one year older...and wiser too! ;)

This pic was taken on our little Badger Hill hike with my mom in Kennewick earlier on this week. I love the views up there! And below is a few days ago...my hair at its blondest. :)

Happy 24 on the 24th!! Yesterday I had such a fun birthday. Mostly because, as corny as this may sound, I spent every minute of the day with Casey. Since we have been having complications with our housing situation in Ellensburg, he has been commuting to school. He decided to take me with him so that after class we could go hiking. Well, he forgot to set his alarm, and we ended up running incredibly late....showing up to Ellensburg a little later than anticipated, but we did get to hike. It is so gorgeous up there in the mountains!! However, at this time of year, it is FREEZING cold. Emma was so excited about our little adventure when we started out...as you can see...but as she slowly became a baby Popsicle, she was NOT a happy hiker. We bundled her up in Casey's sweater and hurried back to the car, cutting our expedition short. On the way back to the car I found this poor little butterfly, too cold to move. I was pretty excited that I could hold him, though, and Emma wanted to eat him. Poor thing. I put it on a flower, and we went on our way. :) Oh, and that is a Search and Rescue dog that I fell in love with. Her name is Molly.

From there we went home and ate cake with Casey's family. Jerry got me a beautiful ice cream cake from Dairy Queen...my favorite!!! It was delicious!! Then Casey took me on the first motorcycle ride I had been on in months!! We rode out to Dry Falls. The ride was breathtaking. The sun was setting, which is my absolute favorite time of the day to ride. We hung out there for a bit, and then rode home. On the way home we had kind of a scary experience! As Casey was passing a car going about 25 in a 60, the car behind us decided to pass as well. So we passed this car simultaneously! If Casey would have rode out just a foot or two further to the left, we would have gotten wiped out completely. How terrifying is that?? It happened so fast, but once we realized what had just happened, we were pretty shaken up. Whew.
So to finish off a perfect day, Casey took me out to dinner. We went to Denny's and ate sandwiches and drank hot chocolate. Mmm!! :) We decided that next time we will just get refills on the whipped cream.
So that is that...I am TWENTY FOUR years old. And yes, I'd like to think that I am wiser, too. Becoming a mom seems to do that to you...;)