Sweet 16

My sister Haela turned 16 last month!! I knew it would be a big one, so Josh and i were very sneaky and trekked the 3 hours to Orem to surprise her for her most monumental birthday. My mom was the only one who knew and she kept the secret well. We told her to tell Haela that she would pick her up at the flagpole right after school and to be there on pain of death, even though the Orem High Tigers were playing their age-old rival, the Mountain View Bruins (totally the better school...and team since they won. But I'm not biased or anything...). We started circling the parking lot right at 2:15, anxiously hoping to see her before she saw us, but in typical teenage fashion she was 20 minutes late. When we finally pulled up next to her, Haela looked right at me and showed no recognition. It took her a full minute to realize that it was me and even then she was a little dazed.

I was a little worried Haela might still be mad at me for not talking to her for a while, but in full character of my sweet sister, she had forgotten it all.

Josh and I drove up north in his little 2 1/2-door Saturn, thinking we'd be able to fit no matter where we went. We didn't calculate balloons into the equation. Haela had accrued at least 20 balloons throughout the day and needed to take them home. I had magnanimously offered Haela the front seat because of her ultra long legs, so guess who smooshed into the back with the 20+ balloons. And yes. One popped. In. My. Face.
After hanging out in Orem for a couple hours (I miss my Mall :( ) we jetted up to my mom's new house in Draper. Yep. She moved again.
It was great to see my mom and catch up a little. Her house is comfy and much better insulated than the last one.

We left my mom's house thinking we kind of knew where we wanted to go for Haela's birthday dinner, but we were wrong. We were very wrong. After haggling for about an hour (of which I will spare details) we ended up at Ruby River for yummy steak and a surprise appearance by Danielle and Aunt Gina.
We had lots of fun and the food was great. And there were giggles aplenty, especially when the girls got a hold of my camera.

Later it was back to mom's house for carrot cake!

She got her wish!!

The next day I got to help Haela primp and prepare for her first date! She had asked a cute football player to Sadie Hawkins and was really excited. The dance was a jungle theme, so they were going with a cheetah look. I helped her apply her makeup, getting a little dramatic with the eye shadow which I thought would make her look more jungly but she just looked more lovely! She wanted to look cute for the day-date (Which I think is a ridiculous tradition. Who wants to spend 12 hours with a date in High School!), but still look crazy and, well, jungle-ish for the dance, so I 3-barrel curled her hair with some random ringlets and then curled her bangs and told her to mess it up in a bathroom before dance/pictures. She looked so beautiful and mature!

I was really excited for this trip up for Haela's birthday because I had spent the better part of a month preparing a scrapbook of Haela's life up to this point as a surprise for her. Thank goodness I had the help of my Aunt Ashley or I never could have done it. She patiently taught me the basics of scrapbooking and helped me with most of the pages. Ash put a lot of time and energy into it. She's awesome!
Unfortunately, I'm a dork and didn't get any pictures of it or of Haela opening it. Hopefully my mom did, so if I ever get them from her I'll be sure to post some.
Regardless, Haela loved it! Her eyes welled up as she slowly gazed at pictures of her past: Haela as a toddler in our home in Germany, surrounded by siblings who adore her; candids of her in our Orem home with the dogs; snapshots of each parent holding her on October 23, 1993, the day she came into the world-she was such a beautiful baby!
Making her scrapbook made me realize how full and rich her life has been. I think I just thought she would always be my little sister and I sometimes forget that she has experienced and endured and enjoyed much in her seemingly short life. She's grown a lot in the last couple of years. I love her so very much.

Happy Birthday Sis!