Wonderful Day

As noted in my previous post, I was a little nervous about Holland's first birthday.  It was hard to know what to expect.  But it ended up being a wonderful day.  We were surrounded by people we love and felt lots of love from people all over the world.  I was able to reflect upon the huge blessing my little girl has been and is to me.  Our family has experienced some painful moments; things that I never ever thought I would have to go through.  But there has also been so much gained through all of that.

We were at Eagle Crest with the Ainge's for my cousin Kim and Joe's wedding.  We spent the morning horseback riding.  Our cousin Kennedy was nice enough to let us use her horse, Spirit.  And anyone who knows me knows how much I love horses, so I was in heaven.  And what was even more enjoyable, was watching Briz ride a horse and love it too.

Then we went back to the resort, went swimming.  We loved watching Briz get braver by the moment and little Dane go crazy in the water.

At 3:33 we started our birthday party.  We had a bunch of balloons, and all of our family members there wrote personal messages to Holland.  We then sent the balloons up.  And I honestly didn't expect it to be as cool as it was.  I'm not sure if it was cause we had a little group of people or what, but I loved it.  And I loved that Briz thought it was fun.

We then opened a present for Holland: just a little book.  And my sister and brother in law got her a card and some flowers.

And to top it off, we sang Happy Birthday and had some yummy Costco cake (thanks to my parents for getting that).  It was simple and sweet; just what I had envisioned.

But the best thing were all of the sweet messages we got: the pictures of people sending off their balloons.  I was shocked.  I just didn't expect people to remember a ton, or to be able to find time to send balloons off (it seemed like a bit of a fiasco for us!).  I am so glad that people thought of her on her birthday.  And it makes me feel so much peace because not only does it mean they are thinking about her, but that they are thinking about things that are greater than our stupid daily cares.  For just a moment, Holland makes us think about eternity.