How do you celebrate 30 years of life?

Thirty. That's how old I am now. How did we celebrate? Well, the weekend before, Aaron surprised me with a weekend away in Natchez, MS. We stayed at Monmouth Plantation bed and breakfast. It was equipped with a sitting room fireplace and jacuzzi tub. The bed: not so comfy. The breakfast: to die for...strawberry cream cheese stuffed French Toast. I had never been to Natchez. It was so cute! Old houses, antique shops, a cute downtown area that was decorated for Christmas, and AWESOME food. We went to dinner at The Castle. They had killer, hot, fresh-baked dinner rolls and one of the best steaks I've ever eaten: Black Truffle Glazed Ribeye with a side of gouda mashed potatoes and asparagus. I'm dying to go back just to order that steak again.

My thirtieth year was also celebrated with a girl's trip to New Orleans for a weekend. We ate, shopped, ate, shopped, took St. Charles trolley ride, and walked around Lakelawn Metairie cemetary where I found the original tomb of "THE" Jefferson Davis.

On my actual birthday, the seminary girls baked me a cake (see above) and Aaron got up and made us all breakfast while the girls taught the lesson. Then I whisked my kids off to Kate's house while I used the rest of my gift certificate (from last birthday:) for a massage. Follow that with lunch from Raising Cane's (I seriously haven't eaten there in six months) with Aaron and a BBQ at our house with all our friends that night. Kate made me a grown-up birthday "cake" of cheesecake. The recipe can found HERE. And her cookbook can be found HERE for pre-order (use code BESTBITES for 15% off discount). It can also be found at Barnes and Noble and Amazon. I had to give a little shout-out for her;)

I worked hard all through my 20s...now it's time to party through my 30s!