Reason enough to be excited

I'm so excited tonight I just may burst.

We're heading to Nebraska tomorrow to see my best friend Ashley and her husband Neal on Friday night and then venturing onward to my parent's house on Saturday for my niece Brookie's 3rd birthday party. I haven't seen Ashley and Neal since our wedding reception in October and haven't been home since April so I'm beyond ready to get back.

Brookie's birthday party on Saturday should be a blast. She's having a princess birthday party (not Disney, just princess she'll tell you). My sister went crazy with this gigantic castle cake she had made. Insane. I'll have to post some pics of that for sure. I can't believe what a difference 3 years makes in a small child. In a matter of weeks, Brooke's speech has increased from words strung together (which can make it difficult for someone like me who doesn't see her very often) to full and complete sentences. It's amazing - I can finally talk on the phone with her and actually understand her! The other night, our conversation went something like this:

ME: I get to see you on Saturday!

B: You comin' to my birfday [birthday] party?

ME: Yep!

B: Is Anni [Andi] comin'?

ME: Yep!

B: Oh thank you Header [Heather]!

B: OK, bye. I luv [love] you.

It was so darn cute my heart melted. Seriously makes me want to go to the store and buy that girl all the presents I can find. I could just eat her up!

Tonight, I also received the first part of Andi's wedding anniversary present. It is so amazing! He is going to die when I give it to him. Now, usually I'm the worst with presents - it kills me to keep them a secret. But this one's so good I actually want to hold it close to the vest. I can't wait to give it to him on July 31.

Speaking of our wedding anniversary... we're all set for our trip to Vancouver. Well, by set I mean we have the tickets. We'll see what Andi comes up with for places to stay and stuff to do. According to our handy dandy friends on www.tripadvisor.com the weekend of our anniversary is also a national holiday in Canada so they say it'll be super busy. Ah, great. I'm sure we'll still find plenty of fun things to do, hopefully minus the crowds. Our WWW friends also advise us to check out the Sunshine Coast - suppose to be a beautiful countryside place with lots of cottages and bed and breakfasts, etc. We'll see what Andi has in store ...

So that's reason enough to be excited tonight... except for the part where Chloe just took a dump on our bed and Andi's paddling her to death (but we'll pretend like that never happened)!