Turning 30 Birthday Party

Some birthdays are memorable and should be celebrated…There’s the FIRST birthday…A milestone from being born…A 1 year old gets to put all their fingers in the icing and smear it all over their face…or they can scared to even tough the icing…The next biggest milestone of birthdays is when  you turn THIRTEEN…Now you are a teenager, not tween…The third biggest milestone is when one turns EIGHTEEN…Out of school, now you are an adult (or so you think)…The fourth milestone is when one turns TWENTY ONE…Now you are of drinking age..You can now go clubbing…You can now order drinks and be asked for an I.D. and you are proud to show that I.D….Next comes turning THIRTY…This is where our eldest daughter was at…She turned the big 30 and wanted to celebrate that fact…

We flew back to where she lives and spent 10 days with her and our granddaughters…We were there for her birthday and for Thanksgiving…The birthday bash was being held in the Inner Harbor, Baltimore, MD at Howl at the Moon…I was only at one Howl at the Moon in San Antonio, TX on the River Walk and it was just to get a Sex on the Beach shot…We got the shot on the outside of Howl at the Moon (HatM) so I didn’t know what the inside was like…

Some of us went down to the Inner Harbor early and walked around…We got some lunch prior to going to HatM at Hooters…The infamous Hooters which I found was no big deal at all…The girls were “okay” and the food was very late and cold…We walked some more around the Inner Harbor and then started heading towards HatM…None of us could go in to the place until 5:30pm to get a good table near the Pianos…A first experience for us but not for our daughter and some of her other guests…The fun part was that we were not far from HatM to where we were going to spend the night…Never spent a night at a hotel in the Inner Harbor, Baltimore…

Here is our birthday girl and one of her besties and her sister-n-law…

A Norway ship was in at one of the docks and it was free to go onboard…It would have been nice to go onboard but time was passing by quickly and we needed to start heading to HatM…

Ah, Ravenstown…Phillips Seafood…Hard Rock Cafe…The National Aquarium…The Constellation…Favorite things to see…

Shaking the booty dance contest…I can’t remember the song that the Piano guys played but we knew that this was our girl’s shaking booty dance song..There were 5 contestants and knew it was going to be close between our girl and the guy in red…but he wasn’t suppose to be on stage cause he didn’t have the right color armband…Our girl did win with a showdown between the man in red and her…She won a huge bucket of alcohol filled sweet drink that delicious that runs about $12 or so for the bucket of drink…

There are signs like this in about 3 areas of the room…A person would pay the price that was up in one of the corners to put a message up…I was lucky and got away with just paying $3 for my message…The price went from $3 to $5 then to $8 and so on…My brother paid $30 for his message to his life long partner, M, to tell him Happy Birthday (below)…I was real glad I got mine cheap…lol

 

This was the hotel we stayed at for the night…We had a pretty nice room and we thanked our daughter lots for the room…We had a blast and can’t wait to do it again at some time in the future…Maybe we will celebrate our birthdays this year although it would be more near Christmas/New Year’s but still in the same month… 

Easter 2011 – On our way to Texas

So at the end of Pt. 1, we were getting ready to dye eggs for the Easter Day egg breaking contest…Everyone got some hard boiled eggs and colors and off we all went decorating 5 or 6 eggs each with our own design so we knew who had what eggs…After all of that, the adults decided to play a game while the kids got to watch tv or do other things…

  

Easter Day…Richard and I drove to Crestview to spend the day with the family…and do some egg cracking…This was something I use to do with my dad every Easter and it’s lots of fun…The object is to collect as many eggs as possible to be the winner…There were 9 players so it took a while to play but it went fast too…It was lots of fun and laughter was plenty…

What you do is the person who started the egg cracking and who has won the next person’s egg, gets to pick which end to crack with…Both of you crack the egg with the same ends, pointed end to pointed end…On a count of 3, the winner waits for the player to “punch” their egg against the “winner’s” egg…If your end cracks reverse you egg and hit again…If the “winner’s” egg cracks, then that person must turn their egg over…If both ends are cracked, the person with an uncracked egg or just one end cracked is the new “winner” and they  move on to the next person to crack eggs…It’s a lot of fun and see which egg you think is the best egg out your bunch…This went around for a while until we had one winner…

 

Our niece, Bayne, won most of the eggs…So she was the winner of the egg crackin’ contest…Anyone for some egg salad?  hahaha!

Now it’s time to hide some plastic eggs out in the front and back yards so the kids can find them…What fun this was…We are so glad that Kevin and Kelli let us in on the fun of hiding eggs…but I had to take pics of where I hid mine cause I knew I wouldn’t remember where I put them…There was one “gold” egg with the money in it that I got to hide…and HIDE it I did…It was in plain sight but  hid well too…At the end of the “I give up” stage, we had to tell the kids “hot or cold” to let them know how close or how far away they were from the “gold” egg…It was fun to see them RUN to the area where it was…Such fun…Thanks Kevin and Kelli…

Inside the logs was the best egg of them all, the Golden Egg…Money was placed in this egg…It was fun watching the kids go past this egg many many times…

This is how close the 3 kids were to the Golden Egg…We finally had to tell them if they were HOT or COLD…Bayne just missed seeing the egg and Kevin was very close to finding the egg…However, it was Shyler who found the Golden Egg…It was so fun to watch…

The kids and all their eggs…It was just as much fun to hide all the plastic eggs and it was to watch them go over the front yard and the back yard…Trees, trucks, porches, wood pilings, near the swimming pool, in the garden, on the hills and every where we could find a good hiding place…Thanks again to Kelli, Kevin and the kids for letting enjoy the fun on Easter Weekend of 2011…Pictures and Memories, that’s what it is all about…and Family!

We love you guys and miss you all too!  Uncle Richard and Aunt Shelly…xxooxxoo

Various Pictures of My Youngest Over the Years…

My youngest, Misti, was born overseas at RAF Lakenheath…She weighed more than my other 2 children for a little thing that she is now…Her head was full of hair that curled when wet…Time flew by as she got older and some of my pictures that I do have have been scanned so they may not be the best quality…

Before we left England, a friend of mine back then had a little boy…His name was Jeremy…We were the best of friends and hung out together all the time until all of us left England…On one of the days before we left, we just happened to catch the following moment…Misti’s first kiss from a little boy…lol

Misti and Jeremy were only a month apart and it looked like he wanted to show that he was the oldest..lol  18 months old and already wanted a kiss….With such an adorable daughter, what little boy could resist…lol

 

I’ve keep some school pictures just as a remembrance since I knew that as I get older, my memory would fade…The picture on the left was when she was 9 and on the right was when she was 7…The face on the picture on the right reminds me of my eldest daughter’s youngest daughter…but as she grew up, Misti began to look more like her father’s sister…Spitting image of her to be exact…

I can’t tell you how old Misti was in these pictures…Her hair always went from long hair to short hair or from short hair to long hair…Misti always long beautiful hair just like I did when I was young…Glasses are always funny to see..I remember when I was in the 6th grade and had to get glasses….However, my glasses were bigger and gaudier than hers…

More school years went by and I can see some of the changes…My little girl is growing up so fast…Karate classes didn’t last long but at least she tried it…Nice kick there!  Wish I could have seen her do some of her Karate but it was at a time to where I couldn’t travel to see her do well and excel…

In 1999/2000 (can’t remember which year for sure), we spent time together on Skyline Drive…What fun we had and the closeness we had back then…That soon passed as she got older but I will always cherish our time and closeness…Pictures are always awesome and the memories that come rushing back…

Misti’s step-dad was going through some photos on a website and came across this picture…He was truly amazed on how much this picture looked like our daughter so I just had to keep this one…I would want to see her look like this, at any time…So, is it my daughter or not?

This isn’t the best scanned picture but it is one of my favorites…USA flag behind her and the pose is priceless…

 

After growing up and going through some changes, she met her soul mate, Chad…They got married and now have 2 gorgeous kids…I love to see how happy she is…We don’t get to spend a lot of time together but I think about her all the time…I may not be able to see her but it’s always nice to see pictures and see how she is doing…

I love you Misti and I always will forever…..Love, Mom  xxxoooo