Birthday Palooza Day 2: Wrapping it Up with Family

This is part three of my extravagant birthday weekend recap.  For part one go here; for part two go here.

Saturday morning I woke up around 7 - hurray for 2 days in a row of sleeping in! When my feet hit the floor, something about my toes caught my eye.  I went into the bathroom to get brighter light and realized that the polish on both of my big toes was ruined!.  Even though my feet had about 4 hours to dry before I put shoes on the evening before, somehow they hadn't dried and my beautiful pedicure was a mess.  So upsetting.

The inn is so posh and old that there are no microwaves, coffee pots, etc. in the rooms.  The lobby has huge urns of coffee and hot water available from 7 am to midnight. So I threw on some workout clothes and went down to get us coffee.  On the way I stopped at the front desk and showed the young woman working there my pedicure.  She told me to go right down to the spa and they would fix it.  What?  So I ran went down there and they told me to come back at 9:30 and they would fix it at no charge!  Now the whole day had taken a different turn from what I originally planned.  I hustled back upstairs, guzzled my coffee, then ran back down to the spa gym so I could do a quick 5K on one of the deluxe treadmills.  Hurried back upstairs to get showered so I could be back down to the spa for the pedicure fix. Whew!  But what service!  I may never be able to handle a Comfort Inn again...

We checked out and drove 2 miles to my office.  Why?  Because on Friday I had received a text from my boss telling me that flowers had been delivered to the office, so I went to pick them up.  So glad I did - they were from Little Helen!

See the charm hanging around the vase?  It's actually a pendant!

After arriving home, we relaxed the rest of the day - watched a movie, a couple of shows I had taped, and laid around and did nothing.  I did not clean one single thing or cook any meals - astonishing I know!  Finally it was time to go pick up my father-in-law and head over to Mama Helen's house for my family birthday dinner.  It was everything you'd want a family dinner to be and more - filled with good food and better than that, a loving family who is loads of fun!

Mr. Helen, my Father-in-Law, Sister-in-Law married to Baby Brother

This doggy Mouse was a guest and the little nieces LOVED him.  Loved him to the point that Sister-in-Law married to Little Brother had to put him in his crate so he could rest LOL!

The gang's all here (except for baby brother who is taking the photo)

The rest of the gang - Mama Helen with the babies.  Gracie, the ringleader said, "Make a funny face!" Just as the camera fired.

They think they're funny.  52 candles on the cake.  The kids loved it!

(Also can you tell this photo was taken by my sister's boyfriend who is a professional photographer?  Same camera but what a difference.)

My helpers for the gift opening, sweet Gracie and Samantha

They alternated until we got to this gift then Gracie said, "We all do this one together!"

Sammy Lou looking at my new cookbook with me.

She said, "Aunt Helen, this is for the kitchen!"

When my sister saw how good Paleo was for me she started eating the same way.  She bought me this cookbook for a gift, then used it so much herself she had to order another one.  LOL!  You know what excites me most about this new cookbook?  The author is a person who had even more serious thyroid problems than mine and got her life back by following a Paleo foodstyle!

The rest of the loot including a ton of gift cards, a hot pink crocodile case for my laptop and the best chocolate covered cherries in the world!

Flowers from Mama Helen!  This means I have flowers in every room on the first floor of my house right now.

Even in this day and internet age, I received a boatload of cards

 I love every single one of them!

Everything about this evening was spectacular.  Every bit as good as the luxury of the spa and inn, just in a different way.  In fact the whole weekend was absolutely fabulous - I really couldn't have been more surprised along the way, or asked for one more thing.