My 40th Birthday

Gah! How am I 40?! And how I have I been blogging so long that I also documented my 30th birthday on here as well.

My birthday was almost a week ago–March 3rd to be exact, but I was too busy celebrating in Hawaii to compose this blog post until our flight home last night and into today.

It was truly the best birthday ever. I feel like I’ve had a lot of “bad” birthdays over the years–really just lonely ones: one in particular where I was snowed in my apartment and couldn’t celebrate with others, a couple in college where no one hardly knew it was my birthday, and others that were just ‘meh.’ So I made up for it this year with a 10 day trip to Kauai with Craig. My sister and brother-in-law joined us for 5 of those days, which was so fun to show them around the island. (If you remember, we went to Kauai last year without Cullen and Bjorn as well.) We had the best time just laying on the beach, hiking along the coast with water so aqua-blue it was nearly unbelievable, dining at nice restaurants (without kids), and just soaking up the time together. I plan to do a full blog post detailing all of our adventures when I get a chance.

While I’m feeling a little old and not super excited to be 40, I did feel the same way turning 30, and it ended up being a great decade! During my 30s, I had two beautiful babies, ran the fastest races of my life, started my own business, and grew and became my own person in Alaska.

This is what I wrote on my Instagram account:

I have mixed emotions about being 40. On one hand, it feels “old.” Probably because I remember my parents turning 40–I was 15 and in high school. (Also, can I just say how glad I am people don’t say you’re ‘over the hill’ anymore!) Plus, now I enter the master’s division in running races.

On the other hand, I am optimistic that this is going to be a great decade and feeling even more settled in life. Chances are we are buying our ‘long-term home’ (not sure if it is our forever home); I love what I do and Craig loves farming; the boys are getting older, more independent, and developing into their own person; we’re in a good financial situation and saving for retirement; and our families and parents are all healthy.

The Runner’s Plate, Instagram

I went back on whether I should recap the past decade or make a list of goals for the next decade. I’m not one to have a bucket list or write down big goals for a new year or decade because in the past when I’ve done this, things just go in a completely different direction than I planned. I just think living each day to the fullest and doing things that excite you lead to a fulfilling life. But I will highlight a few things I am proud of from this past decade. (I was going to try and come up with 40, but my brain is too fried right now after essentially being up for 36 hours and taking the red eye out of Kauai.)

Here are 10 notable things that I accomplished in my 30s:

1. I became a mom x 2.
2. I spent most of this decade living in Alaska but ended the last 8 months living in Minnesota.
3. I PRed in every distance I raced.
4. I began the decade working at Wells Fargo in mortgages and underwriting, then started my coaching business right before turning 31. I promptly quit at Wells Fargo, started working and coaching at the running store, and when Cullen was born at the end of that year (2014), I also became a full-time stay-at-home-mom.
5. I added multiple streams of income and grew my businesses to an amount I never even dreamed of making.
6. I traveled to several new states and ran races in many of them as well
7. I grew my faith in a church that challenges me and has theology so deep it continues to blow my mind.
8. I hiked mountains, swam in the ocean, did a little bit of trail running, and traveled across the US.
9. Was on TV (local Anchorage news) three times.
10. I’ve continued with this blog after starting it in 2010.

I know I have other things to be proud of and grateful for, but these were the first 10 things to come to my mind, so that’s where I’m ending it.

Birthday recaps from the past decade:

30th birthday – I ran 15 miles, we got a couples massage at a hotel in Anchorage, and had snail for dinner.

31st birthday – I didn’t write about it in this blog post (because we were still keeping it a secret), but we told my in-laws at my birthday brunch that I was pregnant with Cullen. (P.S. I also referenced being old. Ha!)

32nd birthday – This was my first birthday with a baby, so celebrations were a bit different. We did go out for dinner, and I took Cullen to his 4 month check-up at the pediatrician. (You can also see me with short hair in this post.)

33rd birthday – I went for a run (no surprise there), took a nap, bought a couple things at lululemon, and wrote about 33 things I was doing to try and better my life. I think some of them I accomplished and others are still a work in progress.

34th birthday – I didn’t recap my birthday but mentioned in the blog post that I went running, did a little shopping, and then spent time with Cullen and Craig. (Sounds like my typical birthday.)

35th birthday – We were in Maui for my 35th birthday! This was more of a coincidence that my birthday fell during the trip, as we didn’t plan the trip around my birthday. (My sister and brother-in-law also came on this trip, as well as Cullen.)

36th birthday – I remember I did a 10 mile run with some friends, and I was so nauseous because I was just a couple months pregnant with Bjorn. Once again I didn’t write about it in this post because Craig was the only other person who knew.

37th birthday – I wrote about 37 ways my running has changed over the years. Also, this would have been right when Covid broke out!

38th birthday – A Covid-friendly party, time with the boys, and a run in -2*F temps. (And me commenting how close 40 was. Ha!)

39th birthday – I couldn’t find a recap on the blog, but I did run 3 miles in the morning and 9 miles in the afternoon before we all went out to eat at Ginger with the boys.

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Our excitement doesn’t stop there as tomorrow (Friday) we close on our new house in Minnesota. For the past 8 months we have been living with my parents but finally found a place of our own! I am stoked! So the post recapping our trip to Kauai probably won’t be published any time too soon because we will be spending the next week moving in and getting settled. But if you have any questions about our trip–maybe you were following along on Instagram (which I did save all of my stories from our trip to my highlights)–feel free to comment below with questions you have about Kauai!