Happy Birthday! Really.

I love my birthday.  I could care less about all of the age stuff, but a day about me, now we're talking.

Abby's card.  The animals are all pop-up, 3d.

Abby always makes her birthday cards.  They are amazing and sweet and I keep every one of course.  I found mine posted on the fridge when I grabbed the half n half for coffee.  She and Wiley had also left me tinker toy dinosaurs they had made the night before, with a note roaring, "Happy Birthday!".

JD cooked me breakfast and then I spent the morning...doing pretty much nothing...exactly what I wanted.  It was -23 degrees that morning when I woke up.

Wiley and JD took me to lunch at this great little BBQ place.  You can order combo plates with different meats and sides.  I chose brisket, short ribs and spare ribs and they were served with tangy coleslaw.  A perfect summery lunch on a super cold day.

I heard that the groundhog did not see his shadow that day and spring should be on the way.  Tell that to Wyoming, I think the little rodent froze to death here.

A ride on Bo on a more reasonable day.

JD wanted to ride that afternoon???? Umm, let me step in here and be the voice of reason.  JD is training a futurity colt for reined cowhorse.  You have to do a ton of training in a short time period in order to be ready for the futurity shows in their three year old year.  Anyway, I said no, he would surely freeze his nostrils, ears, toes, lungs and also those of his cutey little colt.  NO!  Those boys from Arizona, California, and Texas have you beat today, but wait until July.

Instead of riding outside, JD and Wiley brought Clementine into the shop for a trimming.

Clementine is the tiny ass JD got for me last Mother's Day.  I wanted a tiny ass and he delivered.  Anyway, since then, Wiley has pretty much stolen her.  The kids have a habit of stealing horses around here, damn horse thieves anyway.

And when they got done trimming...and since they were in a nice warm shop...Wiley might as well start his futurity colt. 

Bareback first.  The cement floor is a good deterrent from falling off.

Good girl.

JD and I made tacos for dinner together.  Pulled beef tacos, we all love them.

We usually make pico and guacamole to go with them but this time of year in Wyoming the avocados are less than perfect.  They were hard as rock and not good for mashing.  I threw them into the pico and they were wonderful.

Pico

6 roma tomatoes
1 medium onion
cilantro
4 jalapenos
2 avocados
lime juice
sea salt

Dice up the tomatoes, onion, avocados and jalapenos into really small pieces.  Add a few sprigs of finely minced cilantro.  Stir.  Add about 2 tablespoons of lime juice and about a teaspoon of the sea salt.  Yes, sea salt is better here.  Stir again.

This tastes better if you can make it a couple of hours ahead of time so the salt and lime juice can really soak in to everything.  Its really good directly on the tacos and later for snacking with chips or on top of scrambled eggs the next morning.  I love the stuff!

And after dinner...I've been waiting all day for this...CAKE!  CHOCOLATE CAKE!  Its the only kind there is, or should be.   A perfect ending to a fun day.

My birthday present from JD was this way cool, cowgirly hat!