Birthday 3

So this is actually part two of my birthday.  Time kind of got away from me... 

Brandon's daily surprises leading up to birthday were, as always, awesome.

Birthday itself was also. awesome. 

Woke up to a lovely cake decorated by my girls with loads of fresh flowers.  Ahhh. After some perfect present opening, we headed over to a trail that Brandon had found near to red rocks.  Although the hike was only 2-3 hours long, we did manage to trudge through some snow, climb to a great overlook to view downtown Denver, get lost (harder to see the trail when there is snow!) and circle the same 80 ft stretch a few times till we found our way, and find the ruins of a castle.  Good times!  Can't remember the name of the family that built this 'castle', but if memory serves, it was built near the turn of the 20th century by a (of course) very wealthy man,  He planned to make his property a place that US Presidents could vacation when they were out west.  With in a year of it's completion, however, his wife died and then (I think) about 7 years after that it was struck by lightning and burnt to the ground.  I guess he took that as a bad omen as after the fire he decided to leave town. 

I loved being out with the fam, though, and was pleased the sun decided to come as well. ;)

The castle.  The kids were actually all collapsed, exhausted, on a bench right before this, but were sweethearts to show some energy for the camera.

One of my sweet coworkers made me a personalized nursing card for my birthday, as well as some fajitas for lunch.  Mmm!
I'm enjoying my CNA class but do miss the company of Sandy, JoNell, and Brisa.