A Week of Birthday Celebrations

I turned 26 last week and I told Mike I wanted a week full of birthday celebrations! :) haha. I was totally kidding, but it ended up that way. After reviewing my week, I noticed that it has a lot of FOOD involved. I swear all I have done is eat and eat ever since I got here. That has got to change! Anyway, here is a little of what we did for my birthday.



To start off, I went to San Francisco to meet my sister and her husband and daughter to see an exhibit of Annie Leibovitz at the Legion of Honor Museum. She is a famous photographer--takes lots of pictures of famous people (like the recent scandalous photo of Miley Cyrus...) Anyway, it was a great exhibit--lots of neat pictures. Afterwards, we went to a sushi restaurant for lunch--YUMMY!


On my birthday, I got to go out to lunch with some friends. We met up in Walnut Creek for some crepes! Delicious! It was so fun to catch up with everyone! I stopped by Mike's work later where his parents had gotten me a cookie bouquet. Yummy! Mike surprised me with movie tickets to go see the new Indiana Jones. And we got to go baby free! Mike's dad watched Abby (while she was sleeping--or so we thought--she woke up an hour after we left and cried until Mike's mom got home!) while we got to go see the movie together. I don't know why, but I was exhausted, so I had a hard time staying awake. But the movie was pretty good--it had a lot of similar elements from the old Indiana Jones movies, so it was entertaining. Before the movie, Mike's dad took us out to eat at Chevy's--another scrumptious meal. I was stuffed by the end of the day!


Friday was a low-key day. I did open presents in the morning because we didn't have time on my real birthday. I got some great presents from my parents--some clothes and two new books I've wanted to read. And an adorable purse my mom made! Abby took a 3 hour nap in the morning, to make up for her no-sleep on my birthday. We partied too hard for her!


Saturday morning we went out to brunch with Mike's family--his 2 brothers and their families live in the area, so we all met up at Vic's All Star Kitchen! I had the yummy french toast and was stuffed until that evening when we went to the big Oakland A's vs. Boston Red Sox game. What a game! We had awesome seats and great company. It was Abby's first baseball game and she did great. I was nervous about the crowds (it was PACKED!), but she did pretty good. She just stared at EVERYTHING, trying to take it all in. She got kind of scared when the crowd yelled or screamed, but for the most part, she did awesome! We had a great time!


And then today, we had dinner together with Mike's family (they come over every Sunday and Mike's mom always makes delicious meals!). Mike made me a chocolate cake from scratch (a family recipe), and I got to blow out the candles. And that concludes my birthday week! What a fun time! If only birthdays lasted longer than one day.....every day should be a celebration! Here are some pictures to share....enjoy!

Outside the Legion of Honor museum....pretty cool sculpture if you ask me. Abby's head got cut off--but she's there!

Lunch with the girlfriends! Abby's friend Max is there, he is behind the menus in the middle. :)

The cute purse my mom made. It can hold Abby but probably not for long! She is getting big!

Abby helping me open my presents. She really likes the paper!

Breakfast with the Halls.....you can never have too many Halls around! :) We're the life of the party!

Abby's first A's game! The A's ended up sweeping the Red Sox this series---sorry Ryan (Alldredge)....the A's are just too good for your Sox! :)

My birthday cake, compliments of Mike. Our sister-in-law said it looked like a flat tire. haha :) But I said, it doesn't have to look pretty as long as it tastes good! And boy was it yummy!

Some random pictures we've taken since we've been here.....

Abby loves the grass. She is so interested in the pointy blades and can stare at it for hours. She doesn't even mind sitting on it!

Abby and her friend Max. It was pretty hot when I first got here so we tried to take the kids swimming, but had a hard time finding an available pool. That never happens in Irvine! So we brought the kids home and let them play together for a bit. They loved these rings!

Our sweet little Abby--I seriously cannot get enough of this girl. She's so fun and lovable....I don't know how I ever lived without her in my life. :)

Finally, a video of Abby waving. My brother wanted me to post another video of her, so here it is bubba.....Abby loves to wave, although I don't know if she really knows what she is doing. But it is still cute.....Other Abby news: she eats baby food three times a day now. She is one little oinker when it comes to eating. She will eat anything on a spoon! She is getting close to wanting to crawl. She leans over when she is sitting up and puts her arms down and kind of leans on them, but whenever we put her on all fours, she cries. Oh well--I am in NO HURRY to have her crawl! :) We are still loving every moment with her!