Roadtrip and Birthday Cake

We took a whirlwind trip home to New Jersey over the weekend, driving up Friday for a quick two days of family, friends and fall fun. While we were driving up, I was snapping photos out the windows of the beautiful scenery - the drive is long, but it's also gorgeous. Especially this time of year.

These were all taken with my cell phone. In our rush to get out the door at 5:00 am I forgot my DSLR. I am most definitely not a morning person.

Sunrise in North Carolina.


These thick patches of fog were all over North Carolina, they looked like extremely low floating fluffy clouds.


This little farm is right off the interstate in southern Virginia.


This pretty house is nestled amongst the hills in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. Again, right off the interstate.


Pennsylvania Dutch Country.


Yet another farm, in Pennsylvania.


New Jersey: Luna meeting her cousin, Khloe, for the first time. These two have been inseparable!

Why the whirlwind trip? My best friend Laura, who I've known since we were 4 years old, is turning 30 and has never, ever had a birthday party. Crazy right? Her mom's a Jehovah's Witness, so growing up she never had one and as an adult she's always just gone out to dinner to celebrate. So her cousin, myself and our friend Heather decided to throw her a surprise party filled with balloons, party hats, favors and cake. The sort you'd have when you turned 10, but with beer.

To add the final cherry on top, Joe, Luna and myself made the 800 mile trip to surprise the hell out of her. We nailed it! She was surprised enough to see a bunch of people at her house but when she saw us, she very nearly cried. :-)

Surprising the birthday girl!


Luna, Laura and I.


What sort of childhood party doesn't include creepy clowns? I happen to live with the one on the right. ;)


Opening her gifts in front of everyone and laughing at something hilarious!


Blowing out the candles.

After Laura blew out her candles, I was surprised myself when her cousin brought out an anniversary cake for Joe and I complete with candles! She was so excited that we made the trip up on our anniversary weekend that she decided we needed to be celebrated too! I have no photos of that, because I was too busy laughing as everyone started singing 'Happy Anniversary to you'.

Some people are annoyed that we were up and didn't have the opportunity to visit them, I've received a few angry messages already. But I'm letting it roll off my back because as I wrote in my last post, I'm not paying excess attention to those who bring me down anymore. So to those people I say, I was home far too briefly to see everyone and the road travels South as well as North.

Aside from those party poopers, this trip is exactly what my heart needed. While I'm already homesick, I feel renewed.