Happy Birthday to...

ME!! Yep, it was my birthday last week. And I normally wouldn't post this, but I need to post what we did for my birthday. It is something I have been planning for awhile now. I actually was planning it for our anniversary the week before, but it had to be done over my birthday, exactly one week later.

I did it all by myself. I didn't tell Josh anything. Nothing, except that he needed to take the 2 days off of work. Now, 5 years ago, I NEVER would have been able to pull this off. It probably made him half crazy, but he survived. I packed everything for him, making sure not to forget anything. And I didn't. He carpooled to work that morning with Matt, and at 4:00 on Wednesday I picked him up at work. He was surprised to see me, but it had already been cleared for him to leave early. We got in the car, and we were off.

He was able to guess where we were going (there aren't many places you can go once you get on the I10 going West) but after that, Nothing. We had a good drive into Cali, and drove to good ol' Huntington Beach. Yep, where I grew up. I haven't been back there for about 5 years. I love HB. It was the greatest place to grow up. We checked into our hotel and got into bed at about 11:00. I finally had to tell Josh what we were doing. We had to have a plan for the morning. So where did we go?? No other than the Happiest Place on Earth!!! Yep, Disneyland.

We got there at about 9am and had a blast. The day was PERFECT. The sky was perfect blue with not a cloud in site. There was no wind, and a mere 70 degrees. We were in jeans, had on short sleeve shirts and we were never cold, and never hot. I'm telling you, the weather was perfect!!!

It was a little busy, but with no kids, we zipped around and went on all the rides we wanted to. Some of them twice. And, we even went on some rides we had never been on before. Like that big ship on the water--yep, never been on it. But we did this time. We had completely done everything we wanted, and left the park at 5:00. Completely satisfied with the $69 we paid for Josh, and the free entrance they gave me because it was my birthday. Did I mention they gave me a pin that said my name and that is was my birthday. Everyone said happy birthday to me that day. It was a perfect day.

We went out to dinner, drove down by the beach, and then drove by the house I grew up in. I am obviously a terrible photographer, because it was too dark and the pictures didn't come out. It was so great to see the house. It has been quite a few years since I have been there. I'm talking like, probably 6-7 years. The neighorhood looks beautiful, they had replaced the front doors, but other than that, it looked amazing. What a lucky place to grow up. I love that house.

I think we were in bed that night at about 9:30, and we were exhausted. We got up early Friday morning and had an appointment in the Newport Beach Temple at 8:30. We hit a bunch of traffic, but we were still on time. OH MY GOSH!!! If you haven't ever been to that temple, it is a must. It was absolutely amazing inside. The architecture in side was incredible, and it was just wonderful to be there and participate in a session. It was the perfect way to end our stay.

We were back on the road a few minutes aver 11:00 and home at 5:15. It was a great mini-vacation, and I hope we can take more of them.