Wednesday, July 16, 2014

40 on 40

Today.....I am 40. And it is wonderful! I don't usually get hung up on my birthdays; I like to celebrate everyone else's birthdays. But there is something that you have to think about when it's....a) a BIG one and b) social media lets everyone know it's your birthday. You hear about women fretting over turning 40. I most definitely am not one of them. BRING IT ON!! My 30s were absolutely amazing and life is just getting better and better every day. I am so much happier with the person I am and the person I'm becoming - it's a constant work in progress. I'm finding my way as a wife, mother, daughter and friend to my friends. I've gotten more confident as I've gotten older and also more content with my decisions. Tim and I work together to make our life the way WE want it not the way someone else says it needs to be. And all of that is so so amazing. I could have never predicted where I'd be at 40 years old but it's pretty freakin' awesome!!

Now......how did I celebrate. Of course, there was birthday suffering. What is a birthday without birthday suffering?! =) I had originally planned to take my birthday off, then I wasn't going to (I think I had to take a day off for something unexpected) but then I decided that YES I was going to take the day off. Tim took the day off with me and we decided to ride 40 miles to celebrate my 40th birthday. No small task since it has been forever since we've been on our road bikes but I decided to let it be about the journey and time together not the speed. We decided to have a more relaxed ride by going on the Neuse River Greenway Trail. We'd heard from friends how great it was to ride that trail so we thought it'd be nice to ride without having to worry about cars (and hills!). So we dropped the boys off at Preschool and the Y, had a leisurely start to the day and then headed to the trail mid morning. 

The ride was awesome. We've never been on that trail so had no idea what to expect. We got to see some suspension bridges that my friend Mike designed. There were quite a few bridges on the route and with yesterday's rain, we had to be careful going over them. That was a good thing to keep us from going out too fast and burning ourselves up. At one point, we came around a curve and saw this field of sunflowers. I swear, it literally took my breath away. It was such a beautiful unexpected sight. We joked that it was almost like we were riding in France on my birthday! Maybe one day we really will get to ride in France. =) We rode into the next county, turned around and headed back - finishing with 40.25 miles. A little extra for good measure!! 

Tonight we went to Red Robin with the boys for dinner. Somehow that has become our favorite birthday dinner place. I didn't announce to them that it was my birthday but I sure loved having a turkey burger and fries as my birthday meal! It was a super wonderful day and I couldn't have asked today to be any better!

Here's to a great year ahead being 40!!

I woke up to lots of birthday love from Tim and the boys. 
 And Tim got me the compression socks I had been wanting. Yay!!
 Just like old times - bikes packed up and ready to go. 
 Pre-ride. I promise Tim was really happy. His smile is more flat than upward. =) 
 Tim on Mike's cool suspension bridge
 I had to stop at the first sunflower field. We had no idea it was just the "first" until another couple told us there was an even better one further down. 
 Just beautiful
 It's like we were riding in France!!

 Happy Birthday to ME! 
 Totally awesome
 Here we are!!
 Birthday suffering complete!

 Awesome birthday ride with my love
 This afternoon I was shocked when the doorbell rang and I got these awesome flowers from my friend Cary. Such a wonderful surprise- they're so beautiful!
 With Cole at my birthday dinner
 With Eli at my birthday dinner

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