I think I can honestly say that this one of my best birthdays ever! Friday night I called up Alana to see if she wanted to hang out, so I picked her up and we went and parked at this place in Edgemont to see the view. We popped my trunk and sat back there just visiting and having a great talk. For those of you who don't know, I drive a Honda Element, so the trunk opens to be a kind of cool bench. People kinda smirked, laughed and gave us weird looks as they drove by, but we didn't care at all. Afterall, who doesn't think it's cool to spend Friday night in the summer sitting in a trunk looking at a view? Anyway, so then we pick up Kaiti and I had been craving a slurpee so we head up to Petro. Unfortunately the flavours were terrible and there was one called Mint which tasted like mouthwash. So I buy some candy and we decide to go somewhere else for our slurpees. We all wanted Sprite/7Up and decided we had nothing better to do than drive around until we found one. We went to about 4 or 5 before deciding to go the Seven 11 by Scrapbook Sally and Alana's old house. Who's there but Kaiti's Mom and Alexa! What a small world, and sure enough they had every flavour we wanted. We jump back in the car and decide to go to this hill on 14th Street to visit. We hadn't hung out just the three of us in awhile and it felt really good to visit. On our way to the hill I looked at my phone vibrating to see "Kandice Idaho...sad Calling" (Yes I have all my friends' american numbers entered with "...sad" at the end). And for those of you who don't know me, it's a huge deal when I actually answer! My phone is usually not with me, or on silent and I'm the first to admit I'm terrible for that. So I talk to Kandice and tell her that we wish she was with us because it would have finally been the four of us once again, and she tells me she will call me at midnight on my birthday.
So we head to our hill and we were having a great talk about so many things. Just drinking our much awaited slurpees, and looking at the sky lit up from the many lights of our quickly growing city. Suddenly the sky really starts to light up as fireworks go off! Alana quickly says "Happy Birthday Nicole!" and we all laugh! Then my phone rings again and it was Cyndi Palmer. She said that Kandice had sent her out to pick up something for my birthday and was wondering if I might have a chance to stop by later that night. We said no problem and headed there right away before they went to bed. Puzzled at what it could be... ice cream cake, banana cream pie, flowers? ...I walk into the house, into the kitchen to see Martha Stewart aka Cyndi with some Chinese food and then I look by the fridge and see Kandice and Lauren. I screamed and just kept saying "oh my gosh oh my gosh!!" and I was on the floor with excitement and couldn't believe what I saw.
So after the girls finish their chinese food, we drop off Alana and Kaiti. I decide to take Lauren for a little drive around town. We drove past the old Palmer home, our elementary, high school and into downtown. We took memorial home, but it was too dark to see the river and picture perfect hill with trees behind it. Then we knew we should get some sleep if we wanted to get up at a decent hour.
I was trying not to think it was my birthday on Saturday, but moreso what we could show Lauren (Kandice's amazing roomie who has never been up to Canada) in her 24 hour visit... So the day started out with Vietnamese for lunch with Alana, Kandice, Lauren, Taylor, Brad and Paige...yum. It was also perfect because Lauren had never had Vietnamese! She had also never seen so many asians in one place! After lunch we headed for Gelato AND Bubble Tea so Lauren could have a nice taste of some of our favourite treats. After that we got ready for road trip to Banff. We took two cars out, Janel and Greg drove. I must say we had the fun car because we had fun people AND Janel had made me delicious brownies with smarties and reese's pieces on top. Our car had Me, Janel, Brad, Alana and Kaiti. And then Lauren, Kandice and Taylor were in Gregs truck.
We took pictures down at the falls and at the Banff Springs Hotel. It was so much fun, and I'm so grateful for my friends who put up with me wanting to take so many pictures! After hundreds of pictures and a crazy hike down a steep hill, we decided it was time for dinner at Earls. Delicious. We all stuffed our faces and it was so worth it. Here are some pictures from the day... I wish I was pro at editing like Heather and Jeff, but I think my friends are so beautiful we don't need Photoshop!
But I would just like to let everyone know that I really do have the most amazing friends ever. I was thinking about how lucky I am the whole way home, and there is no one I would have rather spent my birthday with than that group of people. They kept saying "Nicole it's your birthday so you get to pick" and I said "I just want to be with my friends and I'm happy" and it's so true. Even if we sat in a room the whole day, we would have had a blast because that's just what we do. So thank you friends for being the best ever! And now for the pictures...
So we head to our hill and we were having a great talk about so many things. Just drinking our much awaited slurpees, and looking at the sky lit up from the many lights of our quickly growing city. Suddenly the sky really starts to light up as fireworks go off! Alana quickly says "Happy Birthday Nicole!" and we all laugh! Then my phone rings again and it was Cyndi Palmer. She said that Kandice had sent her out to pick up something for my birthday and was wondering if I might have a chance to stop by later that night. We said no problem and headed there right away before they went to bed. Puzzled at what it could be... ice cream cake, banana cream pie, flowers? ...I walk into the house, into the kitchen to see Martha Stewart aka Cyndi with some Chinese food and then I look by the fridge and see Kandice and Lauren. I screamed and just kept saying "oh my gosh oh my gosh!!" and I was on the floor with excitement and couldn't believe what I saw.
So after the girls finish their chinese food, we drop off Alana and Kaiti. I decide to take Lauren for a little drive around town. We drove past the old Palmer home, our elementary, high school and into downtown. We took memorial home, but it was too dark to see the river and picture perfect hill with trees behind it. Then we knew we should get some sleep if we wanted to get up at a decent hour.
I was trying not to think it was my birthday on Saturday, but moreso what we could show Lauren (Kandice's amazing roomie who has never been up to Canada) in her 24 hour visit... So the day started out with Vietnamese for lunch with Alana, Kandice, Lauren, Taylor, Brad and Paige...yum. It was also perfect because Lauren had never had Vietnamese! She had also never seen so many asians in one place! After lunch we headed for Gelato AND Bubble Tea so Lauren could have a nice taste of some of our favourite treats. After that we got ready for road trip to Banff. We took two cars out, Janel and Greg drove. I must say we had the fun car because we had fun people AND Janel had made me delicious brownies with smarties and reese's pieces on top. Our car had Me, Janel, Brad, Alana and Kaiti. And then Lauren, Kandice and Taylor were in Gregs truck.
We took pictures down at the falls and at the Banff Springs Hotel. It was so much fun, and I'm so grateful for my friends who put up with me wanting to take so many pictures! After hundreds of pictures and a crazy hike down a steep hill, we decided it was time for dinner at Earls. Delicious. We all stuffed our faces and it was so worth it. Here are some pictures from the day... I wish I was pro at editing like Heather and Jeff, but I think my friends are so beautiful we don't need Photoshop!
But I would just like to let everyone know that I really do have the most amazing friends ever. I was thinking about how lucky I am the whole way home, and there is no one I would have rather spent my birthday with than that group of people. They kept saying "Nicole it's your birthday so you get to pick" and I said "I just want to be with my friends and I'm happy" and it's so true. Even if we sat in a room the whole day, we would have had a blast because that's just what we do. So thank you friends for being the best ever! And now for the pictures...
