And a Happy Birthday It WAS...

I turned 30 a few weeks ago and my husband surprised me with this...

Canon's Digital SLR 50D

I'm in camera heaven.

Now I just have to learn how to use the thing.

My actually birthday was on Saturday but he surprised me with the camera on Friday because we were spending the day with GrandmaK and Grandpa John at Seaside. Sam wanted me to have a camera to use at the beach. I'm really glad he didn't make me wait until the next day. (Little did I know he was full of surprises.)

Here is a shot of Lola, Sam and Amelia at the beach in Seaside Florida. Seaside is where "The Truman Show" was filmed. It's a beautiful little town about an hour from us.

Saturday afternoon Sam and I had planned a date. The girls would stay home with GrandmaK and Sam and I would have the day to be together and celebrate me being 30. Yikes. We had a great afternoon. We went and rode these amazing go-carts (yes, I can still do things like that when I'm 30) and he took me to play mini-golf. Then we headed out for a nice dinner at Uncle Ernies.

After dinner (we had the award winning crab cakes as a appetizer) we went for a little stroll along the water. I had told him I just wanted to sit on the beach and watch the set so this is the beach we found. I was kind confused but just went with it because this was not even close to a real beach and we are about 20 minutes from some great beaches. Oh well, at least we were together.

so we played with the new camera and took some shots while the sun was starting to set. I was happy to be hanging out with Sam but kind of confused as to why he wanted to be done with dinner before the sun set if this was the beach he was taking me to. Oh well. I didn't question or complain, I just made the best of it. It was still fun. I mean come on, this is who I was spending my birthday with, could it possibly get any better? Could it?...

Yep, it could and it did. After a few minutes of walking on the beach, playing with the camera we found a cool boardwalk at a park up the beach and Sam talked me into standing on the board walk while he went away to get a better "shot" from by the water. The next thing I know I see both of my sisters sneaking out from under the board walk and running up to me. It was the biggest surprise ever. I couldn't believe they were there at the park...to see me! Yes!! It was such a great surprise. I couldn't believe it.

I was very happy to have them both there. Neither one of them had been to see me in Florida yet and there really were no plans in the near future to change that, so this was really exciting and really unexpected. I was was in complete shock. Happy Birthday to me!So after a lot of laughing and hugging and being excited we all piled into our car and drove back to my house to hangout. I was not planning this at the beginning of Sam and my birthday date but it was perfect.

When we got home there was another surprise. My husband had planned (with the help of a dear friend) a party for me at our house that I unknowingly walked into. Man, shocked again. It was great. There were families from my church that we've gotten close to in the 9 months we've been here. My aunt Barbara and uncle Gary were there as well as Sam's family. I couldn't have felt more loved or blessed or honored than I did. It was so wonderful to be surrounded by so many people that I love and who also love me.