Gina's 30th Birthday... "Cinco de Gina!"

My amazing sister Gina is turning THIRTY!  In honor of her, we planned a fun girls weekend down at the Pajaro Dunes in Watsonville, California.  My Mom and Natalie flew in Thursday evening and we continued the planning and assembling process to ensure Gina's birthday weekend was going to be the best!

On Friday, Gina a few of her friends met up at our house and we loaded two cars full of all the fun that would that would take place during the weekend.  Think tons of food, fun toys for the beach, lots of items for her themed birthday nights, and a lot of other things that we just needed since we were staying at a beach house.

Fourteen of her closest girlfriends were planning to join us for the weekend.  Most of them were from either Seattle or San Francisco so we had to coordinate everyone flying/driving.  The house we rented slept fourteen so it was perfect!  The view from our private deck was unbelievable and the beach was only about 400 feet away!  Not to mention that we had amazingly sunny and warm weather all weekend!  It was perfect any way you looked at it.

The first night, the theme was 30 Rocks!  We basically combined the idea of Gina turning 30 with the television show 30 Rocks.  If any of you have seen the tv show before, you know there are a lot of little things that make this show unique.  We tried to use a lot of them in the party.  We had self made trucker hats for Gina, personalized 30 Rock lanyards (courtsey of my Dad), Tina Fey (aka Liz Lemon) black glasses for everyone, Liz Lemonheads, and a Tracy Morgan mug for Gina.  Needless to say, the night was amazing and Gina loved every minute of it.

The next day was Cinco de Mayo, hence the weekend theme of Cinco de Gina.  We had sombreros, mustaches, Gina wore a mini sombrero, and we had fun glow necklaces for all the girls to wear at night.  It was a blast.  The definite highlight of the whole weekend for me was when Gina was talking about how she hoped she wouldn't regret not going in the ocean on her birthday weekend.  It was mid afternoon on Saturday and I asked Gina, "If someone asked you to go in, would you go?"  She thought about it.  I then said, "Because if it was someone's birthday and they wanted to go in the ocean, I would totally go." 

We made eye contact and both of us ran down to our bedroom and put on our swimsuits.  With our sombreros on, we made a deal that the minute we left the house, we could not stop running until we crashed into the ocean.  It was some of the best laughing of my life.  We didn't tell anyone we were going so when they saw us from the deck running full speed, wearing sombreros- they all went crazy!  Natalie soon joined us in the waves and absolutely added to the hysterics.

I can speak for Gina and say that she had a great birthday weekend.  I am such a lucky girl to not only have her as my sister, but as my best friend.  She is always there for me.  She is honest, loving, and such a blast to be around.  A while back, I heard Oprah talking about her best friend (yes, I do love me some Oprah).  She said that a best friend is someone who will tell you the truth when it's not easy to be honest and someone who would be 100% happy, without jealousy, for you if your life suddenly changed (winning the lottery, becoming famous, etc).  Basically, a best friend is someone who loves you no matter what, who can be happy for you no matter what, and who values you as much as you value them.  Yep, that's my Gina. 

Gina . . . Happy Birthday to you!  Thirty years old.  I can't believe it.  In so many ways, I still feel like we're kids- snooping around the house, getting into trouble when we found all of Mom's hiding places.  You were and are always by my side and I thank you for always making me feel so worthy of your friendship.  You are very honest with me and have advocated for me since my first memories with you.  I know you read my diary everyday and went through all of my things, but I still love you!  My kids adore you and are so lucky to have you as their Auntie and Damien's life is certainly brighter with you in it.  We all love you and welcome you to this amazing new decade.  Welcome to the club.  Happy Birthday, Gina!!!