43

I celebrated my 43rd birthday on May 7, 2022. I had the second best birthday of my adult life. (My favorite birthday of all time was my 39th birthday. I spent the day on my favorite Pacific coast beaches.) 

On this birthday, I knew that I wanted to spend the day at the ocean and so after Elizabeth's soccer game Elizabeth, Bobby, Andy, Sarah, and I headed out to the ocean. (Josh was at school.) I had such a good time walking on the sandy beach and looking out into the horizon at the seemingly endless ocean. Hour after hour was spent walking up and down the coast and sitting in a beach chair letting the waves hit my ankles as the tide went in and out. 

Elizabeth made homemade birthday decorations for me - which I absolutely loved. 

The decorations in this picture also have a strand going along the wall to the right. Elizabeth was up until the wee hours of the morning creating these decorations for me. I loved them so much that they are still hanging up in my dining room. 

I have been asking Bobby to fix my camera for me as it has been broken for a while and I love taking pictures of my family. My camera has been an essential part of documenting my parenting journey. Bobby bought me a new (to me) camera for me instead. This one coming with a bunch of fancy accessories that I did not have with my old camera. 

Elizabeth had a 9 am soccer game the morning of my birthday. I did not want her to miss her game, so we watched her play and then headed out to the ocean from the field. 

Elizabeth was sure to remind everyone that it was my birthday as she created sand art the whole time we were at the ocean. It was very sweet of her. 

It was supposed to rain in the afternoon at the beach on my birthday, but we ended up having about 5 minutes of rain fall on us. We watched as the storm headed out over the open water and spotted this rainbow on the horizon. It was really cool.