Todd's birthday weekend

Todd and I went to Orange County this past weekend. It was his 42nd birthday on Thursday. That makes 20 birthday's I have celebrated with him now. (Wow! it sounds so harsh when I say it that way.) Thursday when we arrived we went to the pier and stumbled upon a pelican there. I hadn't seen a pelican so close before. It was very large. Todd wanted me to take a pitcture with it...I got as close as I dared. Todd kept saying get closer I don't know maybe he was hoping I would drape my arm around it's back or something... I was too afraid to get closer. I was quite positive he would peck me.

Friday we sat in chairs on the sand at the beach and just listened to the waves and read. I love the ocean. I love hearing the waves and the seagulls. It is such a peaceful place, all your troubles seems to melt away. We never did get our feet wet...I am sure it was pretty cold. Newport beach had a lot of pretty shells along the sand so I picked some up for the kids.

Saturday we went and saw a stage of the Tour of California, it was a mountain stage just north of Pasadena. Todd had us get up at 5:15 a.m. and left the condo by 6:00. We drove two hours and found a prime parking spot just before the summit. There were about 5 other cars on the mountain at that time of the morning. We definately got there early enough. The cyclists didn't ride by us until about 2:00 p.m. So we had plenty of time to sit and sit and sit some more...some of the time I slept in the back seat of the van. Todd was too excited to sit he wandered up and down the street (I'm not sure but think he might have been pacing...) He wrote a giant message with yellow chalk on the street. The worst part of the day was that I had to go into the biff two times since we were there so long. The first time I was dry heaving non-stop, I ran out of there like a bat out of well...you know. I am quite certain there in no worse smell in the universe than a ripe biff. The second time I got smart and never unplugged my nose the whole time I was in there. It was very exciting when the race went by us. I just took as many pictures as I could and happened to get a shot of Lance Armstrong he is the second in line on the shot where Todd's back is to me, you have to zoom way in to see it was him. Todd was very happy with the picture I got of him with the pelaton (main group of riders) right behind him. I was just thankful it was centered and in focus. The pressure for me to get one good photo of Todd and the cyclists as they flew by, was huge... It was a fun day. We met Bighair superfan...not quite sure who he is...but he had really big hair and a really sweet cape. We also got a kick out of this yellow boy that we nicknamed "yellow guy." The kids did a good job taking care of each other while we were away.