That time I turned 22

I turned 22 recently. It happens.

I had a really truly lovely birthday. I celebrated Kate-style, which means a lot of relaxing and bumming around and I only pulled the “I get to ‘cause it’s my birthday” line a handful of times.

My family (minus my bestie-sister, sad) spent the weekend at our mountain home taking in the fresh air and enjoying each other’s company.

When I arrived I was delighted to find this beautiful red rose on my dresser, compliments of my dear father.

I loved it! …But I have to admit it was quite alarming to wake to the smell of roses in the air. Some of you know why. If you don’t know why, ask me. But if you ask me, my answer will be: “Read Hunger Games!” So maybe you should just skip the middle step and get straight to reading.

Have I mentioned how beautiful sunset in the mountains is?

On Sunday, the actual day of my birth +22 years, I awoke to a heavy fog which quickly rolled out. It looked stunning coming through the trees in front of our house and blocking out our normal view of the mountains.

Once the fog left and the sun came out, we went to Grand Lake where we ate lunch by the lake, and then soaked up the sun and read. Well, I don’t know that any of us actually read more than five or six pages of our respective books (mine= Mockingjay…yes, again) because there were too many adorable children and dogs frolicking on the beach to distract us.

Check out this sweet car! And check out the people in it! Those hats! Love! I kept seeing it around Grand Lake all afternoon. I snapped super (not)sneaky pictures every time I saw it.

On our way home we stopped here.

Why? Let me zoom in for you.

An adorable moose family!

We were all pretty sleepy from our exhausting morning of relaxing, but I insisted on taking a mountain stroll with my mother. I’m trying to soak in the beauty of my Colorado Rockies before I leave.

For dinner, we headed into town to one of our favorite restaurants. The food was delicious! I was quite content.

Monday I said “Hasta Luego” to my mountains and headed home. But not before seeing one more Papa Moose on the way out of town!

{Please appreciate my camera's zoom. The moose is that speck at the far edge of the water by the tree line.}

{Nom Nom Nom}

I’m expecting big things of 22. Hopefully those big things won't be moose. Because moose are actually quite dangerous. It's best to keep them at a camera-zoom length.

Stay tuned to see how the year goes. : )

P.S.: I do get to drag out my birthday a bit longer. I’m heading out of town this weekend for a fantastic trip to visit one my besties! I. Can’t. Wait. Don’t be surprised if my trip recap consists of nothing but pictures of food and the word “Peeta.”

P.P.S: Want a postcard from Spain? Sure you do!