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Matt told someone he was turning 30 this year, but luckily, he has 365 more days of youth than he thought. He turned the big 2-9 a couple weeks ago and got a double party out of it. We pre-celebrated with my family the night before with a special dinner, presents, cupcakes, and the whole shebang. Matt's big birthday present -- and his birthday present for the next 19 years -- was his triathlon bike and gear that we bought this summer. I brought the bike up, put a bow on it, and wrapped the rest of his gear to help him remember that I really did give him something for his birthday. (A few years ago, I pre-gifted a big gift and gave him a shirt on the real day, and he proceeded to tell everyone that I gave him a t-shirt for his birthday. Silly boy.)

Then I surprised him by actually gifting him something else: a hang gliding lesson the next morning. Hooray! I even whipped out my long-lost popsicle stick building skills and stole an army man from my brothers to create a miniature hang glider. Sadly, the weather conditions on his birthday weren't quite right so we rescheduled hang gliding and went out to breakfast at Kneaders instead. Matt spent the rest of the morning playing with Jakey and really, that's the best way to start any day. We then grabbed lunch at Texas Roadhouse and dropped Matt off at the golf course for a round of nine with his brothers. Then it was football and the famous feathery fudge cake with the Davises. It was a great birthday.

PS- We're watching our church's General Conference all weekend. Follow along with us at generalconference.lds.org :) We are especially excited about this announcement, which lowered the required age for missionary service. Five years ago at this time, I had just turned 20 and was two months away from graduating from BYU with a B.A. in Communications. I wished so badly that I could serve a mission right then. A year later when I was finally the right age, a mission just didn't feel right anymore. I am so thrilled for (and admittedly, slightly jealous of) all of the girls like me who now have a greater opportunity to serve. This change will bring so many blessings to so many people.