beijing part 3

olympic square

yay america!!!!!

we might have been obnoxious americans, but we sure did have american pride.

i don't have a picture of the water cube (sorry michael phelps),

but i did get plenty of us squinting into the sun in front of the bird nest.

hangin with the locals

we were line dancing to an un-edited version of "the roof is on fire".  

none of the chinese people knew what it was saying (or maybe they did?) or why we were all laughing so hard.

we all decided that we needed to bring this kind of line dancing to utah though.

temple of heaven

we may or may not have pretended to be american celebrities.  i kept telling the chinese people that nicole was britney spears.  i think she could pass as her, right? we secretly loved feeling so popular.

these were our last two pit stops in beijing. i was kind of excited to leave, but kind of sad. i really bonded with beijing. but since we were on a scheduled tour i didn't have much choice in the matter, so after this we headed to the airport. now that we were much experience travelers we knew to skip the inflight meal, and we both zonked out for the whole flight. we landed and were hungry and ready for our next city: shanghai!  

birthday girl

25.

this was probably the hardest age for me to turn yet.  am i REALLY in my mid-twenties?  i feel like i could wake up tomorrow and go to high school and pass for being 17.  but in reality, 30 is right around the corner!  ok maybe not RIGHT around the corner, but it seems like it is.  i'm pretty sure i even saw some wrinkles on my face this morning.

my birthday this year was a little bit of a reality check.  no more are the days when my birthday lasts all week long, one party after another with people who really just want an excuse for a party.  when my cell phone starts blowing up at 12:01am by everyone that is up late and wants to be the first one to wish me a happy birthday.  and where my facebook wall and other social media is plastered on by hundreds of people that i may or may not have actually spoken to in real life.

instead my birthday was spent with family and my closest friends.  the people who were there throughout the years and still are, and will be for the rest of my life.  i might not have felt quite as popular as i used to in my high school and college years (according to facebook and bday shout outs), but growing up has made me realize that it really is "quality over quantity" that counts.

dinner with my gf ashlyn, lunch with my besties brittany and jenn, and then a birthday/superbowl party with the whole whittingham fam damily.  and of course my handsome husband by my side the whole day.  i couldn't have asked for more.