A Beach and a Birthday

Happy Birthday to Me!

35 years and counting, and I LOVE to say the "and counting" part 'cause you know what that means...I am alive and well, baby.  I will cherish every single birthday from now on because I am so happy to be having another one.

This birthday was a great one too.  We started off my birthday week in Paradise and ended up in Heaven. 

First...a little taste of Paradise.

 Mark and I spent a few glorious days in Cozumel, Mexico.  This was a trip over a year in the making.  Before I started my chemo journey, we decided that when the whole cancer nightmare was over, we were going to go to a beach somewhere to do nothing.  That's exactly what we did and it was wonderful.

We did do a few things besides sitting at the pool or on our balcony hammock.

We went to the Mayan ruins of Tulum.  The beach there was a-maz-ing.  

We also did a little SNUBA, which is like SCUBA, but instead of a tank you have a tube running up to a raft that has your air in it.  Hope that makes sense.

I was absolutely terrified of doing this.  I hate snorkeling and I have never had a desire to SCUBA dive.  But my sweet hubby really loves it and I couldn't let him go by himself.  We were also in one of the most beautiful places to dive in the whole world.  How could I not do it?

Well, I am happy to say that I survived.  I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it either.  I figured if I could go through 4 months of chemo, then I can pretty much do anything.

Mark was even able to fulfill his dream of actually SCUBA diving in the ocean as well.  I did not join him for that adventure.  I hit the spa instead.  :)

Well, sadly every vacation has to come to an end, but I wasn't really too sad to leave.  I do miss the warm weather and the feeling of total relaxation, but I missed my kiddos terribly.  So we left paradise and returned home to our heaven on earth.

I have not even unpacked yet because we had some serious partying to do!

 This is my little birthday buddy.  Our birthdays are 2 days apart so we usually end up celebrating together.  Today we had a little shopping excursion and got some new clothes and shoes.  

Then we really splurged and took all the girlies out for some pedicures.

They weren't too sure about the wax dip, but it was a lot of fun and now we all have some pretty good looking tootsies.

When we got home from our pedicures, I was surprised to see a wrapped package on the table.  Since we had been gone all week on a fabulous vacation, I wasn't really expecting any gifts.  So I have to give the hubby props.  He really surprised me and it was an even better surprise when I opened the present.

Behold my lovely new camera!  I was totally surprised.  I have been wanting a new camera for a while, and my other camera finally bit the dust a few weeks ago.  

Now I just have to learn how to use it...

Mark went right to work taking some fabulous pictures of the birthday girl.

 Thanks for the great present honey!  It really made my day!

It was so much fun to have my mom here as well.  She stayed with our kiddos this week while we were relaxing on the beach.  I really have to thank her again, because I know she would have loved to be relaxing on the beach with us.

THANKS MOMMY!

One last group of pictures.  A birthday is not complete without a special birthday dinner and dessert.  Here are two of my favorites.

Hawaiian pizza from the Pie and a Shaum Torte.

This has been my favorite dessert since I was probably about 9 or 10 years old.  It is a German dessert full of sugar and goodness.  Yum.  My mouth is salivating even thinking about it.

It really was the perfect day to end the perfect week.

I love birthdays!  Here's to many, many more of them!