My 41st birthday weekend

The Ipes dine at the *new* Steak N Shake in West Windsor

The Ipes dine at the *new* Steak N Shake in West Windsor

This year I wanted to keep my birthday pretty low-key. No big parties. No dressing up.  No big fancy dinners. No polite debating whether the 40-year-olds should go to a club, and see who drops out before we get to the sidewalk.

During the day, I was running around during errands, but the four Ipes met up for lunch — specifically, burgers, fries, and milkshakes — at the new Steak N Shake that somewhat recently opened up in West Windsor. Yes, you heard me. A Steak N Shake located above the Mason-Dixon Line. I can’t believe it, and they have the hats!

In the evening, the brave / fun people met up at Air Trampoline Sports on Rt 35 in Cliffwood NJ. We were going to dress comfortably, and act like kids again. For an hour, we jumped on trampolines, played dodgeball, and jousted like American Gladiators.

20170422_183752.mp4 from Joel Ipe on Vimeo.

While they also had a rock wall available, I decided to try to conquer this thing called the Walking Sticks, where you climb successfully higher on these wobbly podiums. It gets high, and you can easily lose your balance. You know what, I’m 41 years old. At this point in my life, the only thing I have to be afraid of in life is quitting. And I ain’t no quitter. Never have been. Never will.

Joel Conquers the Walking Sticks from Joel Ipe on Vimeo.

After we all got hot and sweaty, we met up with our friends Lenny and Evanessa at Big Ed’s BBQ in nearby Matawan for endless all-you-can-eat ribs. My God, there was a lot of food.

Lazy Sunday afternoon with the Josephs

Lazy Sunday afternoon with the Josephs

On Sunday, I went to the gym, we all went to church, and had lunch at home. After lunch, we drove down to my south Jersey to watch my niece Abigail play soccer, then we hung out at the playground, and around my sister’s house. We later had dinner, had some birthday cake, then got on the road home.

Oh, in case you were wondering about birthday gifts…

  • a couple Amazon gift cards (always appreciated)
  • a new Polar H10 heart rate monitor for when I go cycling or working out while traveling
  • a new lens hood for my Nikor 55-200 mm lens
  • a replacement copy of Star Wars Episodes IV-VI on blu-ray, since no one knows what happened to my original set

[simpleviewer gallery_id=”145″]

 

This is how you celebrate being 41, people.

This entry was posted in Family, Friends and tagged , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *