Another birthday.

I remember being 12 and asking my church teacher how old she was. When she said 30 I thought in my head..."man, she is OLD". I cannot believe I'm already older than that OLD lady :)! I was definitely wrong though...the 30's are awesome!

I had another GREAT birthday. Friends and family all made it just perfect! Thanks for all the cards, phone calls, emails, facebook comments, gifts, and cookies from a neighbor. They were so fun!

Shane had to miss 2 of my last 3 birthdays due to military obligations so this year was extra special having him home.

I received beautiful flowers from my husband and friends.

I also had a fabulous lunch with Alisha & Austin. It was so nice to be able to sit and enjoy a good meal with friends (and no kids - he he). Thanks girls!

The BIG surprise

Shane had been working on a surprise for about 2 weeks. I tried to figure out what it was but had absolutely NO clue. At 4:45 p.m. on my birthday a neighbor and friend of mine showed up to my door to take me away. I was so confused why Shane was not coming until we got to our destination...the AERO FLIGHT CLUB.

Let me explain...the base offers a flight over Tokyo in a little, 4-seater plane. Ever since we arrived in Japan I've been wanting to do it, BUT I did NOT want to do it with Shane. I know...it's silly...but I don't want our kids to loose both their parents at once. I was a little freaked out but still really wanted to do it. This is totally not like me...I usually don't do things that I think I could die doing.

Anyways, Shane convinced my friend Michele to go with me and to keep it a secret. She showed up to steal me and off we went. We were a little bummed because it was raining so they had to reschedule our flight (so we went shopping instead), but the next day was clear skies and we were able to fly. We also realized the fee included up to 3 people, so we quickly called our other friend and she came with us. Thanks girls for risking your lives with me :)

Michele, me, & Autumn in front of our little plane.

The pilot & I.

Funny little side note: the first plane we boarded actually broke down (luckily this happened before we got in the air). When we got out of that plane we noticed the engine was smoking....this really made us nervous. We crossed our fingers and prayed our hearts out that the next plane would work. It did-whew!

Autumn & Michele (borrowed this picture from Michele's blog).

Metropolitan Tokyo

Circling Tokyo Tower.

Meiji Shrine (we visited this in my Shibuya post).

Showa Park (also borrowed this pic from Michele's blog).

Japanese housing in the city.

American housing (these are the town homes we live in). American's definitely like their space.

Coming home.

Thanks Shane for the PERFECT birthday gift.

Shane & I then enjoyed a very relaxing, quiet dinner together eating a variety of Japanese foods.

And this was my yummy Baskin Robbins Oreo ice cream cake.

Another wonderful birthday. Thanks everyone!