20-years-old!!

It's official, Caitlyn survived her teenage years and so did we! We were excited that we were able to have our family trip over Caitlyn's birthday weekend! 

 

On Sunday evening we had cheesecake and Caitlyn opened her presents. 

Caitlyn has really been into reading lately so she asked for books for her birthday.  Ever since she switched out of her nursing major she has had more time to do things she enjoys instead of just study all of the time. 

Caitlyn is so fun. She loves to laugh and have fun.  She says the funniest things and she laughs at everyone's jokes.  She talks with so much animation and expression. 

Caitlyn is so kind and genuinely loves people. She is the person people go to when they are upset because she will always be so loving and understanding. Caitlyn takes an interest in all of us and checks in with us often to see how we are doing. 

Caitlyn has to fight hard to be positive.  Depression and anxiety are always present for her, but she continues to fight through them. She is so brave and willing to try new things.  She took a horse back riding class this semester and loves it.  She has had some scary experiences with horses, but she doesn't let that stop her, she just gets back on the horse, literally!

Caitlyn is motivated. She works so hard at whatever she is doing.  She gives everything her all. 

Caitlyn is really struggling with losing grandma to Alzheimer's.  She has always been so close to grandma and this is breaking her heart. 

Caitlyn asked for pictures of her and grandma for her birthday.  I went through old pictures and put together a book of pictures for her.

It was an amazing trip down memory lane.  I filled almost fifty pages with multiple pictures of Caitlyn and grandma on each page.  My mom is the best grandma and has been so involved in her grandkids lives.  She was at every performance and celebration. There were so many activities that mom did for the kids and she took them all on grandma dates.  We are so blessed to have Peggy Ham as our mom and grandma!

Caitlyn and I both wish she could have more time with grandma, but we are so grateful that she made the most out of the time she had.  Caitlyn loved the book and I loved making it for her.

 

Monday was Caitlyn's birthday.  She had classes that day so we were planning on taking her to lunch in-between classes before we headed back home.  One of her classes got canceled so I went and picked her up from school and brought her to our place.  We got all packed up and took Caitlyn to Cafe Rio for an early lunch.

I'm so glad we got to spend a little time with Caitlyn on her birthday. After lunch we dropped her back off at campus and we went home.  It was a short trip, but it was so great.  I'm so glad we were able to squeeze that in!

Her roommates took her to dinner that night.

They also had a party for her the next day.

Caitlyn said it was a lot of fun.

That weekend they went to an escape room.  Caitlyn loves escape rooms! 

I'm so glad that Caitlyn has so many great people in her life and had such a great birthday.