Pretty, pretty, pretty good

Yesterday I became 26 years old. The night before we had a bunch of people over to hang out in our apartment and have a grand old time. It was sweet to have some chill time to talk and laugh with people that I had been training alongside all of this week. Good to get out of meeting mode and into fun mode.

Erik surprised me with singing me to sleep that night as it was officially the 15th of August by the time we headed to bed. Ahh, one of my favorite things about being married to EJ, the musician. Then we woke up Saturday to have a true Erik and Becky adventure as we paddled 12.8 miles down a river with a group of new friends.

We checked out the school van and drove to the countryside to rent kayaks and take a mini-bus to our drop point 20 km up the river. We were surprised to find that the water in the "river" was about waist deep in most parts and we were glad that we had decided to forego the life jacket rental due to the extra and seemingly unnecessary charge. The sun was shining and I felt like it was a day to fully relax as we paddled downriver. Another one of my favorite things...relaxing. We paid little attention to the map because there really was no way to go the wrong direction; we figured we would get there when we got there. Our stop for lunch happened to be a spot on a hill that had a sweet rope swing and we were soon joined by some local boys to utilize the swing into the river. Erik and Steve launched themselves off the high tree branch to land in the river using the swing as well. The mood was still pretty laid back at this point. Little did we know that our lunch spot was only 1/5 of the way into our journey for the day. The paddling continued.

And continued. The sights were beautiful. We saw some native wildlife as well as some native Lithuanians. I even had a drunk guy swim out to my kayak and try to hitch a ride down river with me. The thing I was most concerned about was getting tipped over and getting fully submerged. I survived without getting wet. And the paddling continued. At this point we got more serious about our paddling as we finally did the math and realized that 20 km meant we were going to have to paddle 12.8 miles. We made it to the end. We were still having fun, although our enthusiasm was all used up. We were glad to come to the end. The picture here shows one of the odd sights we saw along the way...a bicycle hanging in the air with fresh flowers in the front basket.

Well, our experience took the entire day as it was 8 o'clock when we got back home. Erik ran to the grocery once again and then we made spaghetti for dinner. Mary called just in time to share my birthday dinner with us. I think we are getting the hang of these Skype conversations. There was a moment while we were all interacting that I almost started crying because I felt like Mary was really sitting in our apartment with us and I wanted it to be true. I am thankful for technological advances. Later Erik and Jaxxon were hanging out on their respective couches having a Skype conversation while I put together a collage frame of our wedding photos to hang in our apartment. Now and again I feel like being crafty.

Well, that was my day. Some of you already know that I have a lot of expectation and anticipation when it comes to celebrating birthdays. This was a true success. It was fun to get out with 5 new people who are quickly becoming friends. It was fun to have a day away from work and all the planning that is going on for the soon-to-arrive student leaders. It was fun to be outside and get physically worked out on the water. Thanks to many of you for all of the kind messages and emails I was blessed to receive when I got home last night. Each of them warmed my heart. Thanks for caring for me. I will leave you with a quote from Erik, spoken aloud this morning. "If there's one thing to celebrate in life, it's each other."