A Photo Essay of My Birthday

This year my birthday fell on a Saturday.  Which is awesome!  Birthday's should always fall on the weekend.  Who needs work to get in the way of your celebration?  Not me.  

Even though I wasn't at work on my actual birthday, my co-workers went crazy overboard and threw me quite the shin-dig.  When I arrived at work, my space was decorated, desk covered with flowers, balloons and gifts, and there was a smorgasbord of delicious breakfast items and a fresh cup of joe all waiting for me.  They chose "princess" plates and decor....not because of my attitude (or maybe it was) but because of a silly comment one of my students made a few weeks ago about me living in a castle.  The lovely ladies I work with spoiled me rotten!

And when I got home from work, I was greeted by this:

Mom and dad painting!  Well they were still taping off stripes at this point but by afternoon of my birthday this is the magic that happened:

I slept in on the morning of my birthday and upon making my way downstairs I ran into this kid:

Matt went out for a run earlier in the morning and Eli decided to join him on his bike.  He grabbed his wallet and purchased these beautiful flowers for me with his own money, and then rode home on his bike with them.  Not only am I impressed that he spent his own money for flowers for me, I'm in awe that anyone can ride a bike with flowers.

After a yummy brunch, we headed to downtown Tacoma where these guys and my parents followed me around a bunch of antique/junk shops....and they didn't complain once!  I definitely need to return to those shops...very cool stuff up there.

After perusing dusty old gems we drove along the beautiful Ruston Way in N. Tacoma and settled in at Anthony's at Point Defiance for a great view and tasty dinner compliments of these two:

And attempted a family photo.....

then ditched the kids for a selfie...

We came back to the house for cupcakes and I opened more gifts.

Turns out I'm kind of a princess....at least I feel spoiled like one!

Good news for my future travel ventures, this girl got a waterproof camera!  Let's hope that I have another encounter with dolphins so I can capture it!

It was a happy birthday!