Birthday Drive

This last weekend was my birthday (and my brother's), and to celebrate we planned a trip to the ocean and Corvallis to see my brother, Kesh.  The weather couldn't have been better, er, wait that's could have been better..... ;)
         Corvallis was nice and sunny, but I don't think it stopped raining the whole time we were on the coast. Soggy and windy but full of laughter. Which was ironic, considering I lost my wallet the first day of the trip... But this rather regrettable event did not totally succumb my will to be joyful, fortunately for me, I was surrounded by loving friends who absolutely refused to let me be a complete downer and ruin their trip!  My husband actually took me aside and gave me a much needed talking-to about the finer points of what it means to trust in God and not be an absolute you-know-what to my friends and my brother-in-law. (I'm prone to being a you-know-what to my brother-in-law, because he's just so nice! My own brothers call it like it is, he just holds it in because it would be rude to tell me why I should shut the heck up.... He's a good man. ;)

The fellow travelers on our journey to the coast consisted of my husband, his brother, my little brother, and my two friends; we all went to see my brother, so it was pretty much just a trip of my favorite people.

Laughter abounds.

I was so happy to have my friends join us this time, I am always the only girl on our road-trips, and it bites, just a bit. We didn't get to ride in the same car for long, but we got to take walks on the beach, and laugh in the rain, and run in the wind, and warm up over coffee and chai.  We played cards (a must!) and told stories and took selfies.

I really do love these girls and I love to laugh with them.  I've never had friends who have taken an interest in making sure I have a great birthday, but these girls made it their mission, and wow did these succeed!

the MU at OSU

Jasper delighted us with Chopin or some such famous pianist...

aw, spring!

It was really great to see Kesh! I love my brother and I had really missed him! And I do now, I wish that we could be closer more often.

Fossils! I love the ocean!

I have wanted to eat Marion berry cobbler for weeks!!

the boys digging in to my dessert

coffee and a hot breakfast were much needed after the first soggy night

hotdogs for dinner! and shoes! gotta dry those TOMS!

Jen, dancing around as usual

We hiked as the boys played disc golf in fern gully...

balancing act!

a rough skinned newt, poisonous to the tongue.

this man caught rock fish in his crab trap, and threw them back!! Crazy..

Did I mention we were camping? In tents? By the end of this trip we had disc golfed in a rain forest, been almost blown off a pier by the wind, told stories around a campfire, roasted dinner and s'mores on that same fire, eaten at Mo's, and gotten our tents and everything else soaked.  My feet were not warm the entire time. And yet in some strange way, it was perfect.

Life is a series of events. They all combine, along with your choices, to make you who you are.  I can't control everything that happens to me, but I can control how I react to it. I can be a so-and-so, or I can be a follower of Christ.  This trip was full of the good and the bad, but I wouldn't go back and change it, because it is all part of living.  And if anything, what I want most out of this life, is to really live it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh and P.S.

Happy Birthday to this guy!!!!

Yes, I'm feeling twenty-twoooooo!!!!