An Emotional Day

June 14th... Emma's birthday.  My baby turned 11!  She is growing up so fast.  Emma brings such happiness to our family.  She is our imaginative one... always creating fun games and scenarios.  She just might become a party planner or a hotel owner:)

We were at Grandma Eastman's house on the morning of her birthday.  She requested pancakes for breakfast, so dad made her yummy old fashioned pancakes.  I had purchased a Happy Birthday pennant at Target the night before because I forgot our big banner at home.  Having a birthday banner has become a tradition in our family.  

Em received an adorable CTR necklace from Grandma E and some money from Grandma W.  We gave her a much desired iPod dock.  That alarm will come in handy in the fall when middle school starts and she has to be at the bus stop at 7:08 am.  She also got to order a super cute swim suit from Lands End.

Unfortunately, the focus had to shift a bit to her big sister, Chelsea, on Emma's birthday.  We had to get Chelsea down to BYU to check into her housing at 1:00.  

We ate lunch at Sensuous Sandwich, a place that Matt and I used to eat when we were students in Provo.  We went onto campus and picked up Chelsea's books at the bookstore.  How cool is that to be able to order your books on line and have them all boxed up ready for you to pick up!  The whole registration process is sooooo different now because of our awesome technology.  Chelsea got her student ID card, and she was set!

Here is Chelsea about to enter into her dorm room at the new Heritage Halls on the 4th floor. 

Here she is on her bed.  It sits up high which is great because she can have storage underneath.  

And check out the view from her living room floor to ceiling window.  Lucky girl.

We went to the grocery store and bought her some more food for her apartment.  We had a tearful family prayer,  and Chelsea received a father's blessing from Matt in her room.  It was after 4 pm and we were going to leave to get back to Syracuse for our Ragnar preparation (more on that later), but we just didn't feel ready to leave our sweet Chelsea... especially since none of her roommates were around at that time.  She had met two of the three that had already checked in before her.  So we thought that we'd make a trip to WalMart for a few more things she needed.  And then we decided to forego the big family pre-race carb-loading dinner at my mom's house and eat one last dinner together.  Emma chose to eat at The Old Spaghetti Factory.  Emma was acting depressed (because it wasn't feeling like her birthday and because her sister was staying in Provo).  So to make it special for Em, I asked the waiter if we could sit in the old, red trolley.  She liked that.  

When we returned to her apartment, the 3rd roommate was there putting her things away.  She had music playing and the atmosphere was much lighter than before.  We said our good-byes and left our girl to grow up on her own.  It was weird to get back in the car and drive away.

I love my kids so much.  I'm not liking the fact that they are starting to leave my nest and fly away.  But such is life.   I did it to my parents and now it's happening to me.  It's wonderful to be a mom.  Now I will just have to be Chelsea's mom from a distance... not knowing where she is and what she is doing.  Thank goodness for that technology... texting, face time, emailing, cell phones, and facebook!