Turning Thirty

To kick off the milestone weekend, I ran three miles of mountain trails on Thursday, fished a slippery rocked bottom river on Friday, and spent most of Saturday in the yard with my mom. Nothing like trying to remind myself that I'm still young and energetic. Needless to say I was a bit tired by Sunday afternoon. It was a great birthday though. One of the best in awhile.

Matt baked me a superb German Chocolate Cake with Coconut Pecan Frosting, my absolute fav. He worked half the day on it and made it completely from scratch using a Cook's Illustrated recipe. I was in heaven. For dinner we tag teamed the Fettuccine Alfredo with Grilled Chicken and Ceasar Salad. Simple and perfectly filling. With plenty of room for dessert!!

My mom drove down for the weekend to watch the kids while Matt and I fished all day Friday. Then Saturday she and I had the day to ourselves to come up with a landscape plan for the front yard, back yard, and garden area. We measured and brainstormed and spray painted lines and talked. We also went downtown to check out the Gold Rush Days in charming historic downtown Yreka. They covered one of the main intersections with dirt, had live actors and recreated a scene in front of a saloon/opera house complete with gun fights (very loud, but blanks, of course!). Every half hour or so they'd gather and do the next act/scene of the play. Fabulously done and I'm soooo sad I didn't bring the camera! It really did feel like a time travel moment. There was a street fair as well with vendors and such that we browsed and then stopped by an antique store in a gorgeous Queen Anne house. It was so nice to spend some quality time with my mom, for both of our birthdays in a way since her's is just 3 days before mine. I just realized though, that I have no pictures documenting that my mom was even here. Is that silly or what??


Evalyn had fun helping Daddy make the cake and both H & E helped with the wrapping. I was delighted to get my very own TOOL BELT (which I've already put to use), some silicon spatulas, an EDGE BROWNIE PAN and a SPA/massage gift certificate to Sage Springs Spa at Sun River in Bend. I usually get so uptight on my birthday stressing about silly things or worrying about being too picky or too much money being spend on me or being disappointed/disappointing others if the day wasn't good, etc. Maybe those things sound shallow or vain, but there it is. I had fun celebrating with my family and having the kids help daddy make it a special day. Turning 30 wasn't bad at all. Thanks for all the birthday wishes and remembrances. Having Matt actually do a blog post about it was the cherry on top. Thank you my dear sweet ones!