30- Whew!

I'm 30!  It doesn't feel much different than 29, to be honest.  Except that I got to spend a weekend away with Zach in wine country, eating, drinking and celebrating.  We had a phenomenal time and it was nice to just get away and kind of check in.  It had been awhile since we had done that, just sort of a "where are we?" and "where are we going?" conversation. 

Do you and your families ever do that, friends?  Kind of purposefully set out to check in?  Zach and I do occasionally, but this one was long overdue.  We have recently had so many potential major changes to our life together, and the discussions have been stilted, between bathtime and playtime and work and cooking dinner and planting flowers and and and.  So this time, I actually made an agenda.

I really did.  I typed it up.  It had Roman Numeral bullet points.  And so we talked about everything on the list.  And now I feel like we are moving forward on the same page, with our priorities aligned, with our dream compasses pointed in the same direction.

One of the things I have been thinking about is the future of this blog.  Why does one write a blog?  What does it really offer the world?  And is there a place for me in the conversation?  I hope you don't mind I took some time away to think about, since a 30th birthday seems like a good reason to reset.  Happily, I feel like I am in a remotivated, recommitted place (plus, with summer coming and oodles of backyard party ideas out there, I mean, who can stop now?). 

So prepare to see more.  And in the meantime- some weekend pics!

 At dinner in McMinnville, home of the famous Oregon pinot noirs. We went to a Spanish restaurant and ate tapas and drank cava for hours and reminisced over our 2 weeks in Spain a few years ago.  Our dinner was 3 hours long. The picture is blurry, but after a few bottles of wine, that is kind of how we both felt, so I find it an appropriate representation of the evening!

 I wanted to spend the day of my actual birthday celebrating with Zach, of course, but also Tate and Mom and Dad.  We decided to go to Multnomah Falls, a famous waterfall near Portland.  Mom and Dad leave Oregon in just a few weeks, so this was a "must-do" before they left.

 Could Zach's eyes get any bluer?

In a rock cave.  Zach slays me, he is so handsome.

Speaking of handsome... Tate has moved beyond walking and is officially running.  Happily, he now has a pair of shoes.  And in this outfit, doesn't he look like such a little boy?  We might have officially passed babyhood...

Musings on the Big 3-0

My 30th birthday is in just a few weeks.  Since I know Zach will plan something fun that will probably involve a sparkly beverage and could even include a certain type of chocolate cake (German chocolate being my ultimate favorite, and Zach having perfected it after years of practice), I have been musing on what else I really "want".

For years I had planned on getting Botox and having some sort of aesthetician tell me exactly what I need to do to make my skin look youthful forever.  (Yes, I am that vain).  However, now that the big 3-0 is finally here, I find that I am much less interested in preventing smile lines (because, after all, they seem pretty well earned, and I am terribly afraid of looking like a "Real Housewife") and much more interested in thinking about what really matters to me in my life.

So here's what I really want for my 30th birthday this year.

A financial advisor.  The kind you see in the commercials, who lets you dream about the summer house you want to own one day and then works with you to figure out how to make that dream come true.  Who is willing to help me (finally!) transfer my old job's 401k into the appropriate account.  Who can tell me whether or not I should invest in a Roth IRA or pay off my mortgage a little faster. 

And the second thing I want?  A wall like one of these:

I think I have surprised even myself over the past few years as my physical space has become more and more important to me.  The way I feel in it.  The way it reflects (or does not reflect, as may be the case) the things I love and value.  The way a space carries with it a sense of history and permanence.  So I really want to improve my space in the next few years, to have it actually represent what I love.  And I thought what better way to start than with a wall filled with things... objects, pictures, art... that I love.

So I am on the hunt for vintage frames.  Round ones, square ones, thick ones, thin ones, black ones and gold ones in all shapes, sizes and conditions. I want to collect them over the coming year, and then create a wall- a space- that I really love.

30 photo from here
wall gallery photos all from here