Katie’s 30th Birthday

Since our honeymoon was planned around attending a wedding in Istanbul, the dates were pretty much set for us. We were well into the course of planning before we realized that we'd be in Turkey for Kate's 30th birthday. Pretty sweet.

Although Kate is fairly ambivalent about her birthday, I wanted to make sure it wasn't forgotten completely. I secretly packed some small gifts in my suitcase to surprise her with on our trip. She got the first 2 early, because I wanted her to have them on the long flight over: a set of noise-canceling headphones and some ginger candies. Have you used noise-canceling headphones before? They are amazing. I borrowed a set from my parents, so Kate & I were able to watch movies on our iPad together during the flight. So nice!

I saved the rest of the gifts for her actual birthday. First up was a bacon chocolate bar. She's had one of these before, and loved it, but there was also a little joke behind it. Since Turkey is a Muslim country, we were warned that there would be no bacon to be found. Katie is somewhat of a bacon junkie, so her nervousness of going 2 whole weeks without it became a running joke amongst our family and friends.

I also got her an iBooks gift card so she could download some reading material for the trip home. This girl is a super fast reader and had already finished 2 books half way through our vacation.

Lastly, I got her this brown striped seersucker tie from American Apparel. We spent a good chunk of time searching for a good summer tie for her, but didn't have much luck. Kate had resigned herself to just going without, but I had one more day of shopping left in me. I'm glad I was able to surprise her!

Speaking of surprises, I stashed a pack of birthday candles in my bag. I was able to get matches from the bartender and make a little impromptu birthday cake for her out of tiramisu.

There is an 8 hour time difference between Omaha and Antalya, so Kate actually turned 30 8 hours early. This ended up being a cool little fact once we realized that this meant she was finally older than her twin brother, who was born 8 minutes before her. I kind of geek-out about stuff like this. And it only took 30 years to figure out how to do it!

All in all, I have a feeling that this was a pretty memorable birthday for her. However, we may still need to do some celebrating with friends!

Happy Birthday, Kate!