Mi cumpleanooos

So I had pretty much been counting down to my BIRTHDAY WEEKEND because it was the weekend I would be going to the capital city, BOGOTA, to visit my family. My birthday weekend just also happened to coincide with Mother's Day weekend. It could not have been a more perfect time to spend with mi familia!

Buuut before I left to Bogota, I had a few birthday surprises waiting for me here in Cali. For one, my research group had a little birthday lunch for me. I went with about half the group went to an awesome typical Colombian restaurant right across the street from the university. Here is PROOF lol.

<Me and tha research gang.

        < They called it a "PAISITA" (note: anything ending in "-ita" supposedly means small/little...cheers to Colombian expressions haha)

And if anything must be in my birthday celebration, its gotta be SALSA dancing. Coincidentally (or not) that weekend a few friends from my tennis group invited me to go salsa dancing at a place called TINTINDEO. I was told (and can confirm) that this is one of the places in Cali that plays salsa and ONLY SALSA.  It was a perfect way to begin my birthday festivities! The best part was, because there were mostly guys in the group, I always had someone to dance with :).

Out salsa dancing with the tennis kids  >

And before you knew it, I was already off to BOGOTA to continue my birthday festivities. When I arrived in Bogota and saw MI BEAUTIFUL FAMILIA, I was so glad to be celebrating my first birthday ever in Colombia with my familia. I some good quality time with my cousins, uncles/aunts, and most importantly mi ABUELITA (hence Mother's day celebration weekend). I enjoyed every minute with them! Here is the evidence hehe.






<Cousins to the left and cousins + friend to the right >

< Cousins + friends

^ Meet my adorable gradmother and cute little cousin  

                                                                           <My cake reminds me of my grandmother...short and sweet haha.

Lovelyyy Hernandez cousins >

< Lovelyyy Perez cousins

            

                                

            Meet awesome uncle and wife here    >












 Meet some more lovelyy Perez family >










And before you knew it, it was my time to say my goobyes, thank you, and love yous. I really had an awesome weekend, and could not have asked for a better weekend to celebrate with my family! All weekend I had been so happy that I almost did not want to return back to Cali. After all was said and done, I had arrived back in Cali.... BUT to my surprise, I had some more CAKE and PRESENTS waiting for me. As soon as I walked into the house, I saw that my sweet host family had cake and presents waiting on the table for me. All the family immediately came out when I walked in and gave me big hugs/kisses/congratulations for my birthday. I wanted to cry because I was not expecting such a sweet surprise! This was def that CHERRY ON TOP of my day (and there was literally a cherry on top of my cake so it works hahah).

< Check out my cake and that cheryy!

These are the bright shining faces I saw when I walked into the house  >