Big Birthday Year

I celebrated a birthday not too long ago.  It was so great.  Kory had been up in Washington the couple of weeks beforehand, so I took a weekend off work and flew up to meet him for a weekend.  I always enjoy time with family, as every who knows me knows well.  When I arrived at the airport Kory greeted me with a beautiful bouquet of flowers, I am so lucky!  We also went to House of Doughnuts, which is my favorite treat up there!  We spend the day running errands for Rick, having lunch with Lynda, and then playing cards later that night.  Saturday Kory and I went to some great malls for some birthday shopping.  I was able to get some fun headbands, flower hair clips, and shoes that I can wear to work.  I absolutely LOVE them! What a great birthday gift.  After shopping we met up with the rest of the family at the Melting Pot.  I have never been to the Melting Pot, it was a really fun experience.  The cheese fondue was absolutely incredible! Yum!  I really enjoyed the 3-hour dining style, it felt very European to me :)  After dinner, Kory and I went on a Seattle date.  I told him I wanted to do something really touristy, because we never really get to do that when we visit.  So we went to the Space Needle!  It was very romantic, and lots of fun.  I have to find my cord to pull all of the pictures off of my memory card.  So hopefully I can do that soon.  Sunday dinner with the whole family over was so fun.  I absolutely LOVE all of my adorable nieces and nephews, I'm so lucky :)

I flew home to work while Kory stayed a couple of days longer to work.  After a crazy long road trip home (He was able to stop in Boise though! Thanks for the luggage Mom!) Kory made it home just in time for my birthday.  Unfortunately, because it was also my only day off for the week I still had tons of "day off errands and tasks" to accomplish.  We did go to Tucanos for lunch, which was a treat.  We tend to go twice a year, in the months where one of us is free due to a birthday.  I received some beautiful cards and wonderful gifts from my fabulous parents, in-laws, and aunt.  My best friend Aubree surprised me in the morning with some delicious Shirley's Bakery cinnamon rolls with cream cheese frosting that read "Happy Birthday."  I also received countless phone calls, a special email, text messages, voicemails, facebook posts, etc.  Mom always sings to me which I love, and Stephen sang the best Happy Birthday song I've ever heard.  The best thing about birthday is how they make you feel so special!  It was wonderful!  Thank you everyone who contributed to a great day! I love you all!

I even got to have a special birthday dinner on Sunday with family. The best part is the traditional birthday song and the delicious birthday cake!

Kory's Birthday Weekend! (Totally Belated)

We had so much fun celebrating Kory's birthday weekend! On Friday night we went to Texas Roadhouse with some of our favorite friends. We were also celebrating Stephanie's birthday, so dinner with everyone was totally appropriate and lots of fun! I had never been to Texas Roadhouse before and I loved it. I loved the appetizers, you can never go wrong with potatoes and melted cheese and bacon on top, or fried onions...yum! Their steak was delish, too.  The best part though, was probably seeing Stephanie and Kory riding the saddle in celebration of their special days. We have such amazing friends! Kory and I always talk about how lucky we are that we lived in this apartment complex our first year of marriage and have been able to become so close with such fun friends!

The next day was Kory's actual birthday.  The whole week before Kory's birthday I made a little "birthday gift corner" for Kory to look at every day in anticipation of his birthday.  I know, I'm kind of silly.  But I thought it was lots of fun.  The sign says, "My love Kory's Birthday Gifts!" First thing that morning he got to open one of his gifts.  I got him a few t-shirts and polos, because he has lots of great dressy clothes but not too many casual ones.  I was happy that he seemed to be excited about it. 

After that we went to Mimi's Cafe for breakfast.  Kory had never been there for breakfast before and it was such a treat!  We signed up for their e-club and both got free breakfast for doing so.  If you haven't done that already, you should!

When we got home I had Kory open his second gift, which was a notepad with a business cover to make it look classy.  He always needs to take notes at club meetings etc. now that he is in the business school and the strategy program.  Then Kory went shooting with some of the guys in his Elder's Quorum.  I think he had lots of fun with the boys!  He dressed up in his camo pants and totally played the part, haha.  My husband is so funny. 

When he got home I had him open his third gift.  It was an envelope with a little poem two stanza poem that I can't find and can't remember.  But anyway, that is how I told him we were getting a couples massage!  We went to Solasa (the place I now work as receptionist) and enjoyed an hour of relaxation.

The BYU football game was that evening.  We lost, boo, but still had lots of fun.  My mom was able to go to the game with Stephen and Stephanie.  She was in town because of Brett's wedding.  It was so fun having her!  I'm glad everyone got to go to the game.

Lastly, after the game we were able to have a bunch of friends over for an ice cream cake birthday party!  We  have so many great friends and neighbors, we always love an excuse to have people over.  It's hard to make sure everyone got the word when you're super busy so I know there were some people we missed.  But we are so happy that those who made it came, we love you guys!

I am so grateful for my wonderful, loving, and handsome husband.  I'm glad you had a great birthday sweetheart! I love you!

Adam's Birthday-End of Washington

Our last weekend in Washington we got to be there to celebrate Adam's birthday! Yay! We went to Claimjumper and it was delish! It was really fun having all the adults from Kory's family (minus Kelli and Jeremiah whom we missed tons!) together at dinner. Most of the entertainment was from taking pictures. They speak for themselves.













The next day was our last day in Washington. We helped clean around the house. Kory showed me a desk top that he had all of his friends sign as his "yearbook" one year. Then Mom and Rix took us to the mall and then the airport. We had such a great time in Washington.

My Birthday WEEK! :)

My Birthday was May 20th but I was privileged to celebrate the whole WEEK! :) My birthday morning I woke up and Kory sang happy birthday to me. Then I called my brother Stephen. He came over and sang happy birthday to me. Then we had a bowl of cereal and hung out while Kory went to class. It was fun to spend some time with him that morning.


When Kory was done with class we left the apartment and he took me to the destination where my birthday surprise from my amazing sister-in-laws was. They are so sweet! They arranged for me to get my nails done at a nice salon. I was totally surprised and very excited! My nails look beautiful, thanks girls! Kory left me while I got my nails done (which I didn't like, but I forgave him later haha).

When I was done he picked me up and we went to PF Changs for my birthday lunch. I really enjoyed lunch, but we were in a hurry because we needed to get to work by 1PM. Of course we still had enough time to take a picture.


Then we were on our way to work...until all of the sudden Kory asked if I trusted him. I said no, I was kind of joking (I typically DO NOT like surprises). He told me that was the wrong answer then headed south on I-15 instead of north to work. He said we had a dinner reservation we had to catch. I asked if we were going to Vegas, very excited. Then we were on our way to my surprise birthday celebration! Kory planned such a great surprise! It was totally unexpected and very exciting.

The road trip was a lot of fun. We just listened to music and talked. When we finally got to Vegas we were both tired. Luckily we had enough time to check into the MGM Grand and then get ready for our dinner reservation at the Wolfgang Puck Restaurant. Dinner was SO good! Plus they made a really cute birthday desert for me.





After dinner we went to KA the Cirque de Solei show. It was really cool. Part of it were really slow and weird. But for the most part, the stunts that those athletes can pull off are very impressive and entertaining. It was fun to do something out of the norm to celebrate my birthday! When the show was over we went dancing at the club Studio 54, which was also very fun. I love dancing with my husband.

The next day we got up and enjoyed a free buffet breakfast which was delicious. Then we went to see some of the MGM Lions. We watched them for quite a while, it was really neat.


We took some extra pictures that we didn't take the night before. We hadn't gotten ready for the day yet because we were just going to eat breakfast.


Later we left the hotel to explore the strip a little, but mostly to do some shopping. I went to Sephora and got my free birthday gift from them. Then I got a cute shirt from H&M. After some shopping we checked out and headed to our next destination, California!




I figured out that we were going to California the night before. It was going to be my surprise on Friday, but I had this feeling we were going. The story was that we were going to Vegas for the night and then going back to Utah so that we could fly to Washington for Memorial Day weekend. But that was all a cover for the real plan, which was going to see Jeni and Hugh in Palm Springs area. The first day was really chill, we just hung out and visited. I was SO excited to go visit them! One night we went to see a couple of art shows on opening night.









After seeing the art shows we went to Red Robin for dinner. I redeemed my second free birthday burger from them, haha.


The rest of the trip was spent shopping, playing nintendo, and hanging out by the pool! I also got to spend time with their new handsome baby boy!









The last night we were there Hugh put dish soap in their pool to make really big bubbles, haha. It looked really fun! We were too tired to participate though.








Overall, I had the BEST BIRTHDAY WEEK ever! It was a blast. Kory is such a wonderful and thoughtful husband. My parents are the best! All of my in-laws are so great! I could not ask for more. Thank you everyone who made my week special! I love you!