- MY BIRTHDAY LUNCHEON AT WORK

Today my co-workers spoiled me. We ordered lunch at Tijuana Taqueria (Dr. bought my lunch), Kathy brought me roses, Shandra made my birthday cake, and everyone chipped in and bought me a $70 Kohl's gift card.

Posing with my birthday roses.

Everyone was very secretive about my birthday cake and had been whispering and giggling for a couple of days. They asked me to close my eyes and lift the lid. They had put plastic bugs all over the top. This was Shandra's brilliant idea. She recently found a HUGE dead cockroach outside and brought it in to the office and put it on Alice's keyboard and then chased me around the office with it. I DO NOT LIKE BUGS!!!!

Thank you Dr., Judy, Alice, Kathy, Shandra, Peggy and Karen! I love you all! Thanks for making my birthday so special!

- MY GRANDCHILDREN

Angie sent me a CD with some new photos of Kelsey, Abbey and Jack for my birthday. These are a few of my favorites (actually, they're all my favorites ;) I sure love my grandchildren. They are such a blessing in my life! Thank you Angie!

- MAKING OUR WAY BACK HOME

Our check-out time at the hotel was 11 am. We checked out at 11:05 ;) We took the food we bought last night and drove to the top of Mt. Diablo in Walnut Creek (something we've always talked about doing) and had a picnic. It was 102 degrees but we found a shady spot and enjoyed our lunch while swatting at all the bees who wanted to enjoy our lunch too.

The view from the top was beautiful.

Fruit, bread, cheese, crackers, cookies and sparkling cider. Yum!

We stopped in Concord to visit with Kurt's mom. It was so nice to see her.

Despite all of her trials, she's a trooper and a real example to me of enduring to the end.

- MY 48TH BIRTHDAY

We are never home for my birthday since it falls the day after our anniversary. We celebrate wherever we happen to be and then have a belated family birthday celebration when we get home.

This morning I woke up to breakfast in bed at our hotel. What a nice way to start the day!

Kurt took me shopping at the Westfield Mall in Fairfield. He let me go crazy in one of my favorite clothing stores and then bought me my yearly birthday running shoes.

We had lunch at Chick-fil-A in the mall and then drove back to Vallejo and spent the rest of the day at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom. It was blazing hot (over 100 degrees) but we had a good time.

- 28TH ANNIVERSARY - UP, UP AND AWAY!

We woke up early and drove to Napa. I had no idea what was happening until we pulled into the Napa General Store and saw the "Balloons Over The Valley" vans parked in front. I was SOOO excited! This is something that I've always wanted to do. We drove to a vineyard in the Napa valley and there were 3 balloons being inflated. We were assigned to the most gorgeous, colorful balloon there! We climbed in and before I knew it, we were floating high in the air.

This is our balloon. We had 16 passengers - kind of a tight squeeze, but everyone was so nice. We took pictures of each other and had fun listening to everyone's comments as we flew over gorgeous scenery and beautiful mansions.

This was our pilot Jonathan. He's from England and has 25 years of flying experience. He was a British Royal Navy helicopter pilot before he started ballooning. He has flown passengers over the Australian Alps, over the Big Game of the African Plains, the Temples of Japan, and theme parks of Central Florida. He was hilarious.

Sunrise over the Napa Valley. Beautiful!

Vineyards and wineries as far as the eye could see.

Vineyard close up.

It was the PERFECT morning for ballooning. Not cold - slight breeze. There we 11 other balloons sharing the sky with us this morning.

Tami and Kurt at about 3,000 feet.

One of the many mansions we flew over - including estates of Mario Andretti, Robin Williams, Francis Ford Coppola and Robert Mondavi.

Our chase car. They drove below to see where we would land.

This was an incredible experience for me! I loved every minute of it!

This is the field where we landed.

Our chase crew coming to ensure our safe landing.

Deflating our balloon.

I was amazed at all of the effort and manpower that went into getting us off the ground and bringing us safetly down. No wonder this is such a costly adventure!

Here we are safe on the ground. Thank you Kurt for such an amazing morning. Thank you for helping me check one more thing off my "bucket list." You spoil me!

We were treated to a delicious brunch when we got back to the General Store. I would HIGHLY recommend flying with this company. They treated us like royalty.