Surprise, Me!

The evening after team McBatrie's triumph in Berkeley, Jeremy and Emily surprised me with a birthday bbq party. Emily had invited us over to dinner that night--a celebratory dinner. When we arrived at her place, the first clue was that Milo, our friend's mini dachshund came to the door to welcome me. Apparently they tried to stop him, but he's crafty, and good at dodging. Emily said that she had brought him over to play with her landlord's kids. Strange, I thought...
As we entered the backyard I could smell the BBQ but I figured that Emily's landlord was having one, so that's why I was puzzled when all of her guests yelled "surprise!" when I walked around the corner. The first person I looked at was my coach, who I didn't immediately recognize since he was wearing glasses and normal clothes.

It was such a fun evening and Emily and Jeremy had put a lot of work into the preparation, and keeping the secret from me. Some of our friends helped as well--Betsy and Steve did a Costco run and fruit salad, Heather made a salad (thanks guys!). There was tons of yummy food--Jer's famous salsa and chips, olives, hummus, salad, fruit, burgers, salmon, cheese, guava punch and not 1 but 3 birthday desserts! Emily made a delicious rum cake and stawberry rhubarb crumble. Then we made smore's over the fire (I like that Jeremy pronounces it "some mores.")

In our family, I'm the one that usually documents events in photographs. I suppose that is why we only came away with 2 photos...



The balloon pictured above was my present from little Ella.
And just so we had more pictures I took a photo of the lovely gifts I received. Thanks so much, everyone! I love them all!

Alex pegged my sense of humor right on with this card selection, probably my favorite card from this year (sorry steve, I did like your drawings). I know...most people are probably confused as to the humor in this.

And just because I'm excited, I have to post a picture of the birthday present I got on my actual birthday. I'm such a lucky girl!! Too bad I have to wait so long to use them...although I did hear that it has been snowing this month in Utah.