The One Where We Live Happily Ever After: The One with the Quarter Century Plus Some

I'm pretty sure you could read my post from last year about turning 25 and see much of what I am going to say on this one.

Turning 25 was a tough one for me.

Turning 26 was even tougher.

I can only imagine what turning 30 in a few years will feel like.

I know, I know, I have plenty of friends who are 30 and fabulous, and my hubs will be 30 this year, and really 30 is the new 20 and blah, blah, blah. I get it! So don't say it!

But the other day Taylor Swifts song "2-2-ooh-oohhh" came on and I was rocking out singing with it for awhile only to be suddenly hit with the realization that I am not 22, will not ever be 22 again, and in reality because I cannot go backwards in age (although I am starting to feel like trying) I am now closer to 92 than I am to 22. And then all of a sudden I felt like it was wrong for me to sing the song. Like those crazy moms you see wearing their daughter's clothes and trying to act like they are still in high school even though they are rapidly rounding the bend at 40.

Yes, all of a sudden I was one of those people in denial about my age.

Rocking out with my radio turned all the way up singing

"I don't know about you, but I'm feeling 22. . . ." and yet I was singing this in my freaking mini van.

Epic FAIL.

So yes. I turned 26.

In reality the day to day aspects of being 26 are great.

I love the age my kids are getting to.

I can't imagine having them frozen here forever (although sometimes I'd like it) because I can't wait to see what they are going to grow up into.

The day to day tasks of 26 really aren't that much different than that of being 25, and yet I realize this daunting fact that 30 is LITERALLY just around the corner and I get a little sad. When I was 16 or even 18, 26 sounded old. Now I am 26, and I don't feel old, but yet I feel like I must be old or else my 18 year old self was an idiot. . . . . although that's probably true.

I had the unfortunate mishappening to find out that Eric was planning a surprise party for me.

To put it simply I came upstairs to find that his phone was underneath his pillow with him sleeping on top of it. Me being a snooping wife (and with no prior reason to believe such) I wondered who he had been texting and hiding from me. My thoughts were semi confirmed when the first text chain was to a random number with no name attached to it. Only, if I had been smarter I would have realized that it was my best friend's phone number but it hadn't previously been programmed into his phone.

Once I realized what I was reading I put the phone back under his pillow, but it ended up coming out about two days before the surprise that I knew.

I felt mostly bad. He has been trying for our entire marriage to surprise me with things, but I always somehow find out. I am the least patient person ever. It's sad.

We ended up meeting my friends at Costa Vida for a "SURPRISE!!!" party that I openly knew about. But it was still delicious and fun to get together with all of them and their husbands. I really do have a great group of friends. In high school I typically had one really good close friend and then a bunch of acquaintances, but I have truly enjoyed having a group of girl friends that I know I can absolutely turn to any of them for anything. They are fantastic.

My friend Kelsey, who had a hand in planning this little shin dig, found out that my all time favorite thing is caramel apples. I L-O-V-E them! I think Eric probably asked her to make them because of an outstanding joke he has on me from our honeymoon in Disneyland where he saw me eat a caramel apple without it being cut (what was I to do? They didn't cut it, I still had to eat it) and he tells everyone to this day that I was sloppily drooling all over the place as I ate this thing. Regardless of the reason for them being made, they were delicious!!!

After Costa Vida we came back to our house and played the Newlywed Game. It's not like any of us are really newlyweds (the youngest couple has still been married three years) but this game is hysterical. You learn things you wouldn't ever learn about your friends, and some people get so mad, and others are just funny, but really we always end up having a good time with it.

So the surprise birthday party festivities took place on Friday night. Saturday Eric had to work form 7-3 because of his dang relief shift schedule. It was kind of terrible that he wasn't actually at home on my real BIRTHDAY, but at 26 now I kind of just figure I'm an adult and can handle it. My friends did work out a way to get the kids watched though so I could go and get my first ever pedicure with them. (Kelsey's husband was volunteered to watch the kiddos, Kelsey and Zach have no kids, so it was an interesting arrangement - my kids loved it, but I'm not sure he will want to have kids now anytime soon).