My Valentine Birthday, 2017

At about 8:30 on the morning of my Valentine birthday, 
I was in my jammies reading my birthday cards 
(which I religiously save until my birthday),

and the doorbell rang.
I jumped out of the couch and ducked into our bedroom and
Roger raised our front door blind up. 
There stood the Walkie Talkies, a group of friends and neighbors who gather every morning 
at first light to walk together. 
These cute friends have invited me to join them many times, 
but my style of exercise, 
not being much of a morning person, is hitting our treadmill about mid-morning.
I thought, oh what the heck, and reappeared in all my jammie glory. 
 When they saw me, they burst into singing Happy Birthday, and they gave me these delicious tarts 
that one of them had made. 
As is evident in the pic, I couldn't wait to taste it before I got a pic.

Ever since we moved to St. George, my very-much-loved visiting teacher, Janice, 

has sent me flowers for my birthday every year.

Aren't they beautiful?

Roger and I have the tradition of spending one night in Las Vegas on or around my birthday and Valentine's Day. We got ready and drove there in time for lunch. 

We ate at the Cheesecake Factory and shared my favorite there, Chicken Marsala and mushrooms.

Neither of us like cheesecake, but the waiter brought me this cute little sundae.

After shopping a little in the outlets off Charleston, we checked in at the Wynn's Encore, 

a hotel we haven't stayed in before.

Our son, Ryan, and his wife, Emily, treated us to a night in Vegas, including dinner,

 for Christmas and my birthday, 

so, thank you, guys, it was absolutely wonderful!

We changed and then went for a walk through the Encore and the Wynn. 

They are beautiful properties with the theme of flowers and butterflies.

The mosaic floors are works of art.

The Wynn had gorgeous lanterns up celebrating Chinese New Year.

A month earlier, Roger made reservations at AquaKnox, a wonderful seafood restaurant in theVenetian.

We shared their Valentine special, a crab-stuffed lobster tail and a New York steak.

Probably our very favorite part of the meal was our shared appetizer, called The Trio.

It was a lobster cocktail with champagne mignonette, 

shrimp ceviche and a crab cocktail with mustard sauce and caviar.

Oh my goodness, we were in heaven!

For dessert, we shared a delicious chocolate souffle.

Yum!

I love getting calls from my kids on my birthday.

Mindy caught up with me while we were browsing through shops in the Venetian.  

I was sitting on a bench outside a store called Karma Luck, and while I was chatting with her, 

a pretty necklace hanging from a wall in the store kept sparkling in my line of vision.

After we hung up, I told Roger I had to go see up close what kept catching my eye.

After close inspection, I decided to buy it with some of my birthday money. 

This friendly clerk placed it in the white receptacle shown below, gonged it three times 

to remove the "bad" karma it might have received from other people touching it, 

then handed it to me.

I just went with it.

Kinda fun.

Next day, we shopped in the Fashion Show mall, ate lunch at Mon Ami Gabi, drove out to Primm 

to spend a gift certificate from Stacy and Tom at William Sonoma outlet and got back home before midnight.

It was such a fun way to celebrate a holiday and my birthday rolled into one!