What a weekend!

Cake!

My pre-birthday weekend was a lot of fun! My Aunt Joyce and grandpa were in town for my birthday party so my sister and I got to spend a lot of time with them. We laughed and a had a good time shopping and eating all weekend long. One of the funniest moments was watching my 94 yr old grandpa giggle as he watched my sister and me try to light a fire in her new fire pit in her backyard. He laughed at us until he tried it and realized how difficult it was....he was joking that when "you try to start a fire in a pit, you can't, but throw just one match out the window and the whole forest goes up!" Anyway, it was fun to see him giggle.

Saturday morning, my 1/2 marathon training continued. We ran just over 9 miles and it took us almost 2 hours. All 5 of us completed the whole course and we felt pretty good after that. After I got home, my family and I drove up to Santa Barbara for lunch on the pier and enjoyed the beautiful day.

Sunday, grandpa and I went to church while Jenny and Aunt Joyce helped my "Princess" friends set-up my birthday party. The party was very nice. It was a lovely outdoor garden party and they really made it special. I was so honored to have all those people there. I got so many nice gifts too!

Grandpa and meAunt Joyce, me, Grandpa, Jenny
Beautiful setting!

I have lots more pictures of the party. If you would like to see them, send me an email or post a comment here and I'll send you a link!

Surprise!

Here's me looking all surprised with the Admiral.

Yesterday, my boss had a branch lunch planned. I thought it was a little weird that he only gave us 2 choices of food and that we were even having a branch lunch to discuss work stuff, because we never do that. Anyway, in the morning, my friend told me that where we were going for lunch had an award's ceremony planned with the exact same menu items as our food choices....so I figured someone in my branch was getting an award. What I didn't realize was that it was me. It finally dawned on me when I walked into the room and saw my parents and my sister sitting there. What a surprise! Anyway, it's a nice fancy glass diamond shaped thing and a framed certificate with a really nice writeup. It is nice to feel appreciated!

Here's my family. No awards luncheon is too good for bunny ears!

Monterey Again!

Over the weekend, I went to visit my sweet college friend Jenn again. We had a great time. We went to see the new Indiana Jones movie, saw a 3-D IMAX movie at the new IMAX theater in Monterey, took Molly for a walk along the beach and saw jellyfish on the sand and otters off the coast (they were so cute!), ate good food and just hung out and relaxed. It was a lot of fun.

I also decided to cut my hair finally. It 's now shoulder length, which is easier to deal with for going to the gym and running and stuff. Which, by the way, we just increased our time and distance to 6.5 miles. I did it today without stopping, but I am tired and sore! I somehow managed to hurt my neck again over the weekend, but with my run today, everything else hurts more and my neck isn't bothering me as much. You take the good with the bad I suppose, and you take ibuprofen! And in other good news, my sister has a new job. She starts tomorrow and is very excited!