Bonjour, Good morning. How are you guys doing? It’s almost spring here, flowers have started to bloom, shades of pink,yellow and whites are slowly making an appearance, you can hear bird songs as early as 5 am and wait for it, the sun is now setting at 6pm 💕!!

I almost didn’t write this post and then I came back to finish what I had started a week ago.In this space I share personal stories and happenings of my day to day life with you guys. Once in a while I will indulge in a bit of self admiration and if talking about my birthday means that then so be it!

Now that we have cleared that up let’s talk about MY BIRTHDAY.

Manifestation

I had the most wonderful birthday this year. Honestly, it turned out be one of best birthday weeks ever. All that talk about manifesting “if you say what you want out loud and many times over, the universe conspires to send it your way ” Guess what? It bloody works.

Since the beginning of this year I have been manifesting, manifesting positive vibes, saying out loud to myself that I am going to have fun, I am going to smile loads, laugh more, love more, be more. I am basically going to have a ball. I tell myself everyday it’s going to be a great year.

Not all days are same but when you put that thought out there, it stays and it grows stronger by each passing day. Call it growing up, call it slowing down, call it just taking a pause to appreciate the moment we are in, define it however you want. At this moment in my life, this is me. I am taking a pause, a moment of quite and peace for myself and I am enjoying it!

This birthday week had all the elements that could wrong. The cold snap which was quite brutal, both the girls coming down with a rather bad cold and cough we are talking almost cancelling this vacation and then taking covid test to be doubly sure before we boarded the ferry kind of bad cold, Ginger recovering from her recent spaying , a blackout that lasted for four hours and half the town being closed for winter break!

Yes, in spite of all this, it was one of the best weeks ever.❤️ Absolutely nothing dampened my spirit. I manifested to have a wonderful year, a wonderful week and a wonderful birthday and I got it 😊.

Friday Harbor

We spent my birthday week aka mid winter break in the beautiful town of Friday Harbor in San Juan Island. San Juan island is the second biggest island of the San Juan Islands which are an archipelago in Pacific Northwest. To reach any of these islands the shortest and fastest route is via ferry.

We left on Saturday afternoon and reached our destination 3 hours later. Our ferry stopped at four islands before finally reaching Friday Harbor.

I’ll cover the details of our stay in Friday Harbor and about our gorgeous Airbnb in some other post.In this post let’s talk about my day.

On My Birthday

I loved every minute of my birthday from waking up to a breathtaking view to starting my day with wishes, calls from loved ones to many surprises big and small that put a smile on my face.

Ginger and I were the first ones to wake up to breathe in the crisp morning air and take in the sunrise that lay before our eyes before my babies and husband woke up.

If left to S, he would have taken us to Seabrook yet again for my birthday celebrations. S’s idea of any vacation involves going to a beach and so we decided on San Juan Islands instead.

In the hindsight Seabrook was a better choice given that half of Friday Harbor was closed until March 4th. Spring to early fall is when the town comes live as it is the season of whale watching. We were early by two weeks!

Just like our winter break to Seaside Oregon started with extreme weather warning . Our mid winter break also started with an warning of a coldsnap, which is basically a brief period of extreme cold weather.

Aha! we did experience the coldsnap, the chilly winds, heavy rains and more . But like I said earlier, none of it bothered me. I was thankful for the break, albeit I had sick children and a dog in recovery to tend to but other than that, it was a fun short vacation.

My dearest husband forgot my birthday present back at home ,a pair of stunning earrings. The surprise left him surprised 🤪. Back from the vacation I exchanged it for another pair I loved more and threw in a watch for good measure😜😂. Alls well that ends well right? 😜

Hugs, kisses and out of tune birthday song singing by all three later, we were ready to celebrate my day. We decided to catch lunch at Roche Harbor, that lies on the other end of San Juan Island.

But, before we left for lunch S had to go get my birthday cake ! The only bakery that was open during winter,was no longer serving during weekends due to COVID. Luckily for Mr. S my birthday fell on a Monday. With cake situation sorted we headed straight for lunch.

Roche Harbor

When we first visited Friday Harbor in the summer of 2016, Roche Harbor was beaming with tourists with loud peppy music playing in the background as we treated ourselves to lunch and ice-cream sitting under the sun umbrella on the sheltered harbor.

Roche Harbor is famous among the tourists for it’s picturesque harbor and a marina for small boats and crafts. The rows of white boats against the pristine blue water makes it a favorite among tourists to chill in summer.

That scene of that summer from five years ago stayed with me except we were back here for a mid winter break and while sun was out it was damn cold that day. Nonetheless, we decided to head to Roche Harbor for the view and lunch while stopping at the Alpaca farm on the way!

We had a nice meal of fish and chips and cheese burger indoors in the only restaurant that was open . After lunch, girls and I headed for some more birthday shopping for me . S headed back to the van to be with Ginger.

Last month I indulged in quite a bit of birthday shopping. All that Peloton sure boosted my confidence. And one Sunday afternoon with my favorite shopping partner N I gifted myself loads of goodies. N is my absolute favorite shopping partner. She loves giving her opinion as I pick out stuff for myself and more often than not I agree with her choice😂.

The two of us can spend hours together in malls though can’t say that about V who gets easily bored. As long as N gets a treat at the end she is more than happy to accompany me to shopping.

At Roche Harbor I bought a pair of dainty earrings for myself from a boutique shop located in the famous Hotel De Haro.

It was the words that I fell in love with more than the earrings. And if you know me, then you know how much I enjoy dancing.

For someone like me who finds dancing soothing and invigorating at the same time this was just a perfect present I could give myself on this day. Someday we will have a chat about dancing!

In the summer of 2016 , V was a month shy of turning 4 and unbeknownst to me I was pregnant with N. Here I was back with again with girls. One turning 5 soon and the other turning 10 in less than six months 😊.

Back then right at this spot a wedding was taking place at the Sunken garden. It was my first time witnessing a white wedding as the bride and bridesmaid posed for pictures.

There was no wedding there this time but the view was nonetheless as breathtaking as the pristine blue water lined up with boats. And I decided to make memories aka take loads of pictures of us 😂.

We next headed to the Lime Kiln state park to see the Lime Kiln lighthouse, a functioning lighthouse in the park. This park is considered as one of the best places to watch orca’s from spring into fall. Guess what? The last time we did sight a humpback whale from here!

Let’s cut the cake

Three hours later , after lunch and the lighthouse we were done, the cold had finally claimed its final victim , me! I was so ready to get back to the warmth , to our stunning Airbnb.

Back at Airbnb , it was time to cut my birthday cake!! In the evening along with hot cup of tea we gobbled down the rich chocolate cake. It was absolutely delicious! That icing on the cake costed us an extra 10$ ! Yes that’s what you get in small touristy towns, but to be honest it did look gorgeous.

Throughout the day I had my dear friends, cousins, family calling me. Of the many surprises that came my way on my birthday one was a virtual birthday card. Remember the cards I had the parents of N class fill for the teachers?

It was a beautiful surprise. The card was filled with messages for me from many of my dearest friends from the past and present. I was just overcome by joy reading some of those messages.

The card was just the tip of the iceberg. I listened to a birthday song that was played for me on the piano. Watched a adorable birthday dance performed for me and many videos chronicling my special moments and a heart melting message on social media all from my dearest friends and family .

I haven’t even started on the presents that came in, a pair of beautiful earrings, a gorgeous backpack and finally a puzzle. My friends out did themselves in every way to make this one a memorable birthday !!

This doesn’t include all the pampering I got from the girls and S. I felt truly blessed to have all the love showered on me on this day. I didn’t expect any of it, It was truly heartwarming to receive all this love.

We spent the birthday evening eating cake, taking tons of selfies, watching Avenger Endgame and eating maggi. And then S‘s cell phone beeped, it was a message from the owner of airbnb warning us of loosing power.

Just like that half an hour later, we were sitting in completely darkness with a couple of emergency lights. The girls were equal parts excited and equal parts scared.Our host had a telescope. The sky was clear twinkling with million stars and many constellations. S took this opportunity to show the girls the constellations and talk some astronomy.

That night we all huddled up in the same room as S narrated a story to the girls , I was the first one to fall asleep. I had the most wonderful birthday this year. I loved every minute of it, from waking to the sun rise to sleeping to the twinkling stars. 💕

Live your life with Smiles not Tears. Beat your age with Friends not Years~ Unknown