Whew! It’s been a busy week, so I finally had a chance to pop by and share the (4) winners from my Birthday Giveaway. Congratulations to Anne, Laura, Bernie, and Kath.
I asked all of you to share your most memorable birthday gift as part of the giveaway, and I thought it would be only fair if I reciprocated. Two birthday’s really quickly came to mind for me. First… I was able to pick out a cat, get my ears pierced, and I started piano lessons when I turned 5 (all things I was very, very excited about).
Rueben
Rueben (yes, we spelled it wrong) was my buddy for 17 years. 🙂 The things he let me do to him as a kitten were ridiculous: in the photo above, he’s wrapped in a blanket (crocheted by my maternal grandmother) and placed in a kid’s toy grocery cart. I then proceeded to “walk” him around outside the neighborhood in the middle of summer and he was content to put up with it. He also tended to sleep in my hair at night. We were best buddies.
Pre-Flight
On my birthday in 2013, I had the opportunity to fly in an Extra 300 as a chase photographer for the second powered flight of SpaceShipTwo. The pilot of the Extra 300 was CJ Sturckow.
2013 Birthday
I had a GoPro on my forehead and a camera in my hands to help document the flight (all part of the responsibilities of being in the chase photographer). You can see the waffle pattern from having the GoPro on pressed into my forehead at lunch after the flight in the photo above.
Both are memorable birthdays, although the chase flight wasn’t a gift as much as a very fortunate and amazing timing coincidence. Thank you for everyone who shared your special memories.
Cute photo of that kitten. Glad you enjoyed your birthday.
I hope you had a wonderful birthday!
Congratulations to your birthday giveaway winners! Certainly enjoyed reading about your most memorable birthdays!
Whoa! I had forgotten that CJ went to Virgin Galactic after leaving NASA. That must have been such a fun experience!! Definitely birthday-worthy. 🙂
Such great memories. I love that you have a picture of your cat.
HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY!!!! Yvonne, it was such fun reading your post today and discovering your shared delights! I love the picture of Rueben, he is adorable and I know how fun he was. I had a Siamese cat that let me do the same kind of things to him all of his life, he lived to be 22. I can not even imagine the joy and excitement that you had with your flight! I am so glad that you got to experience it!! Again, I am so sorry for missing your Birthday. So, go have a special Cupcake on me today! Brenda
That is one patient cat! And a very eventful 5th birthday! I am glad you enjoyed this one. I liked hearing your stories from birthdays past and am glad the timing worked out for you for the chase flight. Last year, we had the pleasure of my husband taking his oath as a US citizen on his birthday–totally coincidence, but it made it that much more special.
Very fun birthday memories! The second one sounds like a lot of fun.
What a great birthday memory of photographing from a chase plane! Now that is one from the memory books–and I think it ranks a touch higher that the other two, in my estimation. But what a patient cat!
How did I miss this post??? It was great. I love thinking of five year old Yvonne and Rueben-with-the-misspelled-name!! So cute.
Thank you again for the wonderful mini — I love it.