Big Birthday Weekend

This weekend again proved to me that I am the luckiest girl on Earth. I have the greatest friends and family anyone could ask for. The perk of having your birthday fall on a Friday is that you have an excuse to celebrate all weekend! 

I woke up to happiness in the form ofStarbucks from my dearie roommate, Devon. I have no words for how much this lady impresses me.

Two pastries and a double chocolate chip frapuccino?!? I die.

Then I ran some errands and then went here -

This was probably my favorite birthday present.

Then on to time with the friends!

We started with a birthday party/going away party. Birthday for me (obvs) and a going away for our friend, Beth, who is starting anew in Boston.

Devon - flocked by dudes, as she should always be

Some of the ladies

This is Nate. We love Nate. He is so loving, considerate and a great friend. I adore him! Except for those giant plates of meat he's carrying.....

He bites

We love.

After about 4 hours of sleep, I woke up to drive to Orange, VA for some skydiving!

Meet Aaron. He made me do it.

Kidding! We talked about going skydiving for my birthday the first time we hung out. That was a while ago but he was good to his word and sure enough, we dove from the sky.

This is Chuck, my awesome tandem instructor dude.

The moment before push off

I laid on him inappropriately for probably a few seconds too long. My legs were far too jelly-like to stand up.

It was AMAZING! That was the word of the day, I said it probably 73 times while describing the experience. I would go again in a heart beat!

I kept trying to sign "this is amazing!" to the camera but when you're hurtling through the air at 135mph it becomes tough to open and close your hands quickly. The cameraman asked me what the heck I was doing when we finally landed so I showed him the sign in regular time. Makes more sense now!

Then........

Kayaking the Potomac River with some friends

(after a short 40 minute nap)

(walking zombie.....)

These fools tried to claim victory at the boat dock......

how foolish

We kayaked/canoed around Theodore Roosevelt Island and then pulled over to check out the monument to the man.

There he is. Kind of imposing, no?

It was fabulous! Kayaking the Potomac was also on our "to do" list for the summer so we killed two birds with one stone. Woot. 

That evening we had dinner in Old Town Alexandria at a delicious Thai restaurant.

Sunday afternoon we scheduled a picnic but the lightning forced us to nosh at our house.

I couldn't have asked for a better weekend. I feel so loved and taken care of - what more could a girl want?