Happy birthday beautiful...
Today is Katie's 42nd birthday!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! MY FAVORITE!! Is 42 the new 32? I say so. And I say Katie can be whatever age she wants to be. So today I will celebrate her, on this fine 4th day of May, or as some know it, Star Wars day (may the 4th be with you!). Surprisingly, Katie wasn't much of a Star Wars fan. Crazy right?!
As I think back on the birthdays we spent together. A lot of memories come to mind. Memories of friends, travel, new adventures... A year ago today she was not well. She had just returned home from the Hospital a couple of days earlier. I was so happy she was able to spend her 41st birthday at home. Home was her happiest place. The kids and I made her dinner (her request) and I have a video of us singing happy birthday to her. I know she would not want me sharing that video, so I won't. Its the last recorded moment I have of her. She was so happy. And as we all know, she passed two days later.
I've been thinking about this post for some time now. What to write, what to say, what to share. I won't go too much into how I am feeling. Part happiness for celebrating her on this wonderful day. and part (huge part) sadness, for obvious reasons. I am going to try to focus on the happiness. It won't be easy. I'll slip into sadness, and I am sure there will be lots of tears, but I (we) will get thru it. So to celebrate, the kids and I are going to go out to one of her favorites for dinner. I will order her favorite drink, I and I will have it in her honor, and enjoy every sip. Cheers my love!!
Getting back to the post, I thought it best to share the great memories we made on her birthdays from previous years. So this post will be a little stroll along memory lane and the birthdays we shared together.
2022... This was the first year we spent her birthday together (we met in July of 2021). By this point we were an "official couple" (there is a story behind that which I'll share another time), but felt pressure to deliver. She was turning 38 , so not a "big" birthday, but I wanted to do something nice. Her birthday was on a Wednesday, and that week my daughter was putting on her school play. So it was a busy week. But we went out to Pizzeria Bianco for her birthday. I'd been wanting to take her there for a while. Pizza and wine were right up there as one of her favorites. So how could that go wrong?! The good news it didn't. but Katie wasn't feeling great. She had a cold and while she was a good sport, I could tell it put a damper on her spirits, and her ability to enjoy the food. But it was still a nice evening regardless, and as long as we were together, nothing else really mattered.
2023... Turning 39. This is the year when she really pushed my limits of comfort, lol. She wanted to travel, and to one of her favorite places in the world... Mexico. Now, for those of you who know me, Mexico has never been high on my list (or even on my list at all) for travel destinations. I suppose I've seen too many TV shows about the dangers of Mexico. But she has been laying the groundwork for months leading up to it. In fact, she convinced me to to go to Rocky Point (Mexico) with another couple a couple months earlier. If you know Rocky Point, you have to drive to it to get there. Driving thru a border town to a small resort town was NOT my idea of a peaceful vacation. But I went, and survived. In fact, we had a great time. I'll do a post all about that sometime. This time she wanted to go to a really nice, all inclusive resort. She found this hotel brand called Garza Blanca. They have a few properties in Mexico and this one really appealed to her. She planned the whole thing (thank goodness as I would have been terrible at it). We made a good team that way. She loved planning vacations, and I trusted her completely to plan a great one. So I stayed out of her way, and got involved when she asked me to. Lucky for us, we both like alot of the same things. So it turns out vacations were pretty easy to plan.
This hotel was in Puerto Vallarta. I was nervous leading up to it, and getting there. She, on the other hand, was cool as a cucumber. She told me all of the things to do/not to do. Thank goodness she was with me, as I am sure I would have messed something up before even made it out of the airport once we landed. She told me after we landed that we just needed to go past all of the people offering rides and shuttles, and just head outside to a certain spot where our prearranged shuttle would take us. Of course, as we were walking through the airport, in typical fashion, I engage with the travel folks inside the airport and she quickly reminded me to "keep going" and just say "no thanks". I don't know what I would have done without her. Anyways, we made it to the hotel just fine, and immediately upon check in, they asked if we wanted a drink, and before we had our room key, we were both sipping on a fabulous cocktail, and our vacation was well on its way. I will make a post all about this trip at some point, but for now enjoy a few pictures of her birthday vacation in Mexico!
2024... Turning 40... A BIG ONE!!! I had been thinking about this one for a long time. How do I plan something even better than our week long vacation at a 5-star all inclusive resort in Mexico? Needless to say the pressure was on. I really wanted to do something special for her. Something that was all about her, her favorite things, and her favorite people. So I planned a little multi-event birthday. First, it was a trip to Austin to see all of her closest friends who still lived there. The trip itself wasn't a surprise, but the events I had planned were. So each day, was a new surprise. It was fantastic! On her actually birthday, she had a spa day with the girls. I surprised her with a gift card to cover her treatments, and a little extra to spend hanging with the girls. While she was at the spa, I prepared my very fist seafood boil with live crawfish!! Katies LOVES crawfish. I had them flown in from Louisiana. So when the girls came back I surprised her with crawfish, and I must say I did a good job for my first time. I was very proud of myself but mostly I was thrilled for her. She had such a great time, and it was so great to celebrate her 40th birthday with so many people. Below are some pictures of her 40th birthday celebration. I wish I had more, but I am hoping you can enjoy these...
So, as another year passed, like a fine wine, my wife only gets better with age. Although she'll stay young forever as far as I am concerned. This year, as she smiles down up on us on her birthday, I can only think that she is spending this day with her parents, and the rest of her family who are up there with her, with a margarita in her hand, and some chips and salsa to go with it.
Happy Birthday my love...
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