Birthday Month

David is accusing me of having a birthday "month" instead of a "day." But he also stresses that it is totally okay with him because he gets to enjoy all the festivities too. Such as: all of my kids gave me (us) a night at the Lavender Inn by the Sea in Santa Barbara last weekend. So we made a whole weekend out of it. We left early on Friday morning and drove straight to Solvang. After a yummy breakfast, we did some shopping and browsing at all my favorite shops there. (Yes, I've been enough that I have my favorites.) We left around noon and drove back to Santa Barbara. After lunch we did some exploring down by the coast. It started raining pretty hard, so we checked into the hotel. And waiting in the room for us was a gift basket from my friend Nancy. She even included lavender scones. Yum. (More about her later.) The hotel had a bottle of Martinelli's for us and even had a milk and cookie hour for the guests. Plus lavender scented bath products -- which I love.

Saturday morning we got up and it was sunny and beautiful outside. We walked to the beach (a whopping 2 blocks) and checked out the wharf, the marina, the breakwater, and the college.

But we had to be back to the room in time to see BYU thump San Diego. {They even let us have a late check-out so that we could see the whole thing.} Those San Diego fans are so rude and uncouth that it made the victory that much sweeter. But I digress . . .
Next up: shopping downtown. David was patient while I checked out shops like Sur la Table, jewelry, stationery, and other assorted "girl" shops. We did go into an Apple store, though, and a couple of manly stores.
Then:
We went to our friends' home. Joe and Nancy. They moved to Santa Barbara 11 years ago and although we see each other a few times a year, this was the first time we stayed at their home. We all have a favorite Chinese restaurant there, so off to dinner we went. And then we stayed up late just talking and catching up. We went to church the next morning with them and it was fun to meet her friends there. (Although she still insists that Manhattan Beach Ward friends are the best.)
We drove home after church and enjoyed the clearest day I've ever seen along route 101. Even the ocean was Caribbean blue.
So to our children: thank you for a fun get-a-way. We've decided we need to do that more often. Dad's birthday is in July . . . . .