Lordy Lordy Look Who's 40!!!

Having my cake and eating it too!!!

Please pass the goat cheese

How about we skip the hike and just nap.......

M

Happy Hikers

Bluff Springs

Cloudcroft Trestle

rock stars!

Lemongrass restaurant

Love this guy!!



surprise!!

The title of this post is dedicated to Hannah.  Hannah, who has been repeating that phrase (in a thick Texan accent) for weeks in preparation for the big day....The big day is today, but we actually began celebrating my 40th birthday yesterday.  Since I got to pick what we were going to do, I, of course, chose a nice long hike.  We headed to Cloudcroft for a fancy picnic and spent the day hiking the Willie White trail.  The weather was perfect, the food was delicious and the hike was gorgeous!  We continued my celebration today.  I awoke to balloons and flowers and banners and 4 beaming faces singing Happy Birthday.  The girls and Matt did an outstanding job at making me feel loved and celebrated on my big day.  I really appreciated all of the small touches....the girls had hidden small gifts throughout the house in locations of my everyday routines.  I found my favorite lotion in the bathroom, my favorite candy in my office, a cup full of Hershey kisses in my coffee cup and new running socks in my vitamix.  They also used all of their piggy bank to buy me a sweet necklace handmade with 3 little flowers.  Hannah painted me a cute picture of 2 love birds and Emma planted flowers for me in a bright orange (her favorite color) pot.  Rachel is working on a wooden cutout sign with Matt for me but it will have to wait until Matt's scroll saw can be fixed.   Matt gave me gift certificates to the spa, which was a fantastic surprise.  Even better than that though...he had already made all of the appointments for me on his off days at work.  The gift that keeps on giving was really appreciated.    The rest of the day went on to include eating dinner at our favorite Thai restaurant, Rachel's homemade chai ice cream and Hannah's vanilla bean cupcakes with vanilla butter cream.  I was also lucky enough to be personally serenaded by the Salas family.  They somehow managed to turn up in my backyard, guitars in hand, to sing Happy Birthday to me. I have the best friends!   What a truly great birthday.  I know I say it all of the time in my blog, but I really am lucky.  Lucky to have my health, my family, and all of my 40 years of living.  Thank you Rachel, Hannah, Emma and Matt for today.  But more than that, thank you for everyday.  For the warm loving memories we share and for the simple things we do together everyday.  They all mean so much to me.