It's Birthday Week!

Oh yes, it's back!  Birthday Week 2015!

This year will not disappoint!  I have lots of activities to bring to you!  No, there's probably not as much booze this year as year's past (I'm just getting over a week-long nasty summer cold), and of course no lunch dates with Granny,  but I hope you have as much fun reading about it as I had participating!  Here's a cheers to my awesome friends & amily!

MONDAY:


First up for birthday week, kayaking and beach with my good friend (and hockey defense partner), Sherri.  It was a perfect sunny day with a slight breeze.  Grabbed a couple of kayaks out at Kensington MetroPark.  Floated around the lake with the hot sun beaming down on us.  Nothing particularly exciting, which makes for a wonderful kayaking trip.  We finished up with lunch while we watching the thunderstorm outside that wasn't even a thought in the sky when we were on the water.  Conveniently, it also finished up before heading back to the car!

Same day, onto sushi at
INYO in Ferndale with Darleen, Christine, and Kimmy.  Also from hockey.  Hmm!  I guess it was a hockey friend day!  Ha!  Not bad for the first day of birthday week!  The sushi was awesome, and the conversations even better.  Dar gave me my first-ever Alex & Ani bracelet.  It's beautiful and dainty, and I love it!

TUESDAY:

Starting the day with a massage at Little Lotus sounds like a great idea!  This lady knows what she's doing, and I was perfectly relaxed and pampered!  Sorry, no pictures!  I could barely think straight afterwards - she sent me to another world!





Next I was off to meet Melissa and Zach for a perfect taco lunch.  Doesn't everyone love tacos?  Tacos & Tequila in Royal Oak did not disappoint.  While I ate about one and a half of my three tacos, Zach ordered the "unlimited tacos" special.  We giggled while we watch him order 4-5 plates of tacos.  I can't be sure how many - I lost count.  That man really likes his tacos!  CHEERS!

As a bonus, we saw this super cool "Nightmare Before Christmas" tattoo on one of the waitresses!

Birthday weeks decidedly need fabulous hair.  So off to Dye Salon I go.  Billy cut and colored to a rockstar coif worthy of the rest of my rockstar week.  An ombre of Purple to blue here, another from blue to teal over here.  LOVE IT!!

Now for some FUN!  One of my favorite outdoor activities - CLIMBING TREES!  If you have never been to The Adventure Park in West Bloomfield, MI, you are missing out!  There are many courses of varying difficulties.   It is a ropes and zip lining course, and some definitely need some balance and arm strength.  It's the greatest workout you won't know you're doing.  And let's talk about adrenaline when you are standing on a small platform 2 stories above the ground, and they say, "Jump" and they mean it!  These pictures don't tell the greatest story - imagine these courses but 40 feet in the air!  And check out last year's birthday week for more!

Ok, so I had to treat myself, and I stopped at Olga's for dinner on the way home, and popped into the gourmet grocery store and bought myself a little indulgent dessert!  If you can't tell, that is an asian chicken Olga, side salad, curly fries, and snackers cheese (snackers out of frame) - these are my faves, although I don't usually order them all at once!  If you haven't tried the asian chicken, I highly recommend it.  If you've never had Snackers, shame on you.  Shame on you, sir!

WEDNESDAY:




Wed was reserved for relaxation.  It was a Pool Day with Katy!  Although we haven't seen much of each other in the last year, because of conflicting schedules, we talked all day like we hadn't missed a thing.  It was a great day, and we both totally burned.  The refreshing salt water pool (refreshing at 80 degrees!) was a perfect relief!










After a day in the pool, I went home and played in my garden (yes, I realize that doesn't sound fun or relaxing to some of you, but it was just perfect for my Serene Life!) and read a book in my Hammock.  Jealous yet?






THURSDAY:

Thursday was an interesting day.  I wanted to go horseback riding, but I didn't have anyone to go with.  So I jumped in my car, jammed out to some tunes, open the windows, and drove the 45 minutes (with traffic) to one of my favorite riding stables, Maybury Riding Stables.  I figured it was a good time - middle of the day - no worries!  I get there, and it is absolutely packed.  It's like 1pm on a Thursday.  Where did all of these people come from??  So I walk up and ask about the wait, and she says it's at least an hour.  Im thinking in my mind that Im going to get right back in my car and drive home NOT smelling like horse!  Then the woman says, "Wait, are you alone?"  I said "yeah," and she says, "hold on.  They might be able to take you on the ride going out right now."  The woman behind me practically shoved me out of the way and screamed, "We have two, and we've been waiting a lot longer!"  The woman half-smiled, tilted her head, and said (in that voice), "ohh sorry.  We only have room for one."  I followed her into the paddock, doing my best to avoid doing a happy dance.  It was a slow ride with many other people, but great cover from the sun through the trees.  My horse was incredibly well-behaved and responsive.  I kind of wanted to take her home!  I also had a great conversation with one of the guides.  A good day!

After work that night, Donna, and the wonderful crew at Bloomfield Gymnastics, joined me at
The Moose Preserve, one of our favorite dinner/cocktail spots.  It was great to just kick back and relax!  Some good food, great conversation.  Their brussel sprouts are to die for.  And you have to try the meatloaf.  It's amazing!  I know ... weird ... but I thought the same thing, and I've been going there for years and just tried it for the first time.  Uh. Mah. Gawd.  So good.


FRIDAY:

On Friday I headed back to Kensington Park with Bri and her two little guys.  We decided to rent the white swan paddleboat and headed out on the water.  Now this thing is MUCH tougher than I thought, and MUCH heavier than a kayak!  We were peddling as hard as we could, and going about 6 inches an hour.  Luckily, when I got tired, Bri said "Im training for a triathalon - I can take over by myself for a while."  Whew!  So we paddled around and enjoyed the sun.  We almost made it to our hour's worth of rental, and brought back the bird.  Now, this is a really cool place, so we couldn't just go home!  We headed over to the beach where we soaked in some sun, and Dominic & Gavin made quite a sand castle, complete with real moats.  These kids know how to BUILD stuff!

Last stop at Kensington was the farm.  I insisted.  So we walked around, said "hey" to the cows.  The horses were missing.  The sheep were sleeping off the heat.  The chickens were stinky.  The boys were particularly interested in the tractor.  Go figure.












Since that just wasn't enough, Friday night was designated for dinner and bar fun.  We started off at Beer Monk Abbey in Royal Oak.  It took a REALLY long time to get our food, but it was fun conversation in the meantime.  They have like hundreds of beers to choose from.  We had a variety of fried pickles, fancy french fries with dipping sauces, mussels, mac & cheese, and Im pretty sure someone got a monster burger covered in a variety of items.

We made a stop at my brother, Sea's, awesome condo right there on Main street (see adorable picture of Kimmy and I against the custom-painted graffiti wall!)  continued on to the local dealing piano bar, 526 Main.  It was a lively bunch in that bar.  We ordered drinks and Donna learned how to use the reverse camera on my phone.  It was her first selfie EVER!  We finished the night doing a little karaoke at Warrilow's in Ferndale.  What a great birthday bar night!

SATURDAY:

There is no more perfect way to start the Saturday than a casual stroll around the Royal Oak Farmers market.  This is one of my favorite places in the world.  The fresh local veggies, herbs, flowers.  The people who are passionate about their organic grass-fed goat cheese and carefully cultivated mushrooms.  It's just a calming place with great people.  Melissa met up with me and we bought some flowers for home before we headed out to lunch. (Rockin the Blackrocks Honey Lav shirt!)





Off to lunch at Kouzina.  Great little place where you order at the counter and get amazing greek food.  I always get the bowl with rice pilaf, chicken, beets, tomatoes, cucumber, feta, and lots and lots of pickled beets!  And of course the tzatziki sauce!  SO GOOD!









What an awesome surprise for birthday week - a couple of friends had someone back out, and so they offered me the extra ticket to the Kid Rock concert.  AWESOME!

I was never a big Kid Rock fan until my friend Amy brought me to his concert during birthday week a few years ago.  I have to tell you, the man puts on one hell of a show!  And he's so great that he solicits sponsors for his shows so that he can keep ticket prices low.  We were halfway up the DTE pavilion on the side, and I think our tickets were $35.  I mean that's really cool!  My favorite part of the show was when he told us a little story about his life, and the songs that corresponded with that part of his life.  He would then play a part of the song and move on.  He has so many hits that there would be no way to play all of them in one concert, so it was a brilliant way to play everyone's favorites, but in a portion of the time since he didn't play the whole song.  My favorite part of the compilation was when he said, "I finally had a hit record and I made a lot of money.  So I moved out to LA and found the PRETTIEST, DUMBEST, girl I could find."  Of course he was talking about Pamela Anderson ... sorry, that was just really funny.  There was a lot of "O" looks and "did he really just say that?"  I would stay away from the drinks inside - they are pricey, and you don't want to spend half of the concert waiting in the bathroom line!  We had some cocktails while sitting by the car before we had in.  We didn't make any friends, but I did compliment a neighbor car on their music choice.  All Poison, all the time!  It was a great night - thanks Sam & Mary Jo!!

 

SUNDAY:

Sunday we woke up and headed out to Ann Arbor's Argo canoe livery for our annual "Tubing and Drinking" - with a floating cooler for drinks, and a stop for a potluck lunch.  This is a great river to float down with a handful of mini rapids that just makes it fun enough to break up the relaxing floating, but not big enough to really be any big deal.  Of course, there is the one exception for last year, when Sea, Kimmy, and a couple other tubes were tied together so Kimmy's tube got sucked under at the end of the rapid, in which case her arms flew above her head and she punched Seabrook in the face.  But NORMALLY that doesn't really happen!  It is kid-friendly all around.  They have to be 10 for a rental tube, but when you bring your own tube or float, it's up to your discretion, AND it's free!

The only issue we really have is that they also put canoes and kayaks (they continue far down
the river, while the tubers get out and the end of this small run and go back to the top), so you have to dodge them, or they dodge you.  So we did I think 3 runs down, stopped for lunch (Thanks Bri for packing our lunch!), and did a couple more runs before calling it a day.  Great sun, great people!  Thanks for joining - Sea, Mary Jo, Makenna, Hailee, Charlotte, Sam, Logan, Logan's cousins, Michelle, Donna, Billy, Kimmy, Aaron!  Did I miss anyone?

MONDAY:

Last day of birthday week, my birthday proper, Monday, August 10th.  It was a beautiful day, and my instinct was to go to Starbucks, and Einstein Bagel, and all the other places where I would get free stuff, but honestly, it was a great week and I was exhausted!  So I just chilled out, admired my garden, took a nap in my hammock, until it was time to get ready for a super cool dinner at a super cool restaurant in Detroit called Antietem.  Although we had some issues with timing (it took well over an hour to get dinner - and we're pretty sure our waitress forgot to put our order in), the food was amazing.  I was so busy eating that I didn't take pictures of all of the dishes but a couple.  Thanks Sea, Bri, and Katy, for joining me for the finale of birthday week.  I couldn't think of a better way to celebrate it!  And I got to wear a really cute dress.  Just sayin.

YAY BIRTHDAY WEEK!  

How are you celebrating your birthday week?

Peace.  Love.  Serene.

Mom's Birthday Week

So this is exciting - I get to tell you about someone else's birthday week!  My Mom spent most of that week in Detroit with us (a few weeks ago), and we sure had fun!  She got a late start to her drive down because she broke her foot and had to stay in town for an orthopedic appointment!  NOT the proper way to start your birthday week, just for the record!

I must be out of practice in my blogging, because I didn't take pictures at everything we did, which I should of!  I will share what I can!

During the week we went to see Jurassic World in 3D, which was *INCREDIBLE* - I literally think there were 5 times during the movie that I turned to my mom and said "that was awesome".  I highly recommend going to see this in 3D before it leaves the theatres.  I can't imagine its the same at home.

We also went to the Detroit Zoo, which turned out to be an amazing day!  It was supposed to storm all day, so I think a lot of the crowds that would normally be there decided to stay home.  We strolled leisurely (well, she rolled, I wasn't going to make my mom hobble on crutches, so we rented an electric scooter!) through the park and didn't have to combat crowds.  It turned out to be a sunny and gorgeous day, with a slight to breeze to keep the temperature in check.  We particularly liked the rhino that was looking at us, and the penguins that had obviously found the A/C vent, and were basking in it!

On her birthday proper, my Mom, Bri, and I, started with a trip to the farmer's market, with breakfast at the cafe.  We then went to get mani/pedis.  We figured if people were going to look at the boot she's wearing, she better have pretty toes!

Next we went to One Eyed Betty's for a coke and an appetizer.  Great beer selection, but it was a little too early in the day for that.  (That's Bri on the right - you may remember her from Italy.  She helped make this day for my Mom super special!!)

From there, my brother picked her up in his great little

Porsche Speedster 356 

and took her for a tour around Detroit - she had never seen many of the sites before.  Talk about seeing the city in style!  This is one picture I wish I had for you, with her in the car, but at least I can show you the car!  That's me in it.  (Im not sure if the car has a name yet)

We ended the evening by going to one of the best steakhouses in town -

London Chophouse

I've had a lot of steaks in my life, and this was the best.  It was all ala cart, and we ordered steaks, salads, asparagus, potatoes, and of course wine.  It was fantastic!  And to top it off, my mom got a birthday surprise with dessert.  How cute is she?

All in all, a successful birthday week!  What will you do for your birthday week??

YAY BIRTHDAY WEEK!!

PEACE.  LOVE.  SERENE.

Birthday Week 2014

If you have read my Birthday Week Instructions, you know that I have a BIRTHDAY WEEK filled with family, friends, food, fun, and .... ok, I can't think of another F word (with my current relationship status anyway).  But you get the picture!

Welcome to Serene's Birthday Week 2014!

MONDAY:

Visited DYE SALON, and my HAIR GOD, Billy.  Here are the before and after shots.  Yep, Im a rockstar!  (and yes, that's purple!)

BEFORE

AFTER

TUESDAY:

I woke up to a warm thunderstorm.  This was the best wake-up ever.  Have I told you lately that I love rain?  And that LOVE thunderstorms?  The rain was making glorious music on my roof, with thunder as it's drums accompaniment.  It smelled so good, and I didn't have anywhere to be immediately, so I laid in bed for about a half hour listening to the rain and cuddling with my cat.  It was heaven.

Then I got up and had the most amazing massage (Thanks Tanya!) at OPTIMAL WELLNESS.  Seriously, this girl is awesome and so intuitive! Then a much-needed adjustment with Dr. Michaella Walter.  No, the picture isn't me, but I thought it would kill the mood to ask Tanya to pause the massage and take a selfie.  It's really just for effect. Ahhhhhh.

Feeling fantastic, I stopped by ZUMBA for some birthday tacos and guacamole - and 50% off with my birthday coupon!

WEDNESDAY:

Since I had a few hours to fill before dinner, I met my friends Katy and Jennifer at the pool.  Yes, handstands happened.  Yes, I fell in first!  But look!  Pointed toes!!

Dinner at Michael Symon's ROAST in the Detroit Westin Book Cadillac (read, fancy schmancy).   Thanks Bri, you're AMAZING!  Holy whah this dinner was so good.  Michael Symon really knows how to prepare food.  Other than the slightly disturbing GOAT (yes, the entire goat) that was spinning on a spit for the entire meal, the food was divine.  We had a few stand-out dishes (shown below).  Then they asked if we wanted dessert.  We almost turned them down because we were so full, but then decided to try TWO!  And guess what ... we finished both of them:

THURSDAY:

I met my great friend, Sherri, at TIC TAC NAILS for a mani/pedi.  Look at my toes!  I love it!  They really pampered us.  We then went to lunch at IRONWOOD in Plymouth.  The french dip was really good, and really big!  I ate the rest for lunch the next day.  Love you, Sherri!

Some of my gymnastics club staff was also planning on going out after work to celebrate, but it was a bad night for everyone, so we decided to postpone until the following Tuesday.  YAY!  We went to the MOOSE PRESERVE.  Great little patio in the summer time, and crazy menu items like Duck Tenders, Rabbit Ravioli, Venison, Quail, and my favorite menu item to say, Buffaloaf.  We have also recenly discovered that they make the tastiest, crispiest, parmesan brussel sprouts in town.  I don't usually even LIKE brussel sprouts, but WOWZA, these are amazing.  But more importantly, I love the people that I work with!!

FRIDAY:

Samantha, you are a spider monkey!  Check us out at the WEST BLOOMFIELD ADVENTURE PARK.  SO MUCH FUN!!  For 2 hours we climbed, balanced, zip lined, and worked our little tails off.  It was mostly a ropes course - extreme balance and arm strength needed for some of the obstacles!  I can't WAIT to go back!  I keep saying how much I like the warrior dash, but I hate the running. Well, this is pretty close!  As Sam has coined it, "The fun without the run."

Much higher than some of the pics reflect ...  Some examples of how high.  Do you see how far my foot looks from the ground? 

And then we ended the night with tacos and margaritas!  

How could we go wrong?

SATURDAY:

After brunch at ONE EYED BETTY'S (Really really good mixed berry waffle and a mimosa - sorry, no picture!), I relaxed on my back deck for a bit before getting ready for an EPIC night!

My HOTTIE FRIENDS arrived at my house to pick me up and have a quick drink.  Then my brother arrived to drive me around all night in his Porsche Speedster.  YES!  I felt so cool.  Apparently it was black dress night!

We started for a drink (or two, or three, depending on who you are) at VALENTINE VODKA.  I was so excited to see so many people show up!  YAY!  I love my friends!!  If you haven't been there, definitely try it out!  They are a distillery, so they only serve their own liquor.  The have their basic Valentine vodka, then my favorite, an outstanding White Blossom Vodka, which has flavors of elderflower & grapefruit.  SO GOOD!  In fact, I need a new bottle - maybe for Christmas?  They also distill a fantastic whiskey, that was only recently debuted since it is aged for 4 years.  There is a gin on the menu, but I can't tell you anything about it because I don't drink gin!

The bar brought over a free birthday shot.  Now, I don't do shots.  Everybody knows that.  Don't buy them for me - I'll just give it to someone else no matter how much you try to guilt me into it.  BUT when a bar sends one over and stands there waiting for the glasses back, you can't just give it to someone else.  If it had been the elderflower vodka I may have been ok, but it was a straight vodka shot with a spicy (and I mean SPICY) pickle juice chaser.  So I took it.  

And that's how THIS face happened ....

An important part of the evening:  DINNER!  We all tumbled onto the patio at COMO'S.  Service was mehh.  The food was really good.  The best item on the list:  MEATBALLS!  I don't know why ... they are phenomenal!  I loved having a whole crew there!

Next stop, per big brother's request, was a drink (or two or three) and THE STONE HOUSE in Detroit.  Great dirty little bar that reminded me of the WOODEN NICKEL in Marquette, MI.  And we got this FABULOUS group photo.  This is my posse.

 Next pics are GREAT FUN, GREAT FRIENDS,

AND GREAT LEGS!

And to end the perfect evening?  WHAT ELSE?  Karaoke at THE INN PLACE.  Ok, I got yelled at for singing with other people, when they had entered the song under just their names.  But WHO CARES!  IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!  We sang several songs and closed out the night, headed home drunker than we intended, hoping for a few hours of sleep before waking up early for our tubing adventure!!

SUNDAY, Aug 10th (Birthday proper):

The birthday birthday day.  Perfect 80-85 degrees, very little humidity.  Lots of sun, but not sweating and burning!  We all arrived, eventually blew up our tubes (damn blowers kept pooping out!), and some of us rented tubes.  We didn't get as close to the location as we wanted to, but a short block walk wasn't too bad.  We grabbed our large group of people, plopped into the water, and enjoyed the day.  There are mini rapids for a little bit of fun.

We stopped to have a little picnic lunch, and then back on the river for more.  Katy took this picture from a tree ... she's a little monkey.  That makes me want to climb trees!!  (I guess that's another blog) Ok, so we used the rental tubes for a lot longer than 2 hours.  Actually, someone was called out on it (Im not sure who), and they said "Just one more run!" and ran away!   : )  Oh, children!

Finally the end of the day involved getting the air out of the tubes (Sam & Mary Jo) 

and other shenanigans

It was a great week with great friends.  I don't know how we could have fit any more fun in there!  Who else wants a birthday week?  I can help you!  

I love all of you guys!!

Peace.  Love.  Serene.