Happy Birthday to me!

As many of you know, G-Dub and I just celebrated our thirtieth birthdays (he is only 9 days older than me). For his big day, I schemed with out of town friends to surprise him with a fun birthday weekend. This week, for me, Gary put together a wonderful day trip to Napa for a birthday ride on the wine train!


Since we arrived in Concord about 9 months ago, we haven't really gotten around to doing much exploring (I guess traveling through 23 countries last year got it out of our system!). I knew Napa wasn't too far, but it hadn't really sunk in that we're only a 45 minute drive away from the beautiful rolling hills of Napa Valley. Now that we've been, I hope to return much more often!

Anyways, our afternoon on the train was wonderful. We enjoyed a delicious meal in the elegant dining car... sampled fantastic varieties of red wine... made new friends... relaxed in the lounge and watched the countryside go by as we ate fresh creme brulee. We had a fabulous day, the most fun we've had just the two of us in a while!

Without further ado, here are a few more pictures from our afternoon on the wine train:












Thank you, Gary!

Happy Birthday, G-Dub!

Hooray! Gary's birthday weekend turned out to be a smashing success! (Hence the obvious lack of blogging over the past week)

A couple of months ago, Gary's best friend from high school, Jason, and his brother, affectionately nicknamed the Bonus, began to conspire with me about how to properly celebrate G-Dub's 30th. They each worked it out to fly out here (from Seattle and San Diego, respectively) to surprise Gary and enjoy a weekend of birthday fun! (For those of you confused by Gary's earlier post, Jason arrived a day earlier than the Bonus, thus prolonging the surpris-i-ness of the weekend)


My house overrun with testosterone, thus commenced plenty of birthday fun... the sort I participated in (going out to dinner, visiting Apple Hill), and the sort I did not (Halo tournaments, rasslin', Risk). They say guys need their buddies, and to see these guys reunited, I would definitely have to agree.


Since Gary and I have been married, we've had friend after friend move away, and his brother we barely saw during his stint at the FOX station in Minnesota. I can't speak for Gary, but the best part of the weekend for me was to look at the familiar faces around the table and appreciate the ease that comes with knowing one another forever. The more friends we've had come and go, the more I cherish those that remain. Hopefully it won't be another year or three before we do it all again...



THANK YOU JASON!!!! THANK YOU BONUS!!!!

(and thanks Bonnie for making part 2 possible!)