twenty-seven

i do have thanksgiving and other fun things to blog about but my laptop crashed with all of my pictures.  i'm currently getting it fixed so for now, this will have to do. 

not even in my fanciest dreams could i have imagined a birthday like this year's.

here is how it played out:

a present wrapped up at 4am telling me we were going on a hot air balloon.

drive to temecula with the sweetest guy who took the whole day off from working in the hospital.

  the crew blew it up, we watched and got excited!

then we hopped in, and started to slowly float up.

it was a feeling of weightlessness. truly amazing and enthralling.

we flew over 2,000 feet of vineyards, homes, farms, mountains, lakes... just pure beauty!

i don't remember either of us not smiling.

pure joy.

a once in a lifetime experience we've wanted to check off our bucket list!

we landed in someone's backyard due to the winds which made it more interesting.

they provided some grapes from the vines and apple cider to celebrate.

 after, brady had another box for me to open!  i was shocked! i thought that was it...

glen ivy hot springs! i have always wanted to go. 

they have 19 spas and pools.  he printed out all the fun things we could do.

we tooks naps in the lazy pool, sat in the sulfur spa, tried out all the spas, went in the sauna and even used the red rock mud!

we shared a yummy salad and relaxed some more.

this was my view at lunch. a lovely one.  he is such a fox.

after, he had another surprise.  for real. another one.  by this time it was around four pm, and i had no idea what was next. 

 we drove through a gorgeous sunset down to my favorite thai joint...

where we had one of our first few dates.

yellow curry and pad shrimp thai as well as their lettace wraps.  whoa nelly! this place is good!

he had another surprise for me.  he said i had to run back to where my parents live and grab something. naive to most things, i had no idea he had plotted a surprise party with my family waiting back there.  all siblings!  it was so fun to see them all there.

they were way too generous and gave me sweet gifts including this dress they had me change into. perfect, because i looked like i was playing in mud all day :)

we played a game elise and drew made:

pin the picture of melissa + brady on melissa + brady!

so we did. all of us!  so clever those capeners are. they actually drew us out and cut out our pictures.

matching in-laws! yo-ho yo ho

they had me stand in front of brady when it was his turn...

linds won by getting brady's picture right on my face! $10. well done linds!

brady made the most amazing yellow cake with chocolate frosting.

gluten free.

four layers.

so impressive.

{i tried to eat the whole shebang, because it was so good... but it worked me.  that is a 3x3 of heaven on a plate.  you're incredible brady.}

i am so grateful for those that made my birthday great. spending the day and night with the most important people in my life made me realize how blessed and fortunate i am to have such good ones in it.

on another note, so far i've been trying out 27.  it still has it's kicks. 

 i think this year will be a really, really great one!

thank you again to everyone. 
much love,
m