During the course of a year, there are many days that give us a reason to either celebrate, party, or just eat more dessert than normal (where the calories don’t count!). Aside from Christmas, the biggest days that make the Awesomes feel like celebrating are birthdays!  Our children are our biggest blessings and while we try to celebrate them every day, their birthdays are at least one day out of the year that  they don’t have to share the spotlight.  The last Awesome birthday belonged to the middlest….Annalea.  She turned a whopping 8 years old.  I don’t know what happened.  One day she was crawling along the floor chasing Grace and now she’s running full out trying to evade her meddlesome baby brother. Time is passing….and as it does, it warms my heart to know that we are living such a special life and are able to share it with our beautiful kiddos.  I love spending every day with them from the moment they open their eyes until the moment we lay our heads on our pillows thanking God for another blessed day.

This birthday we found ourselves in San Diego.  The birthday girl decided that she would like to spend her big day at Seaworld followed by dinner out, then cake and ice cream at Sarah’s house.  So, that’s what she got! We had a big day of roller coasters, water rides, and acrobat shows with all the marine animals.

Then we went to a fun sub-pasta shop that served spaghetti in a sub!  That was a tasty experience!

After our bellies were full, we headed back to Sarah’s for the yummy looking chocolate cake that Annalea helped design 🙂 It turned out to be just as beautiful as it was delicious.

And of course, we can’t forget the best part….presents!  She got her big birthday present from Daddy before he headed off to work.  She got a phone! Then she got a butterfly kit, a new doll, and our friends made a donation in her name to help save an abandoned puppy at the animal shelter.  All in all, I’d say that her big day was a roaring success!

We spent some more time in Southern California after that, doing some sightseeing, swimming, and catching up with old friends.  When we used to live there, Ashlee lived next door to us and loved coming over and hanging out with my little Grace.  She was one at that time…and Ash was about 12.  Well, we were fortunate enough to be able to meet up with the grown up version who is now a beautiful independent young woman.  We had a lovely time having coffee and then walking around Seaport Village.  I was really happy to be able to spend that time with her 🙂

And as you all know, since we were there, there had to be a chiropractor in the mix!  I found, and was very happy with the chiropractor who services the San Diego Chargers!  Dr. Higgins. He was confident and knowledgeable and to the point. His specialty was Active Release Technique.  I had never had that performed on me before, but the act of releasing the stressed out muscles before doing the adjustment really felt good!  Plus it was just cool that the same guy who adjusts all these big football boys was who we were seeing!

We left San Diego shortly after that.  The only negative part to our stay was the ants.  There were ants everywhere!  Man was I glad to be getting on the road…hopefully to somewhere a little less buggy….little did I know that Carl had already planned our next stop….the giant Sequoia National Park!!