Say goodbye to the 20's

On Friday I turned thirty. Don't tell any of the Arapahoe High School kids I work with, they still think I'm 23. It was a fantabulous birthday weekend filled with many surprises, thanks to great friends and family, but mainly due to the fact that my wife is a straight balla.

Last week I got a voice mail from my friend Sterling (and one of the pastors who married us) reminding me that Natalie was WAY too good for me. He was right. I also got a comment this week on one of my MySpace photos from one of the middle school girls in our youth group in Athens. It read: "drew...how did YOU end up with a wife that pretty?" Your guess is as good as mine Megan!

Let's just call it like it is...I married way out of my league. And for my birthday Nat went overboard and gave me thirty surprises. Here are just a few highlights from the b-day weekend.

-I got a birthday email from one of my heroes, Allen Levi!
-My Greek class surprised me with Rice Krispy Treats and a b-day power point presentation.
-Our YL staff decorated the office with "over the hill" stuff, dressed in all black for staff meeting, and got me a Tarheel decorated ice cream cake!
-Nat took me to Boulder on Friday night for dinner at Juanita's Mexican Grill and we enjoyed an amazing show from THE ZIP CODE MAN...who can tell you the name of your town and the best resturaunt there if you just tell him your zip code. He's memorized over 48,000 zip codes. My mama sent me 30 cookies in the shape of the number 30. I guess you never get too old for number shaped sugar cookies!
Natalie made me my "dream meal" for supper on Saturday night: A CASSEROLE feast including Green Bean, Hash Brown, and Chicken Casseroles. I guess you could say she was on role. (that was a "doug hillish joke", please forgive me)
Nat got some of her friends from school to help blow up 30 balloons for me when I came home from YL staff meeting on Friday. Inside each one was something she loved about me. Awww...
Natalie surprised me on Saturday with a "basketball party." We went for a "bike ride" and rode up on a basketball court where a bunch of my friends were ballin'. Before I stepped onto the court, I was handed a present from my parents (thx Dounda), a pair of CP3 Nike Air Jordan's. After a few games and some sunburn, we had an Oreo Dairy Queen ice cream cake. It was my first basketball b-day party since I was 9! Thanks to Becky Shinnick for the slide show below...

We also finished "24" season 5 on dvd this weekend. It was a three month journey and we're so glad its over. Believe it or not, my fingernails are still there.

Some of the best advice I've ever been given is "take your 20's and learn, once you turn 30, then you can change the world." I'm so thankful for the many experiences I learned from in my twenties, and now that I'm a legitimate adult, I'm excited and expectant for what this next decade holds...