Well, Hello 31.

Years. Not flavors.

Although back in high school I really loved me a Cappuccino Blast with Gold Medal Ribbon.

Anyhoo, here's my birthday cake...

It was pretty darn good! Beat my expectations for a gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free cake. I picked up some of the Bob's Red Mill gluten free Vanilla Cake Mix the last time we were at Metro Market. I looked for some dairy-free frosting, but no luck so I figured I'd look online for a recipe. Strangely enough, Cindy over at Gluten Free in Montana posted a recipe for Dairy Free Creamy White Frosting that very same day! Perfect. I ended up using about 5Tbsp of rice milk. The icing was a bit sweet for me so if I make it again I'd probably cut the sugar a bit. I'm not a huge icing fan anyway, so no surprise there. The cake was good too. Moist and fluffy like a "normal" cake. The strawberries were an afterthought -- Glenn picked them up because they were on sale & thought they'd be good on the cake. I agreed and Beanie had a great time arranging them with me.

******

And now about my birthday. It was great. Bubby helped me celebrate by being up to nurse every hour the night before ;-)  And Beanie woke up early, but Glenn got up with her. Glenn made breakfast & then we went on a hike. I had thought Beanie would like to walk some or all of the way, but she rode in the Kelty backpack. I carried Bubby in the Ergo. I can tell I'm out of shape because hiking back up I was hurting!! Beanie had a great time finding (and eating of course) huckleberries & Bubby enjoyed the scenery when he wasn't napping. It was our first real hike as a family of four. Glenn BBQ'd for dinner and then we did presents & cake. I got a gift card to go have some me time & go clothes shopping!! Woohoo. I keep holding out on buying anything because I have so many pants from my post-partum time with Beanie that almost fit. I really could use a few new things though and I can always go shopping again when I am at my desired weight again.

Here's a few pics from our hike. It wasn't a great time of day for photography with the sun out & very bright (and I was taking pics with my cell phone camera), but you get the idea.

The upper falls.

This picture does not do the scenery justice at all. It was gorgeous & I really wish Glenn had had his camera on him.

  The lower falls.

Anyway, happy birthday to me!