happy birthday to me! the best week (and a half) ever!!!!!

my birthday started strong this year! i got together with the laurels and priests to make what would become an award winning film on dating! and the girls surprised me with my favorite treat - chocolate cake! you guys are the BEST, seriously, best girls ever! next it was off to Cali so the kids could have a 10+ day grandparent extravaganza! while Jason and i got a little r&r. so within one week, i went from this little outing:

to this BIG outing:

um, hello....this was the best week ever! i am totally spoiled!

so, Jason and I spent 11 days basking in his old stomping grounds: Oahu, Hawaii.

it was magical for oh so many reasons. a) we were back on the North Shore. i love to go back to Santa Barbara, the nostalgia sweeps over me instantly and I feel like a kid again. so i know this must be how Jason feels on Oahu. b) we were alone. that's right, no kids! wow. i'm not one of those people that needs a weekend away here and there to maintain sanity. so, i've never had one. but it was time, and it was awesome. c) the weather was perfect. if you've ever been to Hawaii, you know this isn't always the case. (right Cooks?)

the only downside was that the waves were less than perfect. poor Jason. five years since his last surf trip, and he was basically skunked.

oh well, that left us more time to do things we've never done in Hawaii before, new hikes, new tourist attractions, the South side (my future home, i hope), and a Magnum PI tour, courtesy of me and Wikipedia! i think i'll have to do random posts about our trip in the coming weeks, to remind me of how wonderful it all was. until then, Aloha!