I’ve spent the last two days in Georgia celebrating a very special birthday!
My Mema’s 84th! Last year I cleared my calendar and drove down to Georgia in the middle of the week to surprise her on her actual birthday so I decided to do the same thing this year!
Earlier this week I baked a strawberry cake with dark chocolate frosting and picked up a bunch of goodies from Trader Joe’s for my grandmother. She loves to try out all their different stuff. I loaded up the cake, goodies and a certain cute golden retriever and hit the road Wednesday around lunch.
I picked up an iced soy latte from Starbucks on the way down and listened to Elizabeth Gilbert’s book, The Signature of All Things. I’m a big fan of audio books to pass the time on road trips.
I arrived around 4:30 p.m. and quickly got to work in the kitchen preparing my grandmother’s birthday dinner. She gave me this totally styling Sponge Bob apron to wear.
My grandmother loves pasta dishes so I tried out a new one for her and it was a big hit! Chicken, sundried tomatoes and mushrooms in a creamy cheese sauce with rigatoni. Roasted asparagus and a salad on the side.
And dessert was cake!
Sullie was very excited to be a part of all of the birthday festivities and my Mema even gave her a little bite of the strawberry cake (sans the chocolate frosting) and she gobbled it down so it’s safe to say her tummy is feeling better! It was so special to have the opportunity to be there with my grandmother on her actual birthday!
This morning I went for a beautiful run around Milledgeville. Check out the size of this hydrangea bush! It was bursting with big white flowers. The temperature was in the low 60s, no humidity and abundant blue skies. It was one of those perfect runs where you just want to close your eyes and take it all in.
Sullie was in full force cuddle mode this morning and demanding my attention in a big way. When she was a little puppy we taught her to lie belly up like this so that she’d learn to settle down and trust us. It’s still one of her favorite ways to be held. She stayed like this for 15 minutes in a trance like state.
I wanted to take my grandmother out to lunch today and let her pick where she wanted to go. She chose Applebee’s for their Oriental Chicken Salad. I ordered the same thing with grilled salmon instead of chicken. It was tasty!
(I had another piece of cake for lunch dessert.)
After lunch my aunt, cousin, cousin-in-law and her sweet baby came to visit and we snapped a photo of four generations of family! It was definitely a moment that made me smile. 🙂
I feel so grateful right now.
