One Day Into Year 38!

My son asked me the other day what my perfect day would be like. When I described my perfect day -- spending time with my family, indulging in a good book -- he thought it sounded pretty much like a regular day. And that's okay, that regular days can often be described as perfect.

But my birthday! A day to top many, many perfect days. My birthday was pretty fabulous this year. I'm not even sure what to pinpoint... just had a splendid day all the way around.

To start my day, Cheryl left me an early morning birthday greeting. Saw this first thing on my way out the door to the Farmer's Market. I blamed it on hubby at first, but he somehow hadn't even seen it!

We rode bikes to the Farmer's Market and loaded up. The folks with the French Bakery from Hartford where there (almond croissant, yum!) AND we were able to get some hothouse tomatoes. First tomatoes of the season. Since my freezer ran dry in January, I've been living a pretty sad, tomato-less life.

Got home to this! Another birthday banner. And GIFTS! The girls bought me my very first MP3 player. New socks (much needed socks) from hubby. And little boy bought me my very own sleeping bag for my birthday camping trip. We packed our bikes and were on the road before noon.
Traditionally, we've not been much of a camping family, but the kids have been talking about this for a while and we have friends who invite us regularly, so we decided to see if we could do it. We did. We had a marvelous time. We've already made up a wish-list of supplies/improvements to our current gear that will make the next trip even more enjoyable.

Biking. Swimming. Sitting by the lake. Cooking over the open fire (actually not much cooking because I left the hotdogs at home). Luckily I threw in some deli ham at the last minute for sandwiches. I did remember the marshmallows and chocolate, however. Hooray for birthday s'mores! (I usually don't do marshmallows, but I did enjoy one s'more.)

Little Boy may have had the best time of all. He spent the entire evening playing in the water. He "cleaned" a lot of rocks. He fell in more than once. I don't think I've ever seen an individual SOOO dirty!

Sunrise this morning from our tent at the edge of the lake. We had stars overhead, and lightening in the distance for most of the night. It was far enough away we didn't even hear rumbles, but it did feel a bit like a strobe light at times. I was probably awake a dozen times. I wonder how many times I would have to sleep outdoors before I could sleep through the typical sounds of nature. Frogs. Coyotes. A dozen different versions of clicks, peeps, and cricks that left me straining to listen harder and figure out what I was hearing.

Good times. Perfect day. Life at 38 is looking pretty good.