It's my birthday (well, yesterday) and I celebrated!

Beautiful hotel pool

I turned 50 yesterday.  I know.  It feels weird to me as well.  I remember when my parents were 50 and it seemed so dang old-seriously ancient-that I never contemplated reaching the age myself.  It's here.  When in doubt, celebrate or run away and celebrate.  Groovy Girl attended church camp for 3 days near Des Moines   and my husband came up with the idea to "whisk" me away for those few days.  We stayed in a nice hotel with a very comfy white bed.  This photo doesn't even convey how soft yet crisp the bed felt.

I had a white bed like this years ago when I was single and lived in St. Paul, MN. I didn't have kids or a husband or two big hairy dogs; just me and a simple bed with white sheets and a white down comforter.  I missed it just a tiny bit as I enjoyed this one but not enough to trade the kids, the dogs, or the husband!  It's just a bed after all.  Those other things make up my life.

  Here's my birthday photos to share...

Sushi at Hoshi's

Jasper Winery

The full moon graced my birthday days

                                              Cupcakes with our friends Rocky and Mary Kay

Love this platter from Mary Kay

Husband's homemade monster card

Want to know what gifts I was lucky enough to receive? 

My amazing in-laws (and I felt this way before yesterday) sent me a Kindle Fire!!  I played with it until 2:00 in the morning.  Our oldest daughter is doing an intern in NYC and she sent me a cool book bag from The Strand bookstore.  Our youngest made me a very colorful collage.  I gonna frame it.  Teenage Boy had a jingle writer write and sing me a Happy Birthday ditty.  Aren't they creative!

Beyond the wonderful  trip my husband put together for me, with lots of gifts along the way, he still had gifts at home; the new Gillian Flynn book, Gone Girl and a CD of Michael Kiwanuka (Home Again) because he heard Michael on NPR and loved his sound. 

 I ordered myself Planting Dandelions by Kyran Pittman because I've wanted it for awhile.

Groovy Girl's "Mama" collage

My little feet dragging at check-out time