Happy 21st Birthday, C!

When J and I started dating, his baby sister was just a bit shorter than me and we wore the same size shoe...she was 9 years old and in the third grade.

Today is her 21st birthday.

Holy cow, time flies fast!

In honor of C's 21st birthday, J and I thought we would share with you 21 of the 100s of things we like about her.

1. She's quirky.

2. She's an amazing artist.

3. She's smart.

4. She's funny.

5. She's sure of herself. She always knows just what she wants. (Unless, of course, you're asking what she wants for her birthday or Christmas. Then she is devoid of ideas!)

6. She's never seemed like J's "kid sister." Not even when she was in the third grade. (I'm not sure if that's more a comment on her maturity or ours!) Here is a picture of the two of them we took last Easter. I posted it before, but it's cute and worth posting again!

7. She's loyal to both her friends and her family.

8. She has strong opinions and convictions and is not afraid to stand up for them.

9. She has a knack for keeping the conversation moving.

10. She recently decided on her major...English!! I can't tell you how much that tickles my funny bone! Don't get me wrong, I have NO illusions that she chose her major because of me... I'm so tickled because I'm finally not the only Liberal Arts major in the family!! (Dad and H are engineers, Mom is a science and math teacher, and J is a geologist.)

11. She has a great sense of humor. Here she is at her high school graduation three years ago, showing off her empty diploma cover. (Excuse my orange hair...)

12. She's unique. You should see the bedspread she made when she went off to college. It's this crazy collection of wild patterned fabric that didn't look like it would go together. But when she got it done, it looked really cool!

13. She's fun to talk to.

14. She has extensive knowledge on random topics. Don't ever challenge her to a trivia contest.

15. She taught herself how to play the guitar.

16. She's brave.

17. She has a heart for non-food animals. (Bats, deer, they're all valuable...)

18. She is sarcastic. In this family, that's a highly valued trait.

19. She's always up for an adventure. She's not a fan of this picture, but I think it's really cute. She had gone to visit H in California, and this was taken on a tram ride somewhere after they had gone on some crazy death-march-hike in hot weather. What did I tell you? She's adventurous.

20. She's determined. She won't ever give up until it's done. This was the mess of kite strings that happened when we tried to fly a kite at the ocean a few years ago. The kite went up, sort of, then came down. It never went back up again. But if we had had more time, C would have had that mess untangled and we would have had a flying kite.

21. She's finally 21!!

Happy Birthday, C!! We love you.