My 54th Birthday

I took the day of my birthday to be thankful. I have a great family and really steadfast and loyal, sweet friends and knowing that makes me realize how rich I am. So on my birthday proper (Friday, May 8) I was feeling pretty darn good. But then.......

Wow, wow and wow again. I am floored by my family. I mentioned to Jean that I would like to celebrate my birthday this year - meaning cake and family dinner. As far as I am concerned, after 50 the celebration is optional.

It evolved into a Saturday barbeque with friends. I had a meeting in the morning and when I got back I learned that we would be starting at 4 when the Boomers arrived. Perfect, time to rest and get ready. As I looked into the living room, little Jason Zimmermann came out of nowhere and he was shortly followed by his sneaky parents. Surprise! Tommy and fam had flown down. This was especially good as I had tried to get up there in April but was unable to.

Long story short, it was a wonderful day of friends, family and fun. Considering that I have been clinically depressed for seven months, this was a really nice little break and followed beautifully my feelings of gratitude the day before. What a blast we had. Grecia completed his citizenship requirement by doing the barbeque portion completely on his own. And to top it off, in the evening mountain man Dan showed up after a full day doing river guiding stuff. Who could top that? What a great group.

Elizabeth thinks I do not take good pictures of her but look at this - she is beautiful.


Jason is tempted to the dark side.


Jean and Elizabeth in matching Ts. Jean and Grecia did all of the work for the party.
Jean even made a chocolate cake from scratch. It was marvelous.


Boy World


Head slamming contest. It was so funny. Jason and Pasha
were slamming their heads into the pillows. Cheap thrills.


Tommy shows Jason a ladybug


Who needs horseshoes when you have arrows. We played William Tell.

Keith was the only one to hit the apple.


The adults - l-r from the top:
Don
Lori Carmen Jean (Laska)
Paul Tommy
Grecia Clare Elizabeth Jason


The kids - to remain nameless


Two wild and crazy guys


Chess-nuts
Tommy won with the infamous Queen moving like a knight move (which is, of course, illegal)


Jason bored


Beautiful necklace on crepey neck. Don and Carmen and kids
gave me this friendship necklace. I will treasure it always.

As if all of this was not enough, to top it off, after the friends had left and the family remained, the kids presented me with a ticket to Rockport for our June family reunion. It was so unexpected and so wonderful. I am overwhelmed.