This year, not unlike most of the others, I celebrated my birthday over about a 2 week period. It started with a surprise cake from my family the night before and led into breakfast the day of. A group of my friends got together during the week for dinner and drinks then came the joint birthday weekend celebrations with Vicky. We made raspberry cupcakes with lemon buttercream frosting and chocolate cupcakes with chocolate cream cheese frosting for the BBQ that we had. I was too busy eating the cupcakes to take a picture so I owe a big thanks to Todd who got this photo of our creations.

When in Vermont for Alex’s college graduation my family and I decided to take a trip to Church Street in Burlington. I always love to people-watch in Vermont because you really can find some fantastic characters. This masked man played the didgeriedoo especially well!

4 years ago I drove from Michigan to Vermont to watch Alex graduate from high school. This weekend I drove from Massachusetts to Vermont to watch her graduate from Middlebury College. It’s amazing how much has changed in my life in the past 4 years and in her’s as well. Congratulations Alex, I could not possibly be more proud.

I find it funny that I found and took a picture of the only thing even remotely non-automotive at the swap meet. I thought these little fishes were cute.

I’m not sure how I got tricked into thinking this would be a fun time. First of all, I didn’t know that people don’t actually ‘swap’ things at swap meets. At least there were things to look at other then old rusty car parts. Reuter got some seats for his motorcycle and Ryan got some pretty cool working walkie-talkies. You should see the antennas on these things!

Vicky and I ran the Miles for Hope 5k this weekend – an event held to raise funding and awareness for brain tumors. We surprised ourselves and ran the entire trail in about 25 minutes. It could have been the adrenaline but I think it had more to do with the feeling of inspiration you get when surrounded by a group of such incredible people.

This is the absolute best way I can think to spend a Saturday morning. The horse in the photo is Guinness, the 6 year old Warmblood that I’m leasing right now. I have the pleasure of going out a couple of times a week to ride this adorable guy. He’s still a baby but he has a heart of gold.

I am not the strongest person in the world. I hate to admit it, but push ups are a challenge for me. So when I thought about pulling myself up a rock wall, I was fairly certain it was going to be a struggle. I was pleasantly surprised to find that climbing can be done more with leg strength than arm strength. The first photo is of me climbing and the second is when the instructor told me to jump off the wall to see if Vicky could successfully catch me. Seems like kind of a high stakes test but thankfully, she passed with flying colors.

I am not afraid of heights, not even a little. I am however absolutely positively terrified of sharks. Flying 400 feet in the air didn’t phase me in the least, but you better believe my eyes were scanning the water for a hungry great white.

This is how snorkelers say, HI MOM!!!