Thirty-4

Can you possibly think of a better way to spend your birthday than chillin at the beach in Newport with all my favorite people?!?  I certainly can't.  The sun even came out to play... all day! 

So I turned 34, it happened.  This is officially my last year of being in my "early thirties".  By next year I'll have to say "mid-thirties" and that's a slippery slope to "late-thirties" and the dreaded "4-0".  So I've really got to embrace my youth this year!  But as I said, I had a pretty awesome birthday, the day included breakfast at Rose Cafe and Bakery in Newport, 4 mile walk on the boardwalk, all afternoon on the beach, family photos at Balboa pier, and date night with my hubs!  We splurged on a yummy dinner at the yard house at Fashion Island.  

I thought I would take a minute and document my life at 34 (in no particular order)...

I would rather have chocolate chip cookies than birthday cake.  And I would really rather if that cookie came from Swigs in St. George and was accompanied by a 32 oz dirty diet coke with lime.  Puts a smile on this girls face!

I heart crossfit.  I'm 34 and in the best shape of my life... I can do pull-ups.  Seriously, I kick butt! (no shame)

I'm still a working mom!  I was really lucky to find my job this year.  It may not be the most exciting job of my career history, but I'm keeping my foot in the door, and this job is really rounding out my career in surgical services.  I can now say I've worked: pre-op, OR, PACU, post-op, Surgical ICU, and floor nursing.  My goal this coming year is to begin to study for the CORN exam or CPAN.  

This is my cute house!  I love it! I know, it looks like a blue gingerbread house.  Love our home, love our circle, love that we have neighbors, and that the kids have best little buddies to play with all the time! I love living in Daybreak! I love that our new ward-house is literally 2 doors down from our house.  I love that I can walk out my front door and go for a 3-5 mile run around a beautiful lake and past the Oquirrh Mountain temple. Seriously!  Pretty much everything we need is in daybreak: our church, Aspen and Bryson's schools, Clark's work, Aspen's gymnastics, Copper Mountain Crossfit, Daybreak pool.  It's a big day if we have to cross bangerter to go to WalMart, Target, or Harmons.  And did I mention my work is only about 3 miles away as well.  Love where we live!

I love to exercise and be active!  This year Clark and I sprung for new road bikes as our 12th anniversary gift! Unfortunately, I don't have all the time in the world to spend roadbiking, running, and crossfitting and I would like.  So I just take what I can and enjoy every minute!  This photo was taken the one and only time Clark and I actually got to get out and ride TOGETHER!  There will come a time in our life when we can go on rides together all the time, that time is just not now.  So we enjoy every chance we get to workout together. (Which is why I keep getting roped into these crazy crossfit competitions!)  This past year I competed at the Black Sheep event in Cedar City, I did WODSOMIIAC with Clark in January, we both participated in the Open, and Clark has me agreed to do WODSOMNIAC again in August!  Yikes! How to I balance that with also wanting to run the big cottonwood half marathon, and also do the wildflower pedal fest with my neighborhood riding girls! Plus oh yeah, did I mention I'm a mom and I work too?!?  Can't do it all.

This year I chopped off my hair!  It was time.  I started growing my hair out about the time I had Bryson.  Now 4 1/2 years later I was ready for a change.  Thanks to pinterest I checked out lots and lots of different hairstyles before deciding on a long, wavy a-line cut with a blonde ombre melt.  It took a couple trips to the hair dresser to get it just right, but I'm super happy with the result.  The change has been fun and just in time for summer for a fun, sassy new do!

At this point in my life I've just come to terms and embraced the fact that I'm a mini-van mama!  To tell you the truth I LOVE my car! I could go on and on about everything I love about the sporty-mama wagon, but I'll just say that my name is Katie, I drive a mini-van and I'm proud of it!

At the end of the day, I'm most grateful for these yahoos in my life! Every night I pray, I'm most thankful for my family, my health, and my home.  I'm so blessed, and I am so grateful for a loving and supportive husband whose main goal in life is to keep me happy!  He spoils me like crazy, and puts up with my day-to-day struggles as a wife-mother-nurse-runner-crossfitter-cleaner-cook-chauffer-soccermom-gymnasticsmom-activitydaysleader-biker-dietcokedrinker-chocolatechipcookielover-all that and a bag of chips!  I'm so thankful for my hubby who gets up and goes to work everyday, brings home a paycheck (that I mostly spend), helps out with the kids (especially at bedtime), and is always there for me at the end of the day to hang out with.  I'm one lucky mama!