My 30th Birthday

I LOVE birthdays. I love any excuse to celebrate, and especially when it's ALL for ME! Call me vain, shallow, whatever! You know you all feel the same way! Was I excited about turning 30? NO. But, can't really stop that from happening, so I made the most of my day. I did some shopping with the kids (not as fun as if I were with friends and no kids, but such is the life of a mom), went to Costco for lunch (and like 1 item...but you can't beat a hotdog AND drink for $1.50!) and then I spent almost the entire 2 hours of my kids' naptime doing whatever I wanted - in other words - NO housework :)

Jared got home for work and surprised me with these: I decided for dinner I wanted to try out a local well known restaurant. It's a western-type themed place, cute decor, decent food (EXCELLENT scones!!!), but terrible service! Oh well.

Mia took this picture of Jared and I which turned out GREAT and I love it! It's really nice having our own little photographer with us wherever we go :)Dinner at a restaurant with a 3 1/2 year old and a 19 month old is never fun (note-to-self: next year make Jared get a babysitter for b-day dinner!). The kids were ok, but like I said, the service wasn't that great and you can only hold off 2 toddlers for so long! Thank goodness for Jared's phone and "Sprint TV". (It's kind of hard to see, but it's propped up against the camera case in the bottom right corner)Once we did get our food, the kids were still not so great. Thankfully there weren't many people around, so they didn't have to see Mia eating under the table and thinking she was hilarious. At least she never set her sandwich down on the floor, right?!And then there was Gavin who wouldn't sit in the highchair or touch his food. All he wanted to do was drink water. Notice the nice kid's cup? What kind of dumb restaurant doesn't have LIDS for their kid's cups?! Note-to-self #2 - the next time we go to Porter's, bring own sippy!Notice Jared holding the kids in all the pictures?! He was so awesome and graciously dealt with both kids the entire night so I could enjoy my dinner! Hurray! It sounds like I hated the restaurant, but I am glad we went. It was fun to try something new, instead of going to the same places we always do.

Then it was back home for presents and cake. Jared spoils me every year for my birthday. But he tried especially hard this year because he left the day after my birthday for a fun trip to FL and will be gone 4.5 days! He got me much needed new jeans and workout clothes, all my favorite treats (swedish fish, licorice, and his secretary got me choc. covered cinnamon bears - YUM!), new running shoes, and he totally surprised me with a gift certificate for a cut and color and a 1 HOUR spa pedicure at a salon! WAHOO! Can't wait to use that one! Thanks Jared for totally spoiling me and making me feel like a million bucks on my birthday!

Finally, it was time for cake! Jared gets me an ice cream cake every year for my birthday. It's the only time we ever get one, so I LOVE it! We had discussed that he get a pretty small one, since there's only 4 in our family and he was leaving out of town. So what does he come home with? The BIGGEST size ice cream cake that BR makes, I think! I was like, WHAT?! What happened to small?! Apparently, he somehow got it into his head that I had said I wanted chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream (believe me...I NEVER said this!) So, since he was trying so hard to get everything perfect, he looked everywhere for choc & vanilla (well, he actually sent his secretary out everywhere!) and the only chocolate/vanilla was this ENORMOUS size! Ha, ha! I was laughing so hard when he told me this story. But thank you Jared for making such an effort to make my day! You are the absolute best and I am so lucky! I love you! You made turning 30 almost bearable :)