A day in the life....

Our day yesterday:
Start out with a hot cup of coffee (heavy on the cream) and homemade blueberry muffins (which we eat before I got a chance to take a picture of them)

After a weak attempt on my part to do Week 5, Day 3 (the first long run) of Couch to 5k, we headed off to a very Portland event - Tour de Coops. Local homes open up their chicken coops so people can come look at them.
Our favorite was this one:

This lady had a beautiful yard, although waaay too many chickens (23):

We're considering getting chickens for the new house next year, and we learned a lot. I'm not worried about the chicken part, but building a coop feels overwhelming! The idea of our own fresh, cage-free, organic eggs is very appealing though.
After a quick trip to the grocery store, we headed home to get ready for the annual costume/birthday party of a friend of B's. This year's theme was Gods and Monsters. B went as Jesus (a huge hit) and I went as a goddess.
Two of my favorites were the woman just weeks away from her due date that was Buddha and the woman that was Vishnu...or was it Shiva? Either way, her costume was awesome and she made it!

This guy was funny and was all over reenacting how the Romans hate Jesus. He had a bow and arrow and randomly shot at B all night.

The entire gang:


This was our first year we went to the party, and we had a blast. It went into the wee hours of the night, and I'm tired today. But packing beckons, so I should get moving.

A new decade

Last Saturday (June 25), I turned 30. As the date approached, I felt neutral about it. I wasn't dreading being 30, but I wasn't excited about it either. However, tons of fantastic people in my life changed that! Not many people are in my office on Fridays, so Thursday morning I walked into work to see this:

and this:

That is FOUR dozen donuts from three different local bakeries, plus 30 donut holes. Another coworker added a dozen bagels to the stack shortly after this picture was taken. Then I got an email of this:

from my coworker that works in the building down the street.

It turns out that this was a huge group effort that involved almost a dozen of my coworkers. I felt so loved! Several people said it was the biggest birthday celebration they had seen at the center....all for me! It definitely cheered me up on the way to 30! I should also add that B sent me the succulent garden you can see in the black planter on the top shelf. I was so surprised to get the delivery on Tuesday, since he is NOT a flower guy. He said it reminded him of our recent trip to Arizona (still need to blog about that) and included a very sweet note.

My actual birthday included the adventure of a lifetime, which was my gift from B. We went skydiving!

It was a beautifully sunny day. From the top of the plane ride (13,000 feet) we could see all the way to Mt. Shasta in Northern California. Although I was prepared to be really scared, it wasn't actually very scary at all. Everything happened so quickly. The "training" was about a minute, and before we knew it we were packed tightly into the plane, strapped to our instructor.

The instructor did all of the work. Once the plane door opened, everyone was out in about 30 seconds. There was no "jumping" involved. He threw us out of the plane before I even had a change to think about it. The first second was disorienting as we tumbled, but I was quickly distracted by how cold it was. My hands were freezing! We were in free fall for about a minute (although it felt like 20 seconds!) and then he pulled the chute. That was a peaceful and quiet float back down.
Part of our group:

B is the green chute, I'm the pink one:


Everyone asks us about the landing. It was very smooth for both of us. You keep your legs up until the instructor says to stand up. It was really easy and not jarring or rough in any way. All in all, I'm really glad I did it. I don't think I'll do it again, but I would recommend that people try it at least once. It was quite an adventure, and a great way to kick off 30!