A Very West Coast Birthday

Monday was my 22nd birthday. 


Jordan was excited that my birthday fell so close to the weekeend. And so, he dubbed our first weekend together in California "Mal's Birthday Weekend Extravaganza." 


Yes, an extravaganza. 


Simply put, I was treated like a diva/princess all weekend (and of course, Monday as well.) 
I chose every little thing we did starting Friday night and ending Tuesday morning. Jordan took care of the laundry and even made sure my birthday pie had pink candles to blow out on my birthday. Pretty fabulous.


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We hiked some of the trails on base Saturday morning. Such beauty. And gorgeous weather.


That evening, we drove to Santa Maria for dinner and a movie.


Sunday we went to church and had lunch in town. We relaxed that afternoon and enjoyed just hanging out together. 


It was so wonderful to take some time during the weekend to slow down and relax. Jordan gets up well before 6 every morning and doesn't return until 5. By the time we have dinner and he studies for quizes and tests for his class, it's almost time for bed. This course at Vandenberg was recently restructured to be more demanding and challenging. It feels a bit like senior year of college between the two of us. I'm overwhelmed at how intense my classes have become here at the end. And my course load is heavy. Add that to Jordan's intense schedule and demanding class and you'll get a pretty overwhelmed couple.


But, the weekends have been wonderful so far. Since I arrived in California, I have been working hard to get all of my work done by the weekend. (Tests, readings, discussions, papers and projects included.)Jordan has no obligations over the weekend, so we have been enjoying that time exploring the area and relaxing with one another. And that's the plan for the whole trip. 


I think it's a good plan. 

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[View of the mountains on the way to Santa Maria from Vandenberg]

This is the birthday dinner! Jordan had tri-tip and linguica, a Santa Maria speciality. With spicy homemade chipotle sauce, his meal was definitely a winner. I had a fantastic filet with a delicious Caesar salad with homemade dressing. 

   

We decided pie was the way to go for dessert! We could have simply ordered by the slice but we figured we would be able to eat on this all weekend (and we did.) So good! Chocolate cream pie. But, to be honest, my mother in law's is much better. 

This is my bump at 16 weeks (for the curious)

Its crazy what changes happen in just a few weeks!

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Love to you all, 

Mal