Learnin' to be in 23 places

Spring (although it feels like summer) has officially sprung in Utah! Yesterday we put Ruby's top down (I came up with the name while I was sitting at work today) and drove up 45th South, where Andrew showed me this cute little park he calls Cinderella Park. I would have taken pictures, but I didn't have my camera and it was getting dark anyway. It was really cute and had a fun orange "carriage" and a castle to play in. If I were about 15 years younger (a scary thought), I would have been crawling through the tunnels and hitting the slides.

I put this picture of me on here not because it's a spectacular photo (I'm squinty and wearing my puffy coat because Idaho is cold), but because I'm turning 23 this Saturday, and it feels like a more grown-up birthday. Twenty-two was an interesting year -- I had just graduated from college, was still living with roommates and was looking for my big break while interning at a tiny newspaper. It was a birthday filled with "the world is my oyster" thoughts.

But this birthday, I'm a bit more of a realist. Don't get me wrong -- I still have the ambitions of actually sending in my children's book manuscript, starting a magazine and singing in jazz clubs around town. I'm just more grounded and more willing to accept the $300 brake jobs, head gasket failures, apartment lockouts, horrible viruses and expensive doctor trips I've had lately -- because I have so much good in my life, too!

So here's to being almost 23 and still playing with seven-year-olds in the bouncy castle slide, blowing bubbles to a 2-year-old and secretly wanting to build forts out of Lincoln Logs with the other kids. No matter how old I get, I'll still like merry-go-rounds and swingsets and fun little parks with castles and carriages. I'm grounded because I have to be -- but there's always enough sky to keep your head in the clouds for a little while.

Now, if only that Little Tikes castle I played in as a kid was a bit cheaper on Amazon. :)