so my birthday was the best in years.... it was AMAZING.
friday night i went to a party with my friends, drank a little more than i'd have liked to, but it was still a lot of fun. saturday i decided that i wasn't going to drink because sunday my parents and family were coming up. i still wanted to go out, though. matt took me to moe's and i had a burrito, it was wonderful :) even though a lot of my friends were gone for the weekend, the ones i went out with saturday night really made it great. they played drinking jenga which was hilarious and then we went to a party...where i didn't drink, but at midnight everyone sang happy birthday to me and i was a happy camper. then had my favorite pizza and breadsticks and called it a night. even though on the bus ride back, there was a guy who had obviously had too much to drink and was throwing up all over himself and the bus. people were screaming and cheering and taking pictures... it was awful and i felt so bad for him. my main concern was that he wasn't left alone and that he got off the bus ok... and someone helped him(wow did he have a heart.) it was sooooo cold out so after i decided to go in my room and get in my jammies and go to sleep.

on sunday, in the AM, i woke up and my sister called me all upset because she couldn't get off work to come up... then we talked for 2 hours while i straightened up my room and got pretty for the day. wore my gorgeous new dress that Dan got me for my birthday. my parents, grandpa bob and brother got here around 12:30. i have to say, it was SO NICE to see my family. i really miss them when i'm at school.. and i hadn't seen them since the beginning of september. they brought with them a buttload of food for me, which was nice of them :) we unloaded it, took some pictures and got to opening presents. my presents were mostly cards, except for my present from april, which was 2 adorable makeup compacts. i got a lot of money, too, which was needed. then we left for the day's adventures. my mom thought it would be fun to go to the racino, which is the casino in saritoga.it was a GORGEOUS GORGEOUS day out!!! i felt like a princess in my pretty dress. we went to the racino and, although i wasn't thrilled about learning to gamble, my parents handed me $100 to play. i didn't use any of it. my dad put $20 in a machine for me and i played and won $100... flipped out because that was a lot of money and then decided to cash out and leave the machine, because chances were slim i'd hit that again. went to another machine, the same thing happened... and then i stopped playing cause i knew the luck would run out somewhere down the line, and if you can't cut yourself off somewhere then you end up with $0. after that, we drove up to Lake George(favorite place in the world!) and i wanted to take some pictures by the lake before dinner. it was gorgeous out and the village was crowded! this was the last big weekend before the season ends and everything shuts down for winter. but the day was truly perfect. after that, we went to the Log Jam which is my favorite restaurant. my sister got off work somehow, and she drove up with her boyfriend and met us at the restaurant. had my favorite salad bar of all time! multiple servings of it. that's all i had, which was plenty. it was great to bond with the family, i missed them a lot. after dinner, we went to Lake George Village to walk around. we walked to the place where a bunch of buildings burned down last spring and my sister told me there would be a surprise. i had to turn around...and... 2 of my friends that i hadn't seen in 2 years showed up. i was SO HAPPY to see them... it was a really nice surprise. we went with them into Frankenstein's, which had a few minor changes, but otherwise it was just nostalgic for me. then we walked around some more and went in a few stores before going down to the lake and walking along the beach. it was really beautiful and so much fun. i think everyone felt the same way... that it was just a really nice day, everything about it. i wish we had more family days like that :)