Happy Birthday!

  
We made the trek down to California for Memorial Day weekend and had a great time! It was my aunt's 50th birthday on Saturday so we drove down to surprise her. Needless to say on the way down on Friday she called me very suspicious that we were on the way down there. Apparently my email I sent before I left made her suspicious. I still maintain it was a normal email and she's just too damn clever for her own good! (I just re-read the message I sent and see nothing out of the ordinary in it!)

  

We stayed in a really cool and funky beach house in Rio Del Mar overlooking the beach. (it's the house on the left in the top picture.)  It was a very pretty spot with an awesome view of the town and the beach.

Mom and Dad ended up surprising us by showing up late Friday night. Bryan and I thought they might be arriving for the big event, but when they weren't there when we got there and weren't there by the time we went to bed we thought we must have been wrong. That was a fun surprise. We spent Saturday playing on the beach which the kids loved and then went to the party at this yummy restaurant for the party.

    

On Sunday mom and I took over the kitchen and cooked dinner for 18 people! We had Dad (aka "Top Chef") BBQ chicken and then we made Grilled Corn Salad, a green salad, Mac & Cheese & Chile Cheese Rice. We finished the meal with fresh strawberries and watermelon. (We were in strawberry country after all!) I love going to the produce market when we are there and seeing what yummy fresh vegetables they have there. Their fruits and tomatoes always were better than what I can find at home. I am pleased to say however that with all the Farmer's Markets available here in Portland that our fresh local produce is starting to be as good as what we an find in California. However finding yummy fresh local tomatoes for 87 cents a pound right now is unheard of here! 

All in all we had a great trip. It was WAY too short, and the drive was WAY too long (11 hours), but it was an easy drive and our books on tape (cd actually) made the time pass faster. It was great to see family we haven't seen in forever again, even if my aunt's kids are all taller than I am now! 

Now it's back to the real world for most of us. Gabi left today for the rest of the week at outdoor school. She should have a great time and I think her brother is glad for some time away from her for a while. At least the weather is supposed to hold so she should have a great time at the coast. 

Oh yeah, and when we got home my peonies are blooming so I'll have to take some pictures of them and post them for all to see. My hanging pots are in full bloom too so I'll post them tomorrow so you can see how pretty the front yard looks now!