Kimber's 16th Birthday

I'm sure you all read the super sweet post wrote by my older sister on my birthday.  (Thanks, Banana!)  I had a really wonderful 16th birthday and I'll try and recapture all my great memories in this post. :)

To start off we had my birthday party 2 days before my actual birthday.

Lexi set the table beautifully with some Christmas decor and Mama's china (she also was the designated photographer).

Skittles were my appetizers. :)

 I picked a dinner of hamburgers on toasted buns and Mae-Mae's macaroni and cheese.  (We also had veggies but they didn't need any special mentioning. :)

After the scrumptious meal, I opened presents!

Seth bought me a yummy smelling candle and some Christmas Tree Cakes.

Hannah bought me some Jolly Rancher's (and the Skittles).

Reading Lexi's card.

Lexi gave me a mouse pad with a memory foam cushion to rest my wrist on when I edit pictures. :)

Josiah bought me a box of blueberry muffins that I used for my birthday breakfast.

Eden gave me a box of nerds in the above pictured red box...the Nerds fit so well in the container that it took lots of force to dislodge them. :)

Caleb bought me a nice, sharp pocket knife.  (Now don't laugh...I needed one for cutting baling twine at the horse farm! :) 

Daddy and Mama bought me The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 Book for Photographers and the movie Ben Hur.  Once I find a cedar chest I like they'll get that for me too. :)

My lovely birthday cake made by Mama-dear and Seth.

 All the family minus Lexi. :)

 Blowing out the candles. :)
[I posted this picture just so you could get a laugh out of the face Caleb's making behind me. ;)]

After getting some cake we settled down on the couch and watched half of Ben Hur.   So ended Phase 1 of my birthday. :)

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Phase 2 of my birthday started on my actual birthday! :)  My kind boss let me off work for the day so I didn't have to wake up at 5:50 A.M. to go to the barn.  So, I slept in.  :)  I woke up about 8:00 A.M. and did my Bible time in bed.  Lydia soon came in the room and brightened my day with her cute sayings and smile!  Lydia then left and, some time later, the whole family came in singing "Happy Birthday" to "wake me up".

Once I was downstairs we sat down to a wonderful breakfast!

Daddy made Egg McMuffins and Lexi put together the blueberry muffin mix Josiah gave me:

This was my plate!

After the yummy breakfast was over, we did school and then, around 3 P.M. I started getting ready to go out to dinner with Daddy and Mama.  Hannah set aside her precious time to curl my hair, too.  I must admit that, when I first saw my curled hair, I was a bit horrified.  My hair looked like a combination of dreadlocks and an afro....not what I was looking for.  BUT, once Hannah combed the curls a little bit and pulled them back into a barrette I was starting to breathe normally again! :)

Hannah then went out and took pictures of me and I had the pleasure at laughing at her the entire time.  It's rare to see Hannah with my camera and, when it happens, it's terribly amusing! :)

Anywho, once pictures were over and Mama and Daddy were ready we hopped in the Green Bean (a.k.a. our little Avalon), said goodbye, and were off!

Do you notice how gorgeous the Bean is in these pictures?  Daddy cleaned, washed, and waxed the entire car for me!









We traveled into Richmond and stopped at a store I like:  Myrna's Boots and Bits.  It has everything horsey...what more could I ask for? :)

One of the things I like about Myrna's is the Western clothes and boots.  I think I could *very* easily go "cowgirl" and trying on the cowgirl boots just confirmed it!

Okay...I'll admit it...I loved these!  I still haven't justified the $180 necessary to purchase them, though. :)

Looking at a cowgirl calendar. :)

After browsing for about an hour (I could spend lots of time and money in that place...), we left for Ruth's Chris Steak House.

Eating at Ruth's Chris was a very neat experience.  Two of the waiters told me Happy Birthday and all of them were very kind.  The dining experience was very elegant...quite different from the pizza places we go to! :) 

Mama, Daddy, and I all had a yummy salad.  Then we ordered dinner!  I chose a stuffed chicken dish, Daddy a fish dish, and Mama just ate the potatoes and peas we ordered. :)

As we ate dinner, we talked about a little bit of everything.  Daddy also had fun messing with the guy waiters whenever they came around. ;)

When we finished our meals, we looked at the dessert menu.  I finally decided to go to Friendly's for ice cream instead of getting a dessert there.  Nevertheless, our waiter brought me a little cupcake with a candle in it just for my birthday.  She also took a picture of Daddy, Mama, and I.

Daddy has a way of making me laugh.... :)

My little cupcake...the "cupcake" had an outer shell of pure chocolate that was filled with chocolate mousse and topped with whipped cream.  In short, it was amazing. :)

Before we went to Friendly's we stopped by another store and browsed a little bit:

Mama found some great gift bags to use this Christmas at a great price, so she was pretty happy!  We also found some other things we were looking for, so our quick stop at the store was fruitful!

The icing on the cake, so to speak, came with our visit to Friendly's.  They didn't have the Friend-z's available so I got an Oreo sundae instead.  Mama and Daddy split something too. :)

Thus ended Phase 2 of my wonderful birthday!

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3 days later Phase 3 of my 16th birthday began!  After working at the barn Thursday morning, I grabbed a quick breakfast and headed up North to my grandparents house!  We arrived about 11:30 A.M. and talked with Grandma for a little bit.  Then Daddy went to do some work and Grandma and I went out to shop. :)  We stopped at Lowe's first to pick up some flower bulbs (on clearance) for Daddy to plant and then we went to a thrift store! 

We found lots of great clothes, including this Western shirt (see, I told you I'm going cowgirl) that I really liked.

We lost track of time inside the thrift store and realized, about 2:30 P.M. that we hadn't eaten lunch!  So we stopped by Chick-Fil-A and had some nuggets (Grandma had a sandwich).  :)  Next we went into Claire's and I got my ears pierced! :)

I had been thinking of getting my ears pierced for a few months (years?).  I asked Daddy about it this past summer and he said I could at 16.  The reason Daddy and Mama chose 16 as "the age" was because they wanted to make sure I wasn't doing it just because "everyone else has them" or to boost my self-esteem (I should esteem myself in the light of Christ and Him only...compare yourself to someone perfect and you'll find out how imperfect you are!).  If they let me pierce my ears when I was younger I probably would have done it for one of those reasons.  But, now that I'm older I don't really care about who has earrings and who doesn't and I didn't get them pierced to make me "prettier" per se.  My main reason for getting them pierced is that I really love matching my outfits and I think earrings are really pretty.  Plain and simple. :)  I've always thought that people who had a matching outfit with matching jewelry looked really good.  I just love that look. :)

Me with the lady who pierced my ears.

(Thanks, Grandma, for taking pictures!)

I was amazed at how quick the ear-piercing was.  I think it took longer to sign the waiver than to actually get my ears pierced!

When we left the mall, we visited another thrift store and then went home.  Seeing as we didn't eat lunch until around 3:00 P.M. we decided to wait a little longer for dinner and go to Washington D.C.  Daddy came along with us and helped Grandma find where to go with her GPS. ;)  I love visiting Washington D.C.  There's just something about the massive, ornate buildings that is just captivating.  Living in the country, too, is such a contrast from D.C. so it's fun to see people walking everywhere, cars constantly honking, etc.  That's just not country. ;) 

Anyways, the reason we were going into D.C. was so that we could see the White House Christmas tree.  (Grandma informed me, though, that it's not called a "Christmas tree" anymore but a "Holiday tree", but I'm not going to be "politically correct" when politically correct is wrong.)

Daddy found us a great parking spot and we hopped out (it was freezing!) and walked around for a little bit trying to find the Christmas trees. :)  We ended up walking right behind the White House:

I've never seen the White House this close so I was shocked I could walk this near to it!  I love mostly everything History so I can't wait to go back to D.C. again and see the different memorials and everything!

As we walked around we found out that the trees were in front of the White House (go figure) so we did more walking than necessary.  Oh well, a little exercise never hurts!  (I was enjoying taking pictures of all the massive buildings and memorials anyways  I could've stayed a lot longer if I knew where everything was and it wasn't so cold! ;)

I don't really remember what this building was...Department of the Treasury or something?

Washington Monument.

Ah, we found the trees!

Along with the National Christmas Tree were 50 smaller trees that represented all the states.

The front of the White House.

Some of the smaller trees.

If I had a tripod with me I could've done some long exposure pictures and those would be really neat!  But I didn't pack mine so I had to substitute as best as I could (a light pole or fence post helped me keep my  hand steady).  :)

As we walked along the path we spotted what looked like a Nativity.  And, believe it or not, there was a nice-size Nativity set up!  

Next to the Nativity was Santa's Workshop which we went in.  Thankfully the small building was heated so we thawed a little bit and hurriedly went by the "Picture with Santa" area.  (Santa has always freaked me out a little...why would I sit in the lap of someone I don't know and tell him what I want for Christmas?)

The National Christmas tree!

I was really loving all the picture opportunities!

The Virginia tree!

The lights on this tree were a lot brighter but, in order for the words on the sign to be read, I had to expose for it instead of the tree which made the lights really dim.  If I tried to expose for the tree and sign, the shutter speed would have been slower than molasses and the picture would be blurry (That's when Mr. Tripod comes in handy).  OR, if I exposed for the tree the tree would look great but the sign would be washed out.  Okay, just had to get that out there for you photogs. :)

Once we had our fill of lights, trees, and cold we walked back to the car.  As we walked back Grandma asked a policeman for directions to the Botanical Gardens.  It was about 2 miles away so we decided to go back to the car and drive there.  We arrived a little after their closing time  :-(  So, Daddy and I kept walking towards a reflecting pool and Grandma went back to the car to drive over and pick us up.  Before Grandma arrived, Daddy took me over towards the U.S. Capitol building and I got a picture through a fence.  Daddy, being the great overcomer, climbed up on the stone wall separating the sidewalk from the lawn in front of the building..  In order for me to get a picture of the U.S. Capitol building with the Christmas tree in the center he climbed up even further onto some other stone structure.  I didn't want to go up quite that far when every policeman in D.C. could see me (or so I thought) so I just went up on the wall.  That explains why the Christmas tree in the below photograph isn't centered.  :)

One day I want to go in this building...

After this we found Grandma nearby and drove home.  For dinner Grandma picked up some Popeyes' chicken which we ate on the drive back.  Once at home, we just sat around and talked; Grandma checked her email and Grandpa told us stories.  Then, around 11 P.M. (I think) we went to bed.

Seeing as we went to bed so late it was around 9 A.M. before everyone else was out of bed.  I got up at 8:30, brushed my teeth, took a shower, did my devotions, etc.  About 10 A.M. we ate breakfast.  Daddy made his delicious, cheesy eggs and I managed to burn the sausage.  Grandpa also made us some toast and I heated up two Smores Pop-Tarts Grandma had (they're wonderful, if you were wondering).

About 11 A.M. Grandma and I were out the door and headed for Quantico, VA.  We were going to visit the National Marine Corps Museum.  We had gone a few years ago and we had some younger siblings with us so I couldn't ingest everything that I wanted.  So, we went back and I loved it!  (I love all things military.)  If you've never been...it's great.  I wouldn't suggest taking little guys because, frankly, they won't understand everything and some stuff may be scary.  It's definitely for older kids/adults.

The museum!!

If you travel on I-95N and are going through the Quantico area you should see the Museum's spire from there.  (The spire represents the 5 Marines and 1 Navy corpsmen who raised our flag on Mount Suribachi in Iwo Jima during World War II.)

This is inside the building looking up towards the spire.

"The few, the proud, the brave, the United States Marine."  What's not to like about them?! :-D

It took about 3 hours for me to get my fill of all the exhibits and then we ate lunch in the Mess Hall.

This was my meal...a really yummy slice of cheese pizza, Yoplait yogurt and apple juice. :)

 Grandma survived on a hot dog. :)

 :)

Grandma and I outside the Museum.

We were going to visit Fort Belvoir next but we went to go visit my Aunt Amy who was in the hospital (she's suffering from bone cancer).  We chatted with her for about half an hour and then we went home, picked up Daddy, and went to Smokey Bones for dinner.  Grandpa joined us 30 minutes later and we enjoyed our meal!  I had a normal cheeseburger (just give me the burger, cheese, and bun and I'm good) which made me very full.  I didn't even eat my side of mashed potatoes.  (Yay for a shrinking stomach! :)

Nevertheless I still managed to squish in a couple, heavenly doughnuts.  Have you ever had Smokey Bones Bag O' Donuts?  If not, you are seriously missing out.  I might even skirt the edge of lunacy and say they were better than a Hot Krispy Kreme.  Not only was the sugar-and-cinnamon covered doughnut HOT but they came with a little bowl of melted chocolate and raspberry sauce.  I almost ate the entire raspberry sauce myself.  It was simply heavenly with the doughnuts!  And, no, I am not exaggerating.  Go try them for yourself and let me know what you think. :)

After dinner we went to the High School my Dad graduated from and watched my cousin, Diana, play basketball.  The game was supposed to start at 7:30 P.M. but, when we arrived at 8:00, they still hadn't started.  So we got to watch the entire game!!  I had never been to a high school basketball game before so the cheerleaders, band, and snack bar were new, yet pleasant, surprises! :)  [I got quite a giggle out of watching some of the band members beat away on their drum and play their tubas.  A couple of them were really getting down with the music :)]  During half-time Daddy took me around the public school and showed me everything.  I have always wondered what it's like inside a public school, and Daddy knew that, so he explained everything to me.  A couple things had been changed since Daddy went to school there but some things were the same! 

As the game came to a close, we told Diana goodbye, went back to Grandma's house, picked up my stuff, and then left for home.

So ended my 16th birthday!  It was a wonderful birthday and I enjoyed every minute of it!  Thank you to everyone (friends and family alike) who emailed or called to wish me a Happy Birthday! Thanks also to my family for everything you did for me...you all are the best!

Kimber :)