It was my birthday on January 24th (which Dave made pretty well known over in these parts since he put together a very sweet “birthday hack” post). He had printed out all those nice things for me at breakfast that morning and I just sat there and read them with my heart brimming over with love for this family who puts up with all my craziness so well, and so loyally.

As Lu and I sat at the counter trying to maneuver our way through her homework the night before the big day I had to sneak this picture of Dave talking to us as he was doing some prep work, squeezing oranges for breakfast and with those pretty sunflowers he claimed the girls were giving me (but that he bought):

I love him.

Breakfast bright and early:

Claire’s sweetest-ever gift:

Seriously, heart melter. I love her.

As for the day, all I wanted to do was hike out in the grand beauty that is the desert right now. A couple friends and I had been working to find a chance to get enough time to hike Flat Iron, one of the grand-daddies of hikes around here in my opinion. And it just so happened that my birthday was the perfect day.

So we went.

I’m adding a couple of pictures from my Instagram story to help tell the story…sorry in advance if you’ve already seen these and are bored to tears 🙂

This was about 2/3 of the way up the mountain looking up to our destination:

Looking back down from that middle vantage point.

Made it to the top, amidst lots of boulder scaling and good, deep conversations:

Tonia even brought an orange to put a candle in at the top, ha!

This was looking over that top ridge back down…that little arrow gives you a little perspective when you see how far we came from our car:

We sat and ate oranges and talked and basked in the gorgeous spring day up at the top for a while…

…and started the trek back down:

Looking back up:

Closer to the parking:

Have I mentioned how much I adore the desert? (Ha)

Our evening plans filled with an art museum and dinner were a little foiled because of a surprise volleyball practice, but we still took a long-ish drive to try a new place for dinner. This was the sunset that greeted us en route:

And Dave has pictures from dinner I’ll have to add later…loved that Josh joined us there.

And then back to just these four at home for cake:

(sadly Josh couldn’t make it, but it was kind of like groundhogs day anyway since we had just celebrated his birthday and Claire’s too, in just the same spot 🙂

Let’s just take one last look at those gorgeous bday roses:

There we go. Thank you David, and everyone else, for all the kindness spilled out on the big day. Sending love right on back. XOXO

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5 Comments

  1. I had to throw a little hiking addict note in for you since you will be on Oahu sometime soon and if you need a wonderful de-stressing hike: between Honolulu and Hawaii Kai are a few valley residential areas and up one is the Kuli’ou’ou Trail that looks over the men’s East and back South of the island and is a must see for sure! There are some breaks along the way but can get steep but if Lucy wouldn’t want to the Bishop Museum downtown is beautiful, so cultural and has a giant whale hanging from the ceiling so definitely bucket list it! The art museum downtown has some beautiful modern art and a few classics from the likes of Van Gogh and other impressionists. I KNoW it will be wedding wedding wedding when you are there but if you or Lucy need a break from the insanity…. 😉

  2. I’m sure glad you are as close as you are! Not only because we are always the recipients of some of those oranges that produce pure gold but because we do get to see you often! I’ve fallen in love with that place too!

  3. I’m sure glad you are as close as you are! Not only because we are always the recipients of some of those oranges that produce pure gold but because we do get to see you often! I’ve fallen in love with that place too!

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