Happy Birthday to Me

Well guys, I am another year older and walking closer to 40.  The older I get the more confident I can say that Age is truly just a number.  I sure don't feel 3 years away from 40, but maybe that is the beautiful thing.  Maybe it really is true that you DO just get better with age. 

Last year I celebrated my birthday in a boot and closed it out with a cast.  This year I started my day with a 4.5 mile run and it was good.  Praise the Lord for healing, and a body that can run again!  Last year felt like being lost in a storm, but here I am, found and happy and running.  I am also signed up to run my first 1/2 marathon post injury.  So grateful.

My family went all out celebrating me this year and my 3 most favorite things were not having to make dinner on my birthday, this homemade lemon cake, and 3 of the most beautiful cards a Momma could ask for.

Then we got to see Frozen II and it was magical. SO MAGICAL.  I love doing these things with my girls.  We had to get all dressed up for the occasion and Disney did not disappoint.  My favorite song was "Into the Unknown."  So powerful.  And Kristoff........all I can say is THANK YOU Disney for giving us a man who is an emotional hero!  Anna, you picked a good one!

We had rain and rainbows and I spent the week leading up to my birthday with friends, a California Trip, and so much love from all of my people.  

Bob even blessed me with this little gem of a shirt. I love that man.

37 is starting off pretty dang good and I am looking forward to what this year might bring me.  

We're still Thankful

Its nearly December 1st and Thanksgiving has come and gone.  Today we are neck deep in decorating for Christmas and my girls are already caught up on Home Alone and working on The Santa Clause.  This truly is my most favorite time of the year.

This was my 3rd year hosting Thanksgiving, and I will say it out loud, I LOVE HOSTING.  There is something so satisfying and fulfilling about planning, prepping, cooking, and delivering on one of the most special meals of the year.  Our bounty was full and we have so much to be thankful for.

This year we were blessed to have on of my best friends and her family join us around our table. Rebekah and Steve are two of the best humans out there and Bob and I are incredibly fortunate to call them friends.  They have been through a lot in the past couple of months working to find a solution to Rebekah's seizures, and it made my heart so light to be able to take care of them this year. I am thankful for them!  Plus my sweet potato pie got an A which is saying something coming from my Southern raised Georgia friend!  Whew!

Every year making homemade pies is truly a special thing because it is a tradition and a skill passed to me by my Grandma Fran.  Frannie Terrell could make pies, and I am ever so grateful that she taught me. This year was the first year that my girls participated in the whole process and as you can see we all made it through with no tears!  Man this growing up thing is a BLAST!

The turkey is always the 1 anxiety producing thing in my Thanksgiving preparations.  That bird is a big undertaking.  HUGE thank you to Sharyl Patton for the easiest, no worry, no stress, no pressure bird recipe.  Its magic guys, and as you can see, once again it worked beautifully.  My girls helped with the preparation and learned first hand where the turkey comes from.  My favorite line from this year's life lesson. "EWWW Mom, they put the neck in the Turkey's butt?!!!!"  HAHAHA. 

I spent the cooking time putting legos together.  It was oddly satisfying and wonderfully busying even if it was at times overwhelming.  We have thousands of pieces all mixed together so finding one castle's parts was tough.  It think my eyes may have crossed at one point.

Our turkey was carved, cut, and plated and the feast began.  Lily has been waiting all year for mountains of mashed potatoes. We had mountains, and so much other food her eyes were way bigger than her stomach.  The kids ate whatever they wanted and played for hours, meanwhile we adults ate, talked, and played a fabulous game of Settlers.  

I am so thankful this year for many many things, and we as a family have much to be grateful for.  Our lives are blessed most richly by the people we call friends and family.  I am exceptionally grateful for Grandma Jill and so glad that Grandpa Steve and Aunt Linda made it.  

We still remain ever grateful for life and living, and the chance to once again share the bounty. Happiest of Thanksgivings!

We're all Growing Up!

Time seems to always march on and this year I am equally hit with how quickly my children, my husband and I, and all our parents are growing up.  It happens to us all.  Time is truly a gift, and a relentless thief.  

I have been listening to sermons from the church we used to attend out in North Carolina.  At the beginning of every sermon they have a minute and a half opener affirming all humans.  They finish with the statement, "we affirm all humans because we are more and more aware that life is precious."  Life and time and the chance to grow old is a gift and one worth sheltering, treasuring, and celebrating.

I am really grateful this year that my parents followed us out to AZ.  Even though we aren't just down the street from one another, we get to see them, and share special holidays and times with them.  My girls get to fall in love with horses, and enjoy a small taste of my childhood.  It is a special thing and one that is already making a lasting impression on them.

Life is precious, and all life is so beautiful.  Even though we have different lives and communities, and lifestyle, we are all a family and this picture above shows it.  We got some country, and we got some City, but we have a family most of all and that is a truly beautiful thing.  Time can't ever take that away and I treasure it.

As thanksgiving approaches I am just ever so grateful for the chance to get older with my parents.  I am even more grateful for the chance for my girls to get older with my parents. 

Especially because they like to do crazy things like sit 3 on a horse!  

Memaw and Papa, we love you.  We are grateful for you this year, and we are blessed to grow old with you. Lets keep making memories!

IFLY into Nine!

My girls dream about their birthday all year long.  What to do what to do?  Do they want a party or a theme, do they want to go somewhere, or do something special?  Who to invite?  Do I invite everyone I know, or just some people I know?  Oh the decisions!

This year, Lily was really sure exactly what she wanted to do. Lily wanted to take a couple of friends to IFLY  and introduce them to the amazing adventure of indoor skydiving.  After her summer adventures with indoor skydiving, Lily couldn't wait.

Since we were going to pay for it, we told her that she had to include Mom, Dad, and Evie in the birthday party planning and that we were ABSOLUTELY going to fly too!

She chose her sweet friends Erienne and Amelia to join us and our party was complete.

We all got to the IFLY building and were so excited.  We got right in and met our instructor who gave us our flight suits, helmets, head covers, goggles, and ear plugs.  Don't we look amazing??

This handsome guy was the first one in the tunnel and did awesome.  He has a lot of surface area to control and it was a blast to watch him fly.

When I flew I found it shockingly simple to navigate.  Once I got in and got the hang of it, the instructor let me fly solo and I was able to figure out the up down, forward back, and side to side movements.  What a blast!

 

Evie was fearless and floated all over the place.  The operator had to turn the fan way down because she is such a lightweight and would have easily floated up to the top.  When she got to go for her high flight ride with the instructor, he had to snuggle her in really close to be sure she didn't get blown away from him.  She had a blast......and of course wants to come back to IFLY for her birthday.

Erienne is amazing and even though she was nervous, she didn't let that stop her and had a wonderful time.

Lily of course did her thing and rocked her flight.  She loves to fly and really enjoyed being the experienced kid.  What a great birthday choice.

Amelia is an incredible kid and I was so glad that Lily chose her to fly.  She was brave and bold and had a great flight!

 

The whole IFLY experience was over way too soon and everyone had an amazing time!

To finish the day we took all of the girls out for dinner.

 

We had ice cream and brownies and giggled A LOT.  4 girls is 4 times the volume, but man did they have fun, and Lily rang in year nine in style!

 Happy birthday baby girl!

I Heart New York

We are in it folks.  That thing called life. We are doing it, and we like to burn hot, fast, and fabulous.  We do all the things and then a few more.  We are really learning about balance right now and trying to figure out just how much is too much.  

At the end of the day though, we LOVE to go and do and live big!  

Bob and I have really wanted to take a trip out to New York City for a while now.  We really wanted to go for Broadway and Central Park and we really wanted to do it in the Fall.  Well NYC is a big trip with a lot of logistics and planning.  It was delayed by my foot and lots of other little things, but this year we made it happen and it was magical.

We made it happen this year because of this kid and his boyfriend!  

Connor is one of the kids that we had the opportunity to mentor years ago when we were involved with Love of Christ Lutheran youth ministry.  It has been amazing watching him blossom and become quite the artist, dancer, thespian, and human.  He is incredible and his boyfriend Benji is one of the cast members of the new to Broadway show "Moulin Rouge."  Both Bob and I loved the movie Moulin Rouge so this was the perfect excuse to not only see the Broadway show, but go to New York City!

We arrived in NYC and even in the rain connected with Connor for drinks, laughs, and some catch up time.  Wish it could have been longer!

We stayed in the Hotel Pennsylvania right across from Madison Square Gardens.  It was a quarter mile from Times Square, a mile from Central Park, walking distance to our theatres, and had a spectacular view of the Empire State Building!  Plus, we ended up on the top floor. Pretty cool.

Our first morning found us sleeping in and then donning our running shoes for an epic run in Central Park.  We ran our way through the crowds to get to the park entrance and then had an amazing 9 miles in the park. 

This run was so special to me because a year ago, I feared it would never happen.  Last year this time I couldn't run 10 feet without excruciating pain.  What a victory this was!

Our goal was to make it to and around the large lake in the center of the park.  We did it and the experience was truly amazing.  The weather was perfect, the colors were spectacular, and the company perfection!  So fun to adventure with this guy!

Of course, when we knew we were headed to Broadway, Bob took the opportunity to fulfill another of our dreams! In true Longmire form we said sure to all the things and squeezed in a matinee showing of the famous "Hamilton."  Bob and I have dreamed of seeing this show and have waited and hoped and tried to find affordable tickets.  The time was right and we just said "YES"  and it was everything we hoped!  Like Hamilton, WE DID NOT THROW AWAY OUR SHOT!

I loved the wine glasses, they were built in souvenir plastic wine glasses.  So fun!  And so special!

After the show (which was in fact INCREDIBLE) we stopped for some dinner before Moulin Rouge!

 

The Moulin Rouge Theater was unbelievable!  We could not wait to see Benji on stage and it was so much fun when they did a little pre show entertainment and he smiled right at us!  Well actually, Bob totally fan girl waved at Benji and he humored us with a smile!  We felt so cool!

In case the show wasn't cool enough, Benji invited us to come back stage with him and so following the Spectacular Spectacular we were treated to the VIP experience.  The stage and all of the nooks and crannies was really amazing.  It is so efficient and all of the actors and actresses are true professionals.  Benji is one of those humans that you just want to spend all of your time with and his gentility, talent, and kindness is truly a gift.  What an incredible experience to know someone in a major production on Broadway.  We felt spoiled and we are grateful to know both him and Connor.

After our night at the theatre, we turned in for our final day in the City.  We had a late afternoon flight so we spent most of the day walking the city.  Connor recommended we see the Morgan Library and Museum so we took him up on it and were so glad.  On our way we stopped by this beautiful church and were treated to a quiet moment of respite from the busyness and chaos of the City.

We made it to the Library and Museum and it did not disappoint.  It would take 5 blogs to talk about this place but in a nutshell JP Morgan, you know Chase Bank guy, well he was quite the man?  JP was an incredible financier, but also an incredible collector of rare books and artifacts.  He basically kept anything people deemed "not important," and the man compiled an astounding collection.  Some of the things he has..

3 copies of the Gutenberg Bible.

Original Cuneiform stones (as in the very first language ever discoverd!)

Letters written by founding fathers

Original poetry from the likes of Emily Dickonson.....

And one of the original casts of George Washington's face created by the sculptor commissioned to sculpt the Washington Monument in Washington DC.  Guys, we could have spent days here.  It was incredible.

We also got to see one of the foremost artists of charcoal portraits, John Singer Sargent, and his massive works displayed in the museum.  It was moving and inspiring.  As someone who loves photos and taking portraits, it spoke to me in many ways.

Our time was cut short by a flight time and we Ubered our way off the island and back to our kids.  The experience was everything it should be and I look forward to the day when we can enjoy Broadway as a family!