Jerusalem birthday weekend = SUCCESS! And yes those were 25 exclamation points in my blog post title:) As the weekend came to a close I felt so grateful for my family and friends back home as well as the awesome people who I got to celebrate with here in Jerusalem.
We got the birthday weekend started off right on friday night with an awesome 90's dance partyyy!
My Instagram post from Friday night with Kasdyn and Diane :)
Dancing with Jessica, Christeen, and Mackenzie!
White T pic with Christeen, Drew, Diane, Mike, and Olivia.
Of course the Polaroid camera was a must... (Lauren, Lincoln, and Olivia)
And the highlight of the night...
...a spontaneous karaoke performance by this trio (Missy, Emma, and Liza) from the loft. So hilarious!
Saturday was my actual birthday. So much birthday love!
This was hanging by my bed when I woke up thanks to Diane and Kasdyn and my roommates Sam and Bryce :)
My friend Melissa sent me this birthday album with pictures and notes from a lot of close friends and family. This was one of the most thoughtful and personal gifts I've ever received. And the cover made me crack up!
I especially loved this entry from my close friend Miranda Sings... #bejealous
After church we walked to the Garden of Gethsemane. It was nice to sit and reflect.
"O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink of it, thy will be done."
Lauren took this picture of me in the Garden with her super nice camera.
And then we got one together :)
How cool is it that I got to go to the Garden of Gethsemane on my birthday!
After dinner I got together with the Anderson's and Christeen to sing hymns in the dome. I love the Andersons and am so grateful for their friendship.
Sister Anderson is a wonderful baker and she made me some delicious homemade Oreos for my birthday :)
After watching the Saturday morning General Conference session (at 7pm our time) we all went to the weekly bread-and-spread and I got some major birthday love!
My birthday Instagram!! It was an awesome end to a great 25th birthday :)
Sunday we got a group together to go to Haifa, a small Mediterranean beach town about two hours from Jerusalem. It was a dream!
Stopped by the Baha'i Gardens which were beautiful.
The view from the top of the gardens.
From the bottom of the gardens.
At the bottom of the gardens is a German Colony where we went and explored.
Walking through the colony.
We ate at this super hipster and delicious restaurant.
The whole lunch gang - Missy, Lincoln, Grace, Lauren, Sygni, and Christeen.
I had the most DELICIOUS chocolate cake with ice cream for my birthday dessert :) They brought it out with this sparkler thing that apparently was terrifying...
Then we hit the beach. It was later in the afternoon and the water was clear blue and a perfect temperature. The breeze was just cool enough and the sun just warm enough that it made a perfectly relaxing afternoon. Here are some pics!
Before we got in the water with Lauren, Grace, Drew, Lincoln, Diane, Emma, Missy, Sygni, Christeen, Mike, and Mackenzie.
Some Israeli men from that life guarding deck on the far right kept hitting on the girls in our group over the intercom...
...so I made sure they knew they didn't have a chance ;) I turned around right after this picture and told them it was MY birthday weekend! Haha.
It was definitely a birthday weekend I will never forget.
That is awesome!!!! Sounds like the birthday celebration of a LIFETIME!!!
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