this is why they're the best.

i've often mentioned how much i adore my parents.

i promise, i'm not a 12-year old.

i just like them... a lot.

so once upon a time, i turned twenty (yikes!)

my birthday tends to fall at a rather inconvenient time (jet lag, surgeries, vacations, camps), and so sometimes, my birthday hasn't been the most exciting day of the year.

wellll, my parents are the best.

and they tried realllly hard to change that this year.

and, they succeeded. i couldn't have imagined a better way to spend my 20th birthday.

i woke up to an assortment of gifts and cards, so craftily put together by my mother, and some of my favorite, delicious, gluten-free pancakes.

my dear friend, margo, then came over for a birthday chat and to deliver a nice little gift.

(indeed, i was still, so appropriately attired in boxers and a tank).

so then my parents acquiesce to my persuasion, and we go on a hike.

i promise, it was a beautiful day.

until...

but even that didn't stop us!

we headed home and cleaned up quickly,

then went to see toy story 3. amazing.

(ignore the fact that the other birthday celebraters in the theater were 5, not 20 years old...)

and then we grabbed dinner at our favorite, family mexican restaurant.

it was delicious, and the cute waitress knows us so well that she gave me fried ice cream to celebrate my big day... my parents said it was delicious!

and THEN, my mama baked me a delectable, gluten-free chocolate birthday cake.

and i ate a whole lot of it.

pure bliss.

really, how could a day get any better than that, with two of my best friends?

it's days like today that make me wish i could relive those good times, over and over and over again.