Closer to.....30.

AND...I'm 26. My little pet roommate wrote the following in my birthday card: "Welcome to a world where you are closer to 30 than you are to 20." Ouch. I know age is just a number but to SAY that I am 26 just sounds weird. Oh well, what better place than to ring in a new year than Hawaii :) It was a very low key relaxing day thanks to Jessica and I loved every minute!

(and yes, those are candles topping a delicious bowl of mac and cheese!!)

We made the trek up to Laie for the temple open house. Great way to start off my 27th year! It was so beautiful and it is always good to see my cousin Mari!!

Jessica hooked me up with a paddle boarding adventure for the big day but the weather wasn't ideal so we have put it off until this wednesday! I am very excited...I have wanted to get on a paddle board since I got here. We couldn't find Jess's soft surf rack so we had to improvise :)

SO, as a healthy and very entertaining alternative, we went to Honolulu and watched the U of O vs USC game at Buffalo Wild Wings and had dinner. It was a fun game to watch and believe it or not, I wasn't the only Duck fun in the bar! Thank you Ducks for the great birthday win :)

And finally, back home, I blew out my birthday candles! For those who knew me best, you'll know that I do NOT love cake. Not even a little bit. (cheesecake doesn't count). So instead we topped off two very delicious Ben & Jerry flavors with the candles and called it good. However, I took my first bite and the brownie chunks seemed a bit off...terrible, really. I opened my mouth and said "What's going on here?!" to which Jessica replied "Oh, you're eating candle wax." No wonder....Yummmm.

All in all, It was a very lovely birthday! I spent it in Hawaii, for one, and with Jessica, for another, and I couldn't have asked for more! Thank you everyone who sent me a lovely birthday reminder in the mail and for all the love notes and goodies! They were much appreciated :)