birthday

Last Friday (August 23) was my 18th birthday!! I've never wanted a birthday to come so bad! And now, I can finally say that I'm 18. And it feels mighty fine :).
This year, my birthday was a GREAT one! I had so much fun spending time with my parents. They both made my birthday unforgettable.
My dear sweet friend Brianna also made it unforgettable, for both her and I, which I'll explain throughout my post. We both share the same birthday, which makes us pretty much the coolest people that have ever walked the planet ;).
My birthday started off with breakfast from Kneaders, which was delicious. Then I texted Brianna to wish her a happy birthday and didn't get back the text I was expecting. Her mom had informed me Brianna was getting ready to go into surgery to remove a brain tumor they found the previous night. This was no good news.

Brianna is one of those girls that everyone just loves to pieces. She's a friend you'll never forget. Even if you have Alzheimer's! Brianna has been one of my closest friends ever since I met her when we moved into our new home two years ago. I think once we realized we had the same birthday we clicked and a special friendship formed ;). Ever since I met her I have just loved her. She's sweet, kind, hilarious, smart, creative and pretty much just everything you can imagine or think of. She's always there for you, once of the best advice givers and is one of the best listeners I know. Once we sat in my back yard and talked for at least four hours. That's a memory I'll never forget :). Brianna has a light of Christ that shines brightly in her. "She knows who she is and whose she is". Her testimony of this gospel is giganormous and she's one of the best examples in my life of someone that works hard keeps pushing forward with faith even when things get tough.
So you can imagine that when I got this text, I couldn't believe it. My jaw probably smacked the floor and my eyes got as wide as cantaloupes. And almost instantly tears filled them. I knew Brianna had been having bad headaches for a while from a concussion she got at girls camp, so I was not expecting her to have a tumor.
The rest of the day I couldn't help but feel bad that I was celebrating my birthday while Brianna was in the hospital getting surgery. Now Brianna is doing great and she's home and I can't wait to go and visit her! She's an amazing girl and I'm so amazed by the strength and faith she had and still has during this difficult time in her life.
I love you Brianna! You're amazing and such a blessing to everyone in your life.

Once I got back from signing papers for my new job I'll have in two weeks,
We went and got my new phone! I have been anxiously awaiting the day I would get my new phone. I am pleased to say I love it very much :).
After we got my phone, we went to dinner at Texas Roadhouse, which I picked. When you go to Texas Roadhouse on your birthday, they make you sit on a saddle and call out to the whole restaurant to give you a "YEEHAW!". I didn't remember this until we had already ordered our food. By then it was too late to exit this restaurant and before I knew it the saddle was placed in front of me and I was hopping on it.
Then we went and saw the movie "Now you See Me". Which was a fairly good movie. It was a bit confusing at times and I'm pretty sure I still don't understand half of what happened in it but I still enjoyed it.
Then we went and got frozen yogurt. Which, if you didn't know already, is our families favorite thing to do (well, one of them). After that we made our way to the destination of my "senior trip".... Salt Lake City :). We stayed in a Mariot hotel for a night and then had breakfast in the morning.
On our way to pick up the siblings we stopped at a mac store and looked at some potential computers for school, then we went to several music stores and tried out flutes. Picking the flute wasn't easy, because they're all just so beautiful and sound amazing.

But, I think I finally found one I loved most out of all of them. It's a Mio and I'm LOVING it. Now I just can't wait for college so I can actually use this baby! Even though I'm pretty sure I've gotten it out every day just to play scales because it sounds so pretty.

Thanks mom and dad for the AMAZING birthday! It's one I'll never forget. I had such a great time with both of you and I loved the senior trip ;). Thanks for being such great examples to me! I love you SOOOO much!!