Birthday Calls and New Car Pickup

I was wide awake by 7 knowing it was going to be a big day.

My morning started with Instagram reels for both Shaina's and Renn's birthdays. They looked simple enough when I started, but wow, they took far longer than expected. At least I had coffee in hand while I worked.

Harley got fed too and, thankfully, seems to be back to eating normally again.

I also fired off an early birthday text to Sharon. My Gemini triplets all celebrated today.

Knowing Renn would be awake and into her presents by then, I FaceTimed her around 8:30. She was excited to show me everything — balloons, new toys, and the Starbucks drink she was proudly sipping. I think it was a sweet vanilla foam creation of some sort.

A little later I tried calling Shaina. Predictably, she was still sleeping at 9, but she called back later while I was getting ready for the day.

B arrived around 11 after feeding the horses. We wrapped up our last-minute tasks and jumped in with her for a courtesy ride to Calgary on her way to an appointment. Hard to beat that.

She dropped us off at the Volkswagen dealership around 12:20, well ahead of our 1:30 appointment. The weather couldn't have been more different than home. While the ranch sat under grey skies, Calgary was bathed in sunshine, just like it had been when I FaceTimed Renn earlier.

The pickup process took far longer than expected.

There was the vehicle walkthrough covering every button, feature, screen, and setting imaginable. Then we met with the finance representative who worked through all the optional packages and extras. And sold us all of them!

Meanwhile at Shaina's apartment, the birthday twins celebrated with gifts and cake.

Eventually, just after 3 o'clock, I finally drove our new vehicle out of the showroom.

Success.

Our next stop was a very late lunch because neither of us had thought much about food during the excitement. After that we made a quick stop at Homesense hoping to find bedding and a yoga mat.

No luck on either front.

May be the last time the tires are polished and the white pearl is pure white.

Costco was next on the list where we grabbed a roast for Shaina's birthday supper tomorrow along with some PJ's for Miss Renn. Naturally, an ice cream sundae somehow found its way into the cart too and made the perfect ride-home snack.

By the time we rolled back into the ranch, Harley was standing guard and looked more than a little suspicious of the shiny white newcomer pulling into the garage.

The sun had finally made an appearance at home too, and with temperatures sitting around 18 degrees, it felt pretty nice outside. After updating my banking information, I took Harley and Stella for a walk while S rested both his eyes and his knee.

Since lunch happened so late and the ice cream finished us off, supper wasn't necessary.

Sheldon is not sure about the pink ambient lighting, guess we will see what color comes next.

Instead, we settled in for a relaxing evening.

We finished watching the Down to Earth documentary we had started the night before. It is focused on the health benefits of simply walking barefoot for fifteen minutes a day, which was surprisingly interesting.

Definitely worth watching.

After that, we watched a couple more episodes of Clarkson's Farm, the series Matt recommended.

I can see why.

It's informative, completely ridiculous at times, and genuinely funny.

Not a bad way to end a birthday-filled day that started with FaceTime calls and ended with a new set of keys sitting on the counter.