35

I celebrated my birthday last weekend. Thirty-five! I'm not one to get hung up on numbers but dang, that one snuck up quickly. I barely had a chance to think about turning another year older with all this moving business lately.

My birthday fell on a Saturday this year so Andi, Tory, Aden and I spent my special day at the lake cabin. The weather was cold - VERY COLD - so we were limited with what we could do outdoors. I was itching to go on an adventure - but where? I found myself searching for warm weather flight deals last-minute because I hate the idea of celebrating my birthday in the cold. No dice, though. (Someday I'll live in a place where it'll be sunny and warm in February!)

I woke up in Aden's bed the morning of my birthday. He was up screaming in the middle of the night for seemingly no reason other than I *think* he's ready to transition to a big boy bed. We have him sleeping in a pack-n-play at the cabin and lately he seems less than pleased with his accommodations. Are we ready to take on that battle with him? Ugh, that topic is for another day...

Anyway, Andi greeted me upstairs with fresh coffee and a made-to-order breakfast of eggs, sauteed kale and a English muffin with almond butter (my go-to favorite these days). A hot breakfast! Now, that's a birthday treat!

Tory was over-the-moon excited for me to open my birthday present. This year, she and Andi wrote clues for me to guess my presents -- new gloves and a workout mat. Andi said all the clues were written by Tory; he simply wrote down what she said:

• You wear these in the arctic 
• You do jumping jacks with it
• It's your favorite color
• You wear it when your hands get colder, or when you need to do work

So cute and creative!

After breakfast, Andi offered to take the kids for a drive so I could do my workout video in peace. I told him it wasn't necessary, but it *was* nice to work up a sweat without little people underfoot.

When Andi and the kids returned, we drove to nearby Beaver Dam Lake for an afternoon of ice fishing. I would've never imagined in a million years I'd spend my birthday catching fish on a frozen lake, but when in Rome... or Wisconsin!

Our ice house has a cook-top and microwave inside, so Andi brought the makings for chicken stir-fry. We rarely cooked in the ice house last year, so it's been fun to try different meals in there this winter. The kids spent the afternoon fishing with Andi and coloring pictures / playing board games with me. It was surprisingly quiet and relaxing.

 

Around dinnertime, we packed up the ice house and headed back to the lake cabin. Andi made cedar-plank salmon with quinoa for dinner and the kids and I made chocolate-covered bananas pops for my birthday dessert.

Later, our favorite cabin neighbors stopped over for a celebratory birthday drink. Joe + Lisa and Oscar + Deanna had been out snowmobiling all afternoon, and collected "birthday presents" for me from all the bars they visited along the way. They presented me with a bowling pin, a beer glass, a map, a baseball cap, and a cardboard cut-out of Danica Patrick. Ha!

A wonderful, low-key birthday celebration. Looking forward to a fabulous year ahead!