Happy Birthday to me!

What an amazing weekend!

It’s no secret that I’m into birthdays (of course and obviously my own, but I love other people’s, too!) but this one I think will end up in the top of the list!

Here’s a recap of the rest of the week from where I left off:

Thursday was relaxing – had lunch with a work colleague (she took me out for my birthday, so nice!) and then that evening Curt and I cleaned the pool (doesn’t sound fun but it kind of was watching Curt bob up and down while he was vacuuming the hot tub while I was working in the main pool). So we were just chatting out there and working away, though keep in mind it wasn’t too hard of work – I find that keeping up the pool isn’t nearly as hard as I thought it would be. This is literally the first time I’ve ever “cleaned” the pool. Granted it’s mostly Curt’s job to keep up with the chemicals, emptying the buckets, which I appreciate very much, but as long as you keep up with that stuff it’s pretty low maintenance? It just so happened that the whole week before we had a ton of storms that had blown things in and wanted to have it sparkling clean! So we were done with that way before dark, I made some yummy dinner, and then we decided to go upstairs and watch my Monday Birthday week gift – “10,000 BC.” Love those kinds of nights!

Then of course Friday was *my birthday!* Started off great with a quick commute in, had a great day at work, colleagues took me out for an amazing lunch at my favorite place – it was so fun! And then we had a long meeting in the afternoon that took us until the end of the day. I had a little more work to do, so took off around 5:30 p.m. and headed straight to the Goose’s Acre for a family dinner on the patio, with tres leches at Americas to follow… That was all so fun (weather was *perfect* in my book) and then we headed back to the house for some presents! Whoop! (no secret that I love those, too). So Curt had been really nervous about my present, which I thought was sweet as it implies he put some thought into it (for him, anyway). So I opened them and got so much great stuff! Everything from an iPod car plug in (from Kendyl, and on my b-day list for months – yea!), Vera Bradley pink elephant bags (from Mom & Dad as apparently she’s retiring this pattern), Kinoki foot pads (Mom, Kendyl, and I have talked about how fun these would be to try for awhile, so Mom got some at BB&B!), and… drumroll please…. My Nikon SLR D80! Holy smokes I was totally surprised! This was Curt’s gift to me, along with a super power additional 200x zoom lense, photography classes (like 15 or something?), a DVD, car battery charger, and the bag/kit with memory cards, cords, etc, etc, etc. Wow… I was so amazed. So this was from Curt and a few others chipped in as well (my parents, Carrie & Don, and Courtney). So I am SO excited to become a photography guru! I mean, I think I have some natural raw talent considering I have taken some pretty amazing shots with just a 35 mm camera (see Italy pics in your mind here), so we’ll see how good I can be with the proper equipment along with some coaching! Then we had some fun with “So you think you can dance” and I showed my fam the Bollywood dance as Mom hadn’t deleted it yet… lol!

Saturday we slept in some, then started to get to work to get to the store for party supplies/food, and getting the house ready for the big day. It ended up being so great – we started at 3 p.m. and I think we had 21 people there plus my family so it was probably the upper limit of what our house can support party wise as it was packed when everyone came inside to sing to me... But it was GREAT having so many family members and friends there, and a lot of us got into the pool after awhile, too! I was so relaxed and it was the perfect birthday celebration… our last guests left at about 9:45 p.m. (thanks Vicki, CP & Judy for helping us clean up)! Then we decided to watch the “Bucket list” to cap off the day… Sunday we did it all again, this time on a much smaller scale for my mom but at my house again as HER birthday is only 6 days away from mine. So the fam came over at around 1 p.m., we got the food ready, had a few different guests over, and when they left a few hours later we had family time in the pool which was way fun, and again very relaxing (Kendyl and Curt kept pushing me back and forth across the pool on my float – best game ever)! Then half of them left, and Mom stayed with me and we watched Quest for Fire.

So all in all it was an incredible birthday weekend full of good times, just enough R&R, fun in the sun, movies, *cake,* presents, etc. – all my ideal and favorite things! YEA!

So back to real life again and this week is going well, too… am trying to figure out when I can start diving into my photography stuff in between other things I have planned… this weekend we have Carrie’s 50th birthday to celebrate as well as Paige & Keith’s wedding. Should be a lot of fun… I’m also looking forward to the wedding b/c Fred will be marrying them (he’s who married Curt and me!) and it will be attended by a ton of people that we’ve known forever. Then maybe on Sunday we’ll get the boat out as it seems like centuries since we’ve had the chance to get up there!

OH! And how could I forget, tomorrow evening we’ll be attending the CIRCUS! Always a family favorite for us and it’s to celebrate Mom’s birthday (which is really on Thursday) so I’m *very* excited about that! My dad loves to tell the story of how special the circus is to our family… I guess when I was just 9 days old my mom was tired of being cooped up in the house and decided to take me on one of my first outings to see the world. As the circus was in town (they always are in July) she decided to take me to see the elephants being unloaded from the train (I think the train?) and then they would be walking them down the street in a mini-parade. Well I guess as I was obviously the youngest bystander so the news crews and reporters that were there decided to interview my mom so she and I were on TV later that night – it was my debut to the world (lol)! I guess she was so excited because it was still a very new city, I was the new and first addition to the family, and with all of the excitement/elephants, etc. I guess it’s just one of those really happy memories that carries over forever into loving the circus, thus, Kendyl and I have also always loved the circus as well! Just one of those magical things (similar and right up there with me and my love affair with the Renaissance Festival).

Anyway, so all is well and I’ll just be snapping a million pics away on my new cam until next time! July is always so busy so should have plenty more to write about soon… and will include pics next time!

Love,
Tasha xx