in november, i turned 43. sounds very old when i say it out loud or see it in writing. like a grownup, even.
anyhooooo. the derek and the kids kicked off my birthday morning but going out and picking up a starbucks peppermint mocha and bagel station salt bagels and chive cream cheese. so good.
<3 
salty.
they (kids and derek) could barely contain their excitement about opening gifts, so after breakfast, i received my bounty. there were many baking and cake decorating items. and some rainbow yarn from hazel. but my big present was tickets to see the lumineers in may in charlotte, along with their latest vinyl album.
in other birthday gift news, a few days later, when i was going out to dinner with my pal heather, she suprised me with with this FANTASTIC hand embroidered cactus art. i love it so much.
at this point in my birthday timeframe, there was some controversy. i wanted to go hiking. but there was limited interest. and i was grumpy. in the end, anna and ruby joined me, for a quick trip to pilot mountain, for a short hike around the knobby rock at the top.
the approach view. 
warnings. 
attempted crooked tree photos. 
adventure dog. 
some nice folks offered to take our pic.
the hike is super short, and there were several large groups on the trail, which was sort of annoying, but i still enjoyed getting outside and away from the stupid house and pretending that we still live an adventure life for an hour or so, hopping on rocks and climbing and exploring.
for my birthday dinner, we dragged the kids downtown to one of my favorite spots, “crafted – the art of the taco”… i thoroughly enjoyed stuffing my face with unconventional tacos and too many chips and salsa. and some foothills jade ipa (not shown).
across the street, there’s a bar called “reboot” which is full of 80s arcade games, skeeball and pinball machines, so after dinner, we hit that up for a bit.
hooded mario champion. 
skeeball girls.
then. back home for cake time. even though i was thoroughly stuffed to the rafters. i helped the girls make me a birthday cake the day before (the details of which will appear in a future post). i made the cake and frosted it. and provided colored icings in piping bags. and the rest was up to them. i would say they nailed it. anyhow. we sang, ate, went to bed.
with no candles in the house, a match would have to do.
onto year forty four. yikes.