My 30th Birthday

I've got to say, I think this has been my favorite birthday so far. It was the perfect mix of outside, relaxation, and being with wonderful people. We started the day by taking a little hike up Bald Pate Mountain. It's not a very long hike, but it's a family favorite due to its close proximity and that it's easy enough for Meo to hike on his own. Meo started the hike on Robbie's back...but fortuanately he asked to get down pretty quickly and Robbie didn't have to break his body trying to carry Meo and the backback.

It was just the perfect winter morning for a hike; no wind, just around freezing (which oddly feels warm now), and blue skies.

nursing

After our hike, I enjoyed a warm shower and an afternoon nap with Link. Then my mom came over to babysit the boys so Robbie and I could go out for the night. Robbie made reservations at Soakology for me and a bunch of my best girl friends. I was so excited that so many came out to celebrate with me!

I had been wanting to go to Soakology ever since I first peeked in about 10 years ago, but never had the opportunity to go. So this was a truly wonderful birthday gift from Robbie! I had a Beach Rose foot soak, some early grey tea with steamed milk, lavender and vanilla, and a tray of delicious food. The only downside of the experience was that because there was so many of us, we were kind of far apart so I couldn't actually talk to 6 of them while we were having the soak. But I got to sit with Sam and Amy and we had lots of fun together. I love all these ladies! Thanks so much for the generous gifts and wonderful company!

Sam, Amy and I

Noel, Lauren and Lindsay

Sarah, Erin and Sharon

After our foot soak, I said my goodbyes to ladies and headed over to hang out with our old chums. These were the people we have been friends with through college and beyond and hung out with several times a week when we lived in Portland before we decided to have children. We both miss that time and our grateful for the opportunities we have to get together with them. We got a bunch of Otto Pizza, had drinks and had a great night together.

Since we had so much yummy food on my birthday, we decided to wait until the next day to have birthday cake. I will admit that mostly we had birthday cake so the Meo wasn't disappointed; he was really excited about birthday cake. We had a delicious raspberry mouse cake from Whole Foods and the boys each wolfed down an entire slice. Meo may have had two.

Thank you to everyone who sent me kind wishes on my birthday, and a special thanks to all those people who spent time with me on my big day. Growing older isn't so bad when you have people you love to grow and experience life with, and I am more grateful for your presence in my life than you will ever know. Thank you!

I have to end this post by mentioning that this 30th birthday did happen to fall on Friday the 13th. And with that came a little bad luck. Like Link going into the upstairs catbox...being put downstairs while Robbie cleaned up the mess only to go into the downstairs cat box. And then he dumped his breakfast all over himself.