My birthday really stunk!

So, it is true.

The rumors you may have heard are true...

I am indeed 27!

OK, so that really would have been a rumor. I turned 37! 

And as I have said before, it was the best 37th birthday I have ever had!

(Ha! I hope by now you have caught on to my humor.)

Really most of the festivities for my birthday weekend were not actually meant to be for my birthday, but let me tell you, I'm claiming it all because it just made it all that much more memorable.

On Friday we were invited to a friends house for a traditional Swiss meal. It was cheese, and potatoes, and cheese, and veggies, and cheese, and fruit, and cheese, and bacon, and cheese... did you catch on there there was a lot of cheese? Mmmmm! I love cheese! So this, to me, started off my birthday with a bang!

There was this really cool skillet-type-thing in the middle of the table to cook the veggies and such on and then underneath you would but your miniature skillet of cheese to melt so you could pour it over all your food. Yummy! I think I love Swiss food! In fact, I even tried a banana wrapped in bacon and cooked on the skillet.... I know, sounds weird, but it was delicious!

So my all weekend party started of with a Cultural event!

 (Desiree, Bethany, Jim, Marc, me and Irina (and Josh taking the picture)

So, of course when you eat a bunch of cheese for a late dinner it is obvious that we would need to exercise afterward, and what better way to exercise than at night, hiking through the snow, in the dark with a little full moonlight.

The 6 of us got on our snow gear and went out for a short adventure.

I've never been hiking in the snow at night. It was so much fun. Irina and I even found a little sled hill along the trail and tried "sledding" down it on our butts... didn't work too well but it sure made for some fun times while we tried!

So that was the Adventure part of my all inclusive weekend of birthday celebrating.

Jim fell into some deep snow... OK, OK, he just knelt down in it and we all laughed... maybe you had to be there...

We found someone's left over snow fort so of course,
all of us being mature adults, we had to climb inside and take a picture!

Then on Saturday night we had a party at Amanda's (our friend and next door neighbor) and I planned some parlor games and everyone brought food

No one would let me take their pictures because some of the games were a little silly and I didn't want to embarrass any one... or maybe I just wanted to get a video of it together and just didn't get it up yet...

That part of my birthday weekend would have to be called the Hilarious Part!


Sunday afternoon we celebrated my birthday and Valentine's Day at my parents. Of course it was fun.

That was the traditional part of my birthday weekend!

And because my birthday fell on a holiday weekend we were able to have 4 nights of fun!

This last activity was the Cherry On Top of the whole thing!

PENTATONIX in concert in Salt Lake City!

We were so blessed to have been invited by our friends Emilie an Brian to come to the concert with them and enjoy great night of A Capella music at it's best!

We moved our way as far forward to the stage as was possible because I was so worried about Emily being able to see... she's a little height challenged. (insert little laugh here)

They came out right off the bat making a great impression
with stage affects and impeccable arrangements and harmonies.

Brian decided that Emilie needed to see at least some of the actual concert
instead of trying to peek through everyone's armpits... hee hee -- so Brian gave her a new point of view.

Yep, that's my ear.

Now as epic as this concert was, and it was, there was one thing that really stunk up the whole experience.

The color of the picture below is the color I am sure was on my face every time the mystery person near us in the crowd would release the "stink bomb!"



Ugh!

Ick!

It was so bad it was as if I could taste it!

Seriously!

Marc, Brian, Emilie and I would look at each other in stunned amazement of the stealthy stench of this gas bloated individual! It was so horrendous that I actually even yelled out half way through the concert as the stench rose up and curled my nostrils, "Put a cork in it!" I know, mean, but seriously it was so bad that I couldn't stand it any more. People in the vicinity were escaping from the trenches, but we endured because we didn't want to be shuffled further back in the crowd.

Our noses suffered for our ear's pleasure.

So let me pause in the story for a minute here... if you ever have gas and you are in a situation where people are forced to be right by you then you must choose one of three choices 1) hold it in 2) leave or 3) have the decency to stand alone in a far away corner where people are able to get away from you more easily. Sheesh! Common decency is all I ask. I mean to let one squeak by during the two hours of musical frenzy is one thing, but to release the beast  of stench every 5-10 minutes is just torturous! Absolutley atrocious!

But, the concert!

Oh, the concert was amazing and made standing in the "stenches" bearable.

As luck would have it, when we got home from the concert that night there were some beautifully fragrant flowers waiting for me that a dear friend left for me while we were gone.

They were the best-smelling flowers I have ever smelled... I think... I'm not really sure as my nose had been exposed to such wretched smells that maybe even plastic flowers would have smelled good to me.