If I could make the sound of a bugle call into words that would be the title of this post......

I will have to finish up on my post(s) about my week of vegetarianism later…. Because this is just too freaking fantastic to wait….

It was scheduled to be a “normal” weekend for us, dinner on Friday with an out of town friend, training, baseball, a little lounging, a birthday for Bill’s niece, and celebrating Father’s Day with Bill’s dad.  Busy but typical.  I had a scheduled hair appointment for 9am Saturday morning.  I love going to get my hair did.  It is probably one of my most favorite things to do.  I woke up early on Saturday; refreshed and ready to start the day.  I hopped in the shower, piddled around, got dressed and picked up my friend Laura (who’s in from out of town) and we went to Starbuck’s.  She went with me to get my hair done.

Our plan for after my appointment was to head back to my house, meet up with Karen and her boyfriend, Randy, grab Bill (after his baseball game) and head to lunch before we spent the day getting’ mani/pedi’s and just having a fun girls day.  Laura had never been to the house since I relocated to Bill’s abode so we were going to meet there.

We pulled down my street and up to the house…. I saw my mom’s car in my driveway.  I was very confused; but thought maybe she stopped by b/c she was in the neighborhood or something.  Laura walked in before me as I stepped through my front door I heard “SURPRISE!!!” and about 25 people were standing in my living room!

I had zero idea of what was happening.  

Then I started looking around and saw the 30^th bday decorations, the premade drinks that Bill made; the Happy Birthday plates, cake, and napkins.  It sunk in…. **Yes it took me a while to figure out that this was for me! **

Bill had Cayla hand me a gift wrapped box…. I opened it and inside was a new dress and a HUGE FLOPPY HAT!!! It was so cute…. Then he told me that in about an hour a party bus was picking all of us up and taking us to the horse races.  

YOU HAVE GOT TO BE FREAKING KIDDING ME!!!

I was stoked!  I ran upstairs and changed into my new outfit as fast as humanly possible.

When I came down; people kept showing up – and I was definitely brought to tears at one point for how thankful I was and how loved I felt.  I have never been short on words; but all I could say over and over was THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

The party bus arrived and we were off to the races…..

We arrived at the track and I saw this……

And this…..

And then this when we walked into our air conditioned semi-private room (complete with all you can eat buffet….boo ya! And private bar!)

The ponies raced, we laughed, drank, won some, lost some –but it was an epic way to spend celebrating my impending birthday!  I cannot believe Bill went through all this trouble for my birthday.  I know it must have taken him weeks of planning, secret keeping, and all around sneaky-ness and I was nothing but SURPRISED!!!!  

I thought I would share some pics with you…. HOW FUN IS THIS!!!!!?????!!!!!!!!!!



On the party bus!

Little Stinker Laura told me she was in town for her own going away party!

 

Cayla and Amber - best secret keepers ever!
Amber hadn't spoken to me all week b/c she was afraid she would give it away!
Cayla - talked to me everyday and didn't once give me a CLUE that this was happening!




GIRLS!!!



Cayla and me in our Derby hats!




Cousin Sheri, Me and my mom

  

Guy's Wife Stephanie couldn't be there so he pretended to pose with her!



Best boyfriend ever.......

 

Loved his hat!



Even Dave-o loved my hat!

 

Paul (bill's brother) and Alaina - Paul had lasik on Friday and STILL CAME! (hence the weird goggles)

 

Jonas and Cayla




Newly engaged TIm and Claudia!



I had to get one of our new outfits... Bill went all out - ordered his pants at vintagethreads.com, bought the horse shirt and the gambler Fedora hat... all for my Derby themed 30th bday party!



The tickets even had my freakin' name on them!



Precious Della - 22 weeks pregnant!



John, Amber, me and Bill!  LOVE THEM!

 



Bill and Jonas sharing a moment; I mean margarita




Me and Cay

I am so thankful to have so many wonderful friends and family to celebrate turning 30 with.  Wednesday's the big day - for now I'm going to enjoy the last 48 hours of being in my 20's... **Tear**