Firstly, thank you all so much for the many birthday wishes. You really made me feel special and cared for — and your messages, cards, and Facebook posts meant a lot to me (although Bill said I was clogging up his fb feed 
)!!! I have to say that this may have been the best birthday ever.
Bill surprised me by booking a room at the L'Auberge Del Mar. You have to know that this is one of our “someday” places going back to when Bill and I were dating in our early twenties. We looked at the swanky L'Auberge and had one of those someday conversations: “Someday we will stay there.” We have talked about it every now and then, but it has been years. I was so blown away that Bill remembered, thought to plan this for my birthday, and made it all so special for me. He is just the best!!! And…drum roll…the added bonus was getting to surprise Gwendolyn with a Sea World visit!!!
Sooo…we did some lounging…
And a lot of eating…
A day of exploring Sea World…
And some more animal observations…
But this was the ULTIMATE…
Gwendolyn was definitely overwhelmed during the encounter, but afterward she was singing with excitement — we have never heard her talk that much. Gwendolyn won't let go of her new stuffed friend Crunch, she lights up when anyone asks her about it, and she proudly toted the photo to preschool yesterday to show all her friends what she got to do.
The entire trip was one of those dream come true moments. Seeing Gwendolyn so excited and getting one-on-one quality time with Bill pretty much mean everything to me…and yummy food is icing on the cake SMA is hard and sometimes I just wish I could press the pause button… this trip, well, it almost felt like we did. Thank you sweetheart for creating such a special memory for our family.