Happy 65th Birthday, Mom!

On August 14th, 2009, my wonderful Mom turned 65 years young :)! We began to strategize the different ways to best celebrate this great event beginning last May--and the consensus was to go all-out to make some really great memories for the whole family.

In the end, she had a two-week long celebration that spanned 3 states; spending time in Austin, Tx, San Diego, Ca, and of course right here at home. I just love this picture of her. This is her senior picture in High School. Honestly, she is in such good shape now and has some pretty amazing genetics--she doesn't look that different!
One thing that we did know is that Mom would absolutely LOVE the beach. So we planned a surprise trip for her to go to San Diego on the weekend before her actual birthday. It was a well-orchestrated caper--right Darren and Cherish? Here she is right when she found out where she was going...it was so fun to surprise her!

We stayed in La Jolla at an Embassy Suites Hotel. Since Eden and Carson both go to bed pretty early, we wanted a place where everyone could still hang out together after the kids went to bed. It worked out great! We took the kids swimming in the pool, and of course explored the hotel...

Eden and Carson are little fish in the pool :). In these pictures, they both look a little cold, but they did have fun!

I have fond memories of the Embassy Suites elevator when I was growing up--we would ride it up and down over and over again! Here, Grandpa and Carson are carrying on the tradition in the elevator:

There was a huge koi pond where people could feed the fish. Carson was very intrigued.

But the bigger hit was playing "no more Monkeys..." with Grandpa. :)

This picture makes me smile because of Eden. I don't think I would mess with her at all--what great attitude! ha ha

She and Carson played and played. She was so nice to share her school bus toy that Carson absolutely loved. They chased each other all over the place. It is really fun to watch them. I wish we could see them more often.

The first night we were there, we attempted to see the sunset in downtown La Jolla. We didn't exactly make it in time, but we figured out what time we needed to get there the next night, and still managed to get some great pictures. Carson fell asleep in the car, so Mike stayed with him while the rest of us checked out the view:

Great picture, Mom and Dad!

It was really neat :)

I just love this picture of Carson with Grandma. He was so excited and happy to be on vacation with them!

Saturday was the big BEACH DAY. We were so excited to take Mom to the beach! Darren and Cherish had scouted out the perfect place. Things were absolutely wonderful! Here is Mom as she turned to go dive under some waves. She looked like she had never left--very comfortable in the ocean. I have great videos :)

The kids really enjoyed playing in the sand. Here, Cherish is playing with them...

And here I am playing with them! They are so cute!

Mike got this picture of Carson on the "Junior Lifeguard Tower". We will have to display this pic near our old Reservoir guarding pictures! :)

Minus the kid with the boogie board, you see Mom, Dad, Darren, and myself in this picture--all enjoying the waves. I knew that Mom would love this, but it was really neat to watch Dad out there as well! Darren rented a boogie board so we caught some waves, too.

Darren and Mike spent some good quality "Daddy time" with the kids building sand castles and sand hot tubs, etc... Carson had a great hot tub going for awhile!

Darren and cute little Eden :)

Here is Carson, who around the same time as this trip magically figured out "cheese" when taking pictures. Yup, this one is a keeper!

Mom and Dad decided to take a walk down the beach for a bit--I couldn't resist taking a picture.

Here is the whole Lowe family--covered in sand and loving every minute of it

After the beach, we got the kids home for naps and then had a great meal from P.F. Changs for dinner. We got ready to make the trip downtown for the sunset. We were NOT disappointed! It was absolutely gorgeous. Here are some of the pictures that we took:

*sigh* We've still got that lovin' feeling! :)

Not so sure about Carson in this one...

Another good one, Mom and Dad!

This is a great pic of Darren, Cherish, and Eden if we had the right angle...

After the sunset, we checked out the sea lions and walked around La Jolla. We had gelatto, and looked around the shops. It was so much fun!

Before we knew it, it was Sunday and time to go home. We were tired, but so relaxed, content, and happy that the trip was such a success. In this picture, Carson is listening to Grandpa's music & sharing headphones with him. He was bobbing his head to the beat and was quite a hit in the waiting area. :)

This picture marks the final time that Carson Michael Lowe flew on a plane for FREE. The next weekend after this trip, he turned 2 years old...and the magic of lap-riding for free disappeared. We took full advantage of it though--he flew 6 times before he was 2 years old! On this flight, it was empty enough where he had a "big-boy seat"!!

Let's just revisit the sunset, shall we? I would love to live by the beach to have this view more often.

This is one of my favorite pictures of the whole trip!

So serene--I really love the ocean!

In addition to the celebrations in Austin with Ryan and Devin's families and our San Diego trip, we made Mom a MEMORY BOOK. It was quite an undertaking, and it turned out really nice! It was fun to put together. :)

She was so surprised and touched when she opened her present. It is a gift that will show her how special she is each and every day--all she has to do is open the book to read the beauitful tributes that people wrote for her. The pictures are great, too! She showed Carson some pictures as she looked through the book for the first time:

Planning the celebrations for Mom's birthday was a huge part of my summer, and it was a truly rewarding and special experience. It goes to show that the important thing is to take advantage of special occasions to make memories TOGETHER.

Happy Birthday, Mom! I love you.