No, I’m not in denial about turning 30, just terribly behind in updating our website. Despite Phil’s absence, I had a wonderful 30th birthday. Most notably because my parents were here to share it with me. It’s strange to think that I spent my first 24 birthdays with my parents (except for my golden birthday which I spent in France…thank you parents!) and now the years I get to celebrate a birthday with them are definitely few and far between. So needless to say, it was a big treat to have them here.

Since I was the birthday girl I got to choose our restaurant for the evening. We ventured north to San Clemente to check out a Mexican place I had been wanting to try – South on Nick’s. It did not disappoint! It’s a “fancier” Mexican place, opposed to your typical Mexican restaurant (no sombreros or mariachi band here). Everything was super fresh, lots of seafood on the menu and an assortment of specialty margaritas (I tried the cucumber margarita).

Aside from birthday celebrations, we also got a lot done around the house during my parents’ visit. Unfortunately, no photos to document our productivity but we crossed a lot of things off the ‘ole to do list including: refinishing a cradle for Sophia’s dolls (it was my mom’s when she was young and I used it as well), planting some succulents, giving the garage a spring cleaning and other tidying up inside the house. It was so nice to have two extra sets of hands around to help with the projects…or just help with the kids so I could clean without interruption. We made time for some fun between projects and visited the USS Midway (something that had been on Papa D’s to do list since we moved here) and hosted a BBQ/early birthday party for Sophia with some of my friends.

As always, it’s sad to see family leave after such a nice visit. The glass is half full side of this story is that my parents were my last visitors before homecoming; definitely something to celebrate!