#41

There was a lot of deliberation put into what Michele and I would do for our birthday.  Because, when you are a twin - who opts to spend birthdays celebrated together, you need to collaborate on what the plan will be.  An ideal for us would be to have it: "low key", relaxed, a bit of indulgence, remembered and recognized (but not put on the spot) by friends and family (Facebook and texting are just about as perfect as it gets in most cases), and hopefully, something that would end up being a bit beyond the norm...aka - memorable.

On my birthday last year, the plan was to hit a movie and then do "Bullwinkles Family Fun Center".  I made it through the movie, but spent the rest of the day in bed with ice with a bad headache.  So, my expectations weren't that high to improve upon the previous year's celebrations.  ;)  But, still, Michele and I were hard pressed to come up with anything special.  The birthday landed on a Monday.  Our husbands were at work.  Our boys are at (gasp!) High School Camp at Harlow, so it would be just us and our girls (including Whitley) for the day - and even then, only half day for Mikayla as she had volleyball camp.  That, at least, gave us until noon to come up with something (and conveniently get Whit down for a nap in preparation for the exciting plans).  We toyed with heading west towards the beach for a hike and then it hit me that on my birthday, the place I'd most want to be would be in the Oregon woods - high enough to see the lava rocks and smell the distinct pine smell.  Sahalie Falls would fit the bill perfectly.

And, in an effort to end my long-windedness (and wrap up writing a blog post on my birthday) - I'll quote from Michele's Facebook description of how the afternoon went:

Road trip/hike with our girls: Watching "Cars 2" en route, McD's lunch, majestic waterfalls, camp songs while hiking, ice cream treats at country store....sharing our birthday with my best friend/twin sis, our sweet daughters and "honorary niece".... Thank you Lord.... sooooo blessed!!!!!

  

I'm pretty sure Michele and I were in a much more "blissful state" (seriously, knowing these pictures don't even capture a fraction of the beauty...how could you not be happy?) than our daughters were - (particularly Ellie and Mikayla), but hey, it wasn't their birthdays - and we knew we weren't asking too much of them.  All in all, a magnificent choice on what to do.  Throw that in with countless expressions of "Happy Birthday" from friends and loved ones, unexpected presents and visits from friends, take out (and free) Red Robin, and Michael and Baxter just walking into the house as a surprise to Michele - it's been a pretty ideal 41st birthday indeed!