Lara's Birthday Party

A few weeks ago, my friend Lara's husband Rupert sent us a message on Facebook. He was planning a surprise 40th birthday party for Lara and wanted to give us details. What a sweet thing to do! We put the date on our calendars and kept our mouths shut, although it was hard not to say, "See you Saturday!" last week. :p

Finally the party was yesterday at 11:00AM. San Diego has FINALLY gotten warm this past week. Warm enough that we got up early at 6:20AM yesterday to go run at the coast. I ran 5.5 miles in an hour and felt pretty good, considering the heat. I sweated a lot, but was not dying. I stopped bringing my camera on my Saturday runs. Now that we're not running with a running club, I feel it's more important to bring my cell phone with me. My running waist pouch only fits either a camera or a cell phone, but not both. After the run, we went home to shower. Then we immediately left to go pick up Todd' car from the car repair shop. As you know, Todd's car had been in the car shop for 2.5 weeks, getting a transmission rebuild. There were snafus with the wrong transmission being delivered and such. We finally got to pick it up yesterday. Todd feels at home again! Funny how much your activities and identity is associated with your car.

After picking up Mystery Machine (yes, that's our green Explorer's name), we drove down to Mission Bay to Lara's party. It was a GORGEOUS day in San Diego. Some parts of the city was very warm, to be sure. But there were big breezes at Mission Bay and it was only around 80, so it was perfect!

Rupert had several tents set up for the party.


It was a Star Wars themed party! Lara told me that it's like the party she wanted when she was 7 years old, ha ha!  Here's one of the pinatas that was filled with candy.


Coolest cake ever!


Lara's badge said "Birthday Jedi Knight".


Our very own taco stand!  (Photo pilfered from Lara's Facebook.)


Guess who ran 8 miles and was hungry and first in line???

Sally was 2nd and I was 3rd in line. To defend myself, I got a plate of food for the birthday girl too, who was too modest to cut in line!

Nom nom, lots of good Mexican condiments!


We brought some chairs and lounged under the tents while chatting and eating. There were cool breezes blowing our way. It was really perfect!


We gathered around Lara to sing happy birthday! The cake was not only cool, but delicious as well, with whipped cream frosting and peaches inside!


Me, Lara, and Sally - friends since 7th grade.


We loved being there to celebrate with Lara. Whenever I get together with these two, I feel super-duper blessed with their friendship. It's amazing to me that we met when we were 12 years old, in a different city, and we're still friends at 40 years old, all living here in San Diego. I kind of think it's a miracle and feel so blessed by our long-standing friendship.

So, to celebrate that, a blast from the past!

Lara, me, and Sally in 1997, when I visited San Diego from Ohio.

Check out my "wall of bangs"! ha ha

Sally, me, and Lara at Sally's house, Christmas 1988. Wow, seriously, we were 18!