Birthday Post #3

And the birthday posts continue!...

Birthday Post 1 here & Birthday Post 2 here

Words cannot describe how perfect this is.

Hillary is my 4th older sister. She treats me to dinner when I am a crisis--usually correlating with all my numerous amounts of emotion, a horrible break up, or too much stress.

little cutie

My story of Sierra goes back to the beginning of time. I would apologize for this lengthy entry, but I'm not sorry. Sierra deserves to be in the spotlight, so here we go!

Our grandparents lived next door to each other in Oregon which subsequently lead to her grandmother joining the church, and our mothers growing up as best friends. This eventually resulted in my parents introducing her parents to one another. So technically you can all send me "thank you" cards for Sierra's existence :)

During my childhood, we used to take an annual trip to the Ainge home in Morgan Hill, CA. To us, it was the equivalent (or better) of going to Disneyland. I remember when Sierra was born and getting the pictures of this beautiful blonde baby girl. All I wanted to do was hold that adorable kid. The following summer I did just that. I would hover in the house rather than swim outside with the other children just in case Sierra woke up from her nap, I wanted to be readily available to hold and play with her. 

Years passed and life got busy. The Ainge's relocated back to Oregon and our annual summer trips came to a halt. Turns out we only like them for their pool. Fortunately, social networking came about and I was able to reconnect with Sierra's sisters and Stacy (her super awesome mom). Be that as it may, I felt a little odd about adding Sierra as a friend because she had probably only heard of me at this point. So I did what any normal person would do, I stalked her blog. This blog to be exact.

Flash forward to spring 2011. I had been emailing Stacy and asked to see her the next time she was in town. For those of you who haven't met Sierra's parents, you are deprived. David and Stacy are two of the most wonderful people you will ever know and Sierra inherited every great trait from both of them. Luckily, Stacy invited me to Sierra's choir concert the following week. Having stalked Sierra's blog, I knew it was coming up and was happy to be legitimately invited rather than just showing up as the wandering, out of place guest.

Post-concert I was invited to join them for dessert. I didn't get much time with Sierra because she was in her natural habitat (surrounded by an army of friends). However, I did exchange enough words with her that I felt like I could officially add her as a facebook friend and it might only be semi-creepy. From there, our friendship grew over our love of travel, Phil Dunphy, food, and most importantly, shoes. 

Today, I get the privilege of full-time friendship from this remarkable young lady. She makes the trek from Utah county to SLC where I can treat her to a meal that isn't macaroni and cheese or a microwave pizza (preferably at a restaurant with dreamy waiters). When I'm with Sierra, her maturity makes me forget there's a 12 year age gap between us. I feel protective of her and a bit like an honorary older sister while her siblings are spread out around the country. Albeit, an awkward, less attractive sister, but a sister who will chase down any man who breaks her heart, or any backbiting female who takes advantage of her goodness. She's one of the rare and genuine people out there who you don't think really exist. Beautiful, full of life and love, caring, fun, and someone who is always teaching me life lessons I missed along the way. 

I hope the aforementioned words have adequately shown your readers the person I know and love. Happy birthday, my friend. Next time we get dinner, remind me to ask the hostess for a senior dining menu for myself.

Thank you, Hillary.
Opa!