Surprise Birthday Weekend

     I had quite the birthday this year, what with it landing on April Fools Day (as always), Easter, and General Conference. To top it all off, my family came all the way from Montana to celebrate. To me, just having my family there was enough, and so I was not expecting much at all from my husband. I knew he was planning something (because he is an absolute sweetheart), but nothing like this. 

     Lance and I have been very blessed with the ability to work at the same place, just in different departments. It makes traveling to and from work very easy, and it means we get to see each other a lot more before and after work, because our schedules are the exact same. The weekend started with work as per usual. We went to the company meeting, Lance a few minutes later than myself, but I came back to my desk to see this! He had it set up a bit differently, but I was so caught up with the contents of the card and gift bag, that I forgot to take a picture...

     Inside the card was such a sweet note, I couldn't help but grin. Inside was also a hotel reservation, and a note saying that everything I needed was in the trunk of the car! Meaning my bags were packed and ready to go; we didn't even have to go home after work before heading to Salt Lake.

     To top it all off, I couldn't have been more happy with the contents inside the bag. One, there was the most wonderful smelling bath bomb with both lavender and chamomile. Lance was even sweet enough to find out whether or not both were safe during pregnancy, since some essential oils have shown to not be the greatest during that time.  The second item was this dress. Long, pink, and super soft. I have been wanting a pink maxi-dress for weeks now, and have not been able to find one anywhere, so to open the bag and find one!? Talk about brownie points!

     We were lucky enough to get out of work an hour early that day, so Lance and I were able to get to Salt Lake at the perfect time for dinner. I changed into the dress, and he changed into a suit with a pink tie. Lance was going to take me out to the blue lemon, but when we got there it was super busy. We don't typically mind super busy, but we were both hungry enough that we did not want to wait in line only to find out that there were not any decent dairy free options.

     We tried The Garden Restaurant next, the restaurant right across from The Roof above the Joseph Smith Memorial building, but they did not have anything dairy free, other than a salad with half the toppings removed... It was still fun to walk around and see the view from the top, however. After the The Garden Restaurant, we finally decided to just go somewhere that we knew we could eat, knew we would enjoy, and was close by: Kneaders.  I don't know how much Lance enjoyed going from place to place trying to find somewhere fancy to eat, but I thoroughly enjoyed our walk in the rain through temple square, taking pictures, and being able to view the temple from the top of the Joseph Smith Memorial. I loved every second of it.

     After dinner we went back to the hotel, taking forever to find a parking spot, to enjoy snuggling up watching Netflix. It was nice to get to sit, relax, and enjoy my husband's company.  He even brought what was left of this year's Girl Scout Cookies. Yum!

     Saturday, the original plan was to visit the Tracey Aviary, and a couple other outdoor places. It was raining enough, though, that we decided to do something indoors. We are trying to finish up everything on our Connect Passes before they expire, so we had lunch at Dickey's BBQ Pit before visiting the Art Museum at the University of Utah, and then the Leonardo, which turned out to be really neat. That will be a for sure re-visit once our baby girl arrives (and grows a little bit)! 

     Visiting both places took just about the whole day.  We ended the day with Subway, one of my favorites this pregnancy. Sandwiches, not made at home, seem to be a big thing for me. I was spent by the time we got home. Walking is a lot more tiresome than it used to be! But they say it's good for the baby, so with that added to the time I got to spend with my sweetheart, I didn't mind one bit. 

     Needless to say, the weekend was a wonderful surprise.  I was not expecting that at all, and it reminded me how lucky I am to have found such a wonderful husband. I could not have asked for more.