My 53rd birthday.

Yesterday was my 53rd birthday!

I'm losing track of time these days. Tee hee...it doesn't seem possible I've lived that long.

I'm very thankful to God that He has allowed me to have such a wonderful life, filled with a lovely family consisting of my hubby Robert and son Matthew, and such a sweet Mom and Dad and dear siblings, some of whom I rarely see these days.

Robert was off on a summer camp with his cub scouts so seeing as it was up to me as to how to spend my day, I arose fairly early and headed to Metrotown in Burnaby to spend the day window shopping.

I've wanted to do this for a while now. Metrotown has really changed over the past 27 years. My favourite shops are long gone, and there are now high end stores like this one; Nine-West, an expensive shoe and handbag store. So we browsed in a few of them, imagining what we would buy if we had thousands of dollars of extra cash for non-essential items!

After Nine-West we headed to Godiva chocolates across the aisle.

I had wanted to buy one chocolate covered strawberry, but upon being told each one was $7.50 and a bag of five was $12.00 I splurged and bought the bag. Linda can't eat strawberries and Leona wouldn't eat one, so I shared them with my parents later.

They were superb but way too high priced. It turned out I had 6 strawberries in my bag so that was a bonus. Everywhere I went I told everyone it was my birthday, but alas, no one gave me any half price deals.

Eating at the food court in Metrotown, before the crowds arrived.

Linda and Leona.

I chose my favourite meal there from U-Grill. Everything is fresh and grilled right before your eyes. It's the most popular spot in the food court, besides the sushi. I do NOT like sushi.

After 4 hours of window shopping and eating and chatting, we went to my parent's apartment, where my Mom had tea prepared and a lovely decorated table. I bought a sponge fruit cake at St. Germain Bakery.

The outfit I am wearing was a gift from my Mom and Dad. It was purchased at Orchard Park mall in Kelowna last Saturday. I'll have to blog about that trip next!

I had such a nice day. Matthew even called and it was lovely to hear his voice. I miss him quite a bit. Robert texted me (I see that texted is still not in the dictionary) but I wish he could have been here too.

By Loretta Houben