Belated Birthday Post

I've been meaning to post some pictures from my birthday for a while now. It is, after all, one of the best days of the year! I was showered all day with phone calls, cards, e-mails, and Facebook messages from people saying they were happy I was born. What's not to love? :)

Also, Dan woke me up with some gorgeous flowers, which I took to work so I could enjoy them all day.

They smelled amazing, and the bouquet got even prettier as all those buds opened up.

Since my birthday was on a Wednesday, we went out to dinner by the beach & had a low-key, relaxing evening. It was perfect! We tried the Firehouse Restaurant in our neighborhood, which shares a building with a firehouse (go figure)

Dan ordered this dainty morsel of halibut

And I got this enormous platter of fish tacos, chips, & beans. :)

And of course no birthday is complete without ColdStone's ice cream!!

Over the weekend, I got to celebrate with friends, too. My friend Cynthia took me to the Aubrey Rose Tea Room in La Mesa for a formal afternoon tea. It was really girly & we had the best time enjoying the ambiance and sampling all the teas & foods. I've read countless historical fiction books set in Victorian England, but this was the first time I've experienced a real "tea time" for myself.

I loved all their personal touches & the pretty decor.

Cynthia & I had three flavors of tea with plenty of cream and sugar. Some of the tea tasted like dessert by the time we doctored it up. :) We also ordered a three-tiered platter of delicious foods. The bottom layer was sandwiches & pastries, the middle layer was fresh fruit, and the top layer was an assortment of desserts. Everything was sample-sized so it didn't look like much food, but we were full by the end!

As a sidenote, while I was sipping tea with my pinkie in the air, Dan went trail biking. He underestimated a downhill slope and ended up flying off his bike! Thank God he had his helmet on, but he's pretty sure he was knocked out for a little while after he hit the ground! After the world stopped spinning, he was able to bike back home sporting a bloody knee, an swollen hand, and a lump on his head. Men ... *sigh* He's been forced to rest for the past few weeks, since he can't play hockey with an injured wrist/hand.

That night, we met one of my old coworkers from Denver, Bob, at the Brigantine in Del Mar. He was in town for a company sponsored event, and it was great to catch up with him! (Sorry the picture turned out so blurry - my camera battery was on its last leg and the lighting was low.)

Happy New Year!

It's hard to believe that we're well into 2012 already! We celebrated New Year's Eve with our friends, Dave and Cynthia, and their daughters, Olivia and Kailey. It was especially exciting to visit their house since it was Kailey's first week home ever! She's had surgeries on her heart and esophagus and other related procedures since her birth day. That little girl has been through more in her 4 months of life than most of us adults have! But God has blessed her and she's doing really well at home. We're so thankful!

As opposed to most nights (ha!) we were not wild party animals on New Year's Eve. We drank sparkling cider and watched the ball drop at 9 pm, which is midnight in NYC. :) But we had a blast catching up with Dave & Cynthia and playing with the girls, and then we headed home at about 10. I'm not too crazy about driving late at night on New Year's Eve, anyway, when there's a good chance of drunk drivers on the road.

Dave & Cynthia, ready to ring in 2012!

Dave & Kailey were happy to sit back and enjoy the live entertainment

Which consisted of Dan & Olivia teaming up to torment their cat, Kobie, with a red piece of yarn. They'd shake it in front of him until he went crazy.

And then Olivia would run in circles around the kitchen to get Kobie to chase the yarn. It only worked sometimes for Kobie, but it successfully wore Olivia out for bedtime. :)

Olivia went to bed before 9:00, but Kailey was right in the middle of our party after the New Year's countdown in Times Square

Dan & I are toasting Kailey's milk (she has a feeding tube for now, since her esophagus is still healing). Happy 1st New Year, Kailey! We're so happy you're home!

And while we're on the subject of babies coming home, we got to meet Chris and Adessa's two-day-old baby, Owen, on Friday night! We drove up to Anaheim for the Ducks vs. NY Islanders game that night. Chris, Adessa, & Owen had just gotten home from the hospital that afternoon, so we bribed them to let us come over by bringing them dinner before we headed to the game.

Owen is so tiny & sweet! He was really alert when we were visiting, so we hope he slept for a good long time that night.

Brand-new dad & mom, Chris & Adessa! Congratulations, guys!

Then we headed to the hockey game, where I had the worst seats in the arena. Seriously, this was my view, and Dan's wasn't much better. And they didn't even warn us that the seats had an obstructed view when we bought tickets. Bad form, Anaheim! The game wasn't sold out, so we moved down a few rows after the 1st period, which was a lot better.

Despite our support for the Islanders, they lost their lead during the 2nd period and the Ducks won 4-2.

And in other news, Dan & I have been making strides towards some New Year's goals. I'm hoping to run another half marathon this year - hopefully in March if I can build up my mileage that quickly, but if not, I'll try for a summertime race. I got a new pair of running shoes from my parents for Christmas and dug my older shoes out of my closet. They'll become walking shoes - one pair to keep at work and one pair for home. Dan thinks it's hilarious that I have three pairs of the exact same shoes, but I hear it's good to buy new shoes every year, and I'm afraid if I change styles I won't like them as well.

We also bought a recumbent bike for Dan! He watches hours of hockey every week on TV, and his New Year's resolution is to work out during the games. It took us 1.5 hours to assemble this baby, but it was well worth it.

This bike was perfect - reasonably priced (at Costco) and it's super quiet, so he doesn't have to crank up the TV volume at all. It also has a book shelf, so I can read while I ride it. So far we both love it!