And just like that . . .

. . . I turned 38!  

I had a wonderfully wonderful birthday at the Sioux Falls Catholic Diocese Youth Conference. It's one of the perks of my job as DRE at our parish and it is such a blessing of a day!

Landen and I saw Pope Francis hanging around before lunch, so we had to get a photo with him.  (No, it's not really the Pope . . . just the Diocese's cardboard Pope.  And that security guard is not the Swiss Guard . . . he was guarding the food on the other side of the curtain!) :)

They estimated 1700 youth in attendance this year.  There were people visiting from North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota parishes. 

Here's our great group that went with us.  (Our Junior High teachers attended with us, too!)  

On the way home, we stopped at Applebee's for supper and even got the same table as we had after last year's conference. After a little Happy Birthday singing and a complimentary brownie bite, it was time to return home!

My birthday was a lot like Nathan's this year in that our family celebrated and in shifts. Rachel helped me decorate my angel food cake. :)  I still got to blow out candles, so it was all good.

38 is pretty great . . . so far!