40th Birthday

 Let's rewind a few months. (Cue Wayne's world Scooby Doo ending) I ended up having the actual best time turning 40. 

I went on a girl's trip a week before my birthday conveniently timed so that I could have the excuse to go all out in "celebration mode". Apparently, celebration mode looks a lot like going to Disneyland and then hanging out with some of your best girlfriends on vacation for a few days. 

It was honestly such an amazing trip. Even now, when I think on that trip I really only have such positive feelings about the whole thing. I flew in a couple days earlier than the rest of the ladies so me and Bree could enjoy Disneyland, and enjoy it we did. I still think Disney as an adult is one of the better decisions one can make. We did about 40,000 steps that day. We went on a bunch of the more awesome rides twice, and we absolutely loved being together for that whole day. 

The rest of the girls arrived, and a lot of me wanted to do Disney again with everyone. But, we ended up sticking with a very busy sight seeing day first, followed by a mellow beach day, and both were so awesome.

Notice me in the background :) 

First arriving in California

Susie and I ran from the parking lot all the way to the ocean-it was a farther away than it looked 

Now, on the heels of this very awesome trip, I went home and had a day back, and on my birthday we took Kaj to a Jai Wolf concert. I clearly love my son. (I will talk about that separately) But, returning from that and back to what I thought would be a regular day. Sam was home and he had decided that it was pertinent to make sure the garage door was working smoothly and the boys shower curtain needed to be replaced all in a morning. I had gone to get the boys from school, and upon my return there was a cell phone set up on the kitchen table. I was utterly confused. My first thought was: whose phone is this? It's not my phone. I went to inspect the phone further. Suddenly, I heard "Surprise!" And turned around and awestruck-all of my sisters were there!

I could not believe it. My mom was on the phone listening to the reaction. She would have come but had to help with the kids back home. So, I got to have my sisters there for a few days. We spent one of the nights and the hotel down by the Old Mill. When we talking about plans, they left it entirely up to me, I mentioned how funny and fun it would be to all get rollerblades. Let it be done.

We decided that, that was exactly what we would do. 

We first tried  Dicks Sporting Goods. We had to ask an employed for help because it's not exactly rollerblading season, and we asked for 4 rollerblades sizes 7.5 to 8. She kinda smirked at us in a quite endearing sort of way and returned with what we asked for. We all sat at tried on the rollerblades, quite pleased, that everything fit very nicely. We then saw the price which was $100 dollars and above. We decided we weren't trying to live in these rollerblades, and as we verified the price we told the employee, "we're not trying trying to be professional rollerbladers" and the girls funnily added, "maybe next year." We all laughed, and continued our search. 

We then we to Target, we found the last 4 pairs of rollerblades then had, carried them by the handles like suitcases, and all 4 sisters went to check out. We got a lot of very pleased looks. People seemed very excited for us that we had made the decision to rollerblade together on a whim. 

We packed so much in in just a few short days. We went rollerblading several times at Pine nursery, we played games of pickleball, we went to the boys soccer games, we rode the surreys down at the Old Mill, and just when I couldn't feel any luckier, Sam threw me a surprise party with a bunch of my good friends. We played Bunco with my friends and my sisters, and it was amazing. 

I do need to recognize now how Sam had held down the fort for almost 2 weeks. He wanted me to celebrate, he wanted me to be with my sisters, and also took a step further by having my friends involved in the fun. I am very thankful for him. 

I felt so loved, and that's all that really mattered.