The Big 4-0!

This is probably bad of me, but I've been warning David for a YEAR that I wanted him to do something spectacular for me on my 40th birthday.  Seriously - since I turned 39.  I felt like 40 was a big deal and I didn't want him to treat it like any other birthday, so I flat-out told him to start saving up.  I said, "Like bouncy-house-and-pony-rides-big!"  I think it was incredibly kind of me as a woman to spell out exactly what I wanted so that he wasn't stuck with a blubbery, disappointed wife on his hands, don't you?

So, anyways...after a year of planning, I had a wonderful birthday weekend!  My parents took all five of our kids for two nights so David and I could get away.  How awesome is that?!?!  The weekend was looking good already!  David and I went to the Bountiful temple on Thursday afternoon.  It was the perfect way to begin the weekend.  We went straight from there to The Mandarin, a popular Chinese restaurant that we'd never been to.  When I say I ordered well, I mean I NAILED it!  The waitress told me about an "off the menu" item that she loves.  I think I actually startled people with my cry of joy when I took the first bite. It was that good!  David's food was delicious too.  We loved that meal!

After dinner, we checked into our hotel.  We had planned on spending the weekend in Salt Lake City, but decided that Station Park in Farmington was just as fun, the hotel was newer than most in Salt Lake, and it was cheaper.  What a pretty hotel it was!  

This is the view of Station Park that we had from our room.  Lovely!  

The hotel is really only a year or so old.  Everything was so nice!

Even the bathroom was pretty!

We went to the movie that night.  We watched "Spiderman."  Super fun!

The next day, after sleeping in (WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?!?!? I haven't slept in since Alison was born!) and eating a delicious breakfast at the hotel, David took me to Salt Lake City to go for a walk he'd been wanting to take me on.  We had a good time chatting as we walked.  David had been listening to a book on tape that he told me all about. It was very interesting. 

After a while, we came to this suspension bridge.  It was a bit unsettling to me.  But I made it across.   

Then, out of nowhere, we were in China.  

Just kidding.  We were in some cultural center.  We explored it for a while.  

And tried for about 5 minutes to get a good selfie with this statue.  As you can see, it didn't work.

After our walk, we went back to Station Park and saw another movie.  This time it was Wonder Woman (she's the one with the sword).  We counted the bucket of popcorn as our lunch.  

When the movie ended, David gave me my biggest birthday present of all.  He went shopping with me.  We walked around Station Park and went wherever I wanted to go.  He even watched me try on a bunch of clothes and helped me pick out a cute shirt or two.  Wow!  Now that's love!

We ate at Parkstone that night.  I got my favorite thing there - the barbecue chicken salad.  I couldn't eat the whole thing, but that was okay because our room had a fridge so I saved it for later.  Man! is it delightful!  Every bite is like a gift to your mouth!

Dave got this outrageous sandwich.  It was tasty.

Saturday was my actual birthday.  I might have been been pretty sad about leaving the hotel and returning to normal life, but I wasn't returning to normal life - I was returning to my birthday party!  We slept in again, ate yummy breakfast at the hotel again, I went shopping again while David packed up, then we checked out.  We met my whole family at the pool.  My brother-in-law, Scot has a birthday the day before mine, so this was a combined party for the two of us.  We swam, and had lunch there at the pool (delicious,but expensive, so very rare!) What fun!  

Instead of a birthday cake this year, we decided to do something extra special and dear to my heart.  We went and got snow cones!  It was so fun!  And refreshing!  It was the perfect end to a perfect birthday weekend.  I think 40 is going to be a good year!