***This is post #100 for Living Hilo Style! Thank you for reading along and following our adventures. I’ve been learning a lot about myself as I reflect on the things I do and why I do them. I’m glad that this post about spending time with friends is the milestone post.

As I get older, I find that birthdays are just another motivating factor (excuse) for our network of ladies to get together. When I was a child, birthdays were about being excited about getting a year older, eating cake and ice cream, and opening presents. At my age, I find that I often forget how old I am, I try to keep the cake and ice cream intake to a moderate level, and rather than receiving presents, I value spending time with loved ones so much more.

One recent Saturday was filled with a morning soccer game for my daughter in Hilo, picking up my son from the airport upon his return from a track meet on Oahu, driving him to Kona for his soccer game, and then returning to Hilo in the early evening.  After a day like this, it would be so relaxing and so easy to just stay home and read a book or watch some tv.However, one of my friends recently had a birthday which gave us the excuse and motivation to get a group of friends together to eat a pupu potluck feast, toast with some bubbly, laugh out loud, sing along to Pandora, and stay connected with each other.

Most of us are in our 40s and we are finding that one of the most important things in life is to stay connected with loved ones.  We connect with our families most of all but still find time for our friends. This keeps us healthy and sane. We work in different industries, participate in different hobbies, have children of different ages, but we still find a lot in common with each other. The motivation for this night was to celebrate a birthday, but the most precious gift for every single one of us was a night with a group of young-at-heart, beautiful-inside-and-out group of ladies.

And this being Hilo, we even meet up by chance early (well–not as early as usual) the next morning as we do our Sunday grocery shopping for the week!