a good start

So, I kind of had a birthday week. We went to the beach with some of the best people ever--my sister Johanna and her two babies, plus my beautiful and muchly-missed friend Beka. It was perfect.

At least, the weather was. There were some unfortunate incidents involving a screaming infant with diaper rash, who, being freed from her diaper for her comfort and happiness, was standing on my lap. Which resulted in... what happens when you're holding a baby without a diaper.

Good times. :P

We defied the bone-debiliatingly-icy ocean, we dared each other to poke the sea anemones in the tide pools, we ran as far as we could along the beach (let's just say it was a really long way), and, as always, we talked about anything and everything.

I showed Katie how to make drippy-wet-sand-trees, which she pronounced "pretty! for your birthday!"

Katie is already madly in love with the beach and the water. She was very eager to "run! run! run!" straight into the ocean.

Newport is a scrumptious town to poke around in and eat good food.

On the way back, we stopped by a gelato place. By the way: gelato is positively amazing. If you've never experienced it, grab some at the next opportunity.

My birthday was delightful, punctuated by terribly unhealthy deliciousness at every opportunity.

We went downtown, where I bought my beautiful new laptop on which I know type. : ) More on that later.

The waterfront park was helpfully covered in goose poo. A bit of a downer for our picnic, but we managed to eat huge burritos and blueberry pie and rip open presents.

You know how blueberry pie can be really lame? My mom's is, hands-down, the best blueberry pie of all time. Forever and ever amen.

I have this thing about eating pie with my hands. It's inappropriate and messy and socially unacceptable, but it's one of my favorite things to do.

After getting to Krispy Kreme after they'd closed and given mercy and provided with donuts by the wonderful and lovely Rosita, we ended up with two dozen. So, once again, I was rolling in donuts. ♥

We had some more people over this morning for a birthday breakfast, which included donuts, lots of leftover cinnamon rolls, and french toast.

Also, whip-cream-from-a-can. One of the top ten life essentials.

My laptop. He's a 15-inch Macbook Pro. Skinny and silver and shiny and super-fast. A whole new world.

picture by Sam. : )

I'm absolutely in love with him and Mac in general. Thank you all for your advice! I never even considered Mac until about ten days ago, and then I up and bought one and love it to death already.

I also went to my friend Melinda's house (she has seven boys and just had a beautiful baby girl. I actually photographed the birth) and got to snuggle with Baby.

And then I got to hang out with my niece Virginia.

All in all, a good start to my eighteenth year. :) And thank you all for your birthday wishes! Tomorrow morning, Benjamin and I leave early for Moscow, Idaho, since Bethany only had a one-way ticket and we need to get her back. ;)

ROADTRIP.