My "24"th Birthday Party

This year my family threw me a SURPRISE 24th birthday party. They definitely succeeded in making it a surprise, since it came about a week earlier than my actual birthday.

Since we moved to Ohio last May, we have been watching through the TV show "24" together. It started when Scott & I were living with my family while we were renovating our house, but continued on even after we had moved out. At some point we talked about how fun it would be to have 24-themed 24th birthday party. Shortly after this conversation, I forgot all about it. They, however, did not.

They did such an amazing job putting it all together, I'm still amazed that they were able to do so much and keep it a secret from me. They even got members of the cast of 24 to be there.

Mike Novick was there...


as well as Dina Araz...

and Chloe O'Brian...

and Maya Driscoll...


and of course, Jack Bauer...


Jack & Chloe in the situation room


the cast at CTU (Audrey Raines decided to jump in the middle there)


For dinner we had Spaghetti and Meatballs, which references an inside joke we have about 24 (if you want to know, just ask my mom ;)


Even the cake was 24-themed!


At the end of the night all the cast members recorded birthday greetings for me:


Thanks so much everyone...it was the best birthday party ever!

Gideon James

Looking through my pictures from our trip to Minneapolis, I realized that most of them were of this little guy, our new nephew. But, I mean, c'mon, how could they not be? Look at that face!

Summer Vacation

Scott and I are in Minnesota visiting with his family, having a grand old time so far. :) We're looking forward to a whole week (!) with the O'Neals, doing lots of fun summer vacationy things - swimming, barbequing, Wii(ing), playing with our new nephew, and more!