Will You Still Need Me? Will You Still Feed Me?...

...when I'm 32??

So, as Doug so dutifully spread the word, yesterday was my birthday. Although we'd already been celebrating over the weekend, last night was the grand finale of sorts. Over the weekend, Doug made sure I had a number of "girls' nights/outings." He called and paid my friends to take me out! HA! I think they were willing participants!;) Saturday I spent with Kristen up at the Castle Rock outlets where we were slow to warm to the shopping but in the end did well. Monday Chris and I were supposed to get pedicures but the three nail shops we drove to were closed for the holiday (Chris' comment being, "Sheesh, this IS a small town!" Being from Newport Beach and DC respectively, a closed nail shop just because of a federal holiday was unheard of!). So we had a yummy lunch and good conversation at Mimi's. Monday night Angela and I first went to the Shops at Briargate but they were closing about 30 minutes after we got there (again, holiday. We thought this was a "come and spend your money at our shops" holiday?!). So we went downtown where all the shops were closed, too, so we had a great dinner at Jose Muldoon's and then perused Target.

My actual birthday was great. I woke up to eggs Benedict and volcano cupcakes that the boys helped make. The weather was pretty nice so I took the boys to the zoo for a few hours. We had some lunch, fed the giraffes, spent time in the Budgies exhibit (Australian birds--parakeet looking things--that we fed from seed sticks. One landed on my stick and Bode touched it. It was very very cool. I feared bird poop but luckily none landed on us...), saw the tiger and all the waterfalls in the Asia area, saw the farm animals where Bode nearly lost his nose to a pecking turkey (he took it surprisingly well!). Then we went down to the play area where we stayed for quite awhile. Next we rode the carousel. For the first time we didn't sit on the horses, but inthe little bench seat. It was what Bode wanted to do so that was fine. He had his usual "I'm-having-a-great-time-but-I'm-trying-really-hard-not-to-show-it look on his face and Keegen seeme d a little overwhelmed by the ride. I'm sure he was exhausted by then too. (The above is my attempt at an on-the-carousel self-portrait). Then off to the hippos and apes and then we went home. It was a very long (we stayed about 3 hours) and busy visit.

Doug got home soon after us and we got the boys ready for bed because Sterling and Chris were kind enough to babysit so we could go on a date. Doug and I went to the Melting Pot for dinner. We've talked about going there for years and finally did for the first time last night. It.was.so.good! I wasn't sure what to expect. Every now and then we do fondue with friends and it's so good I just didn't know if a restaurant could pull it off. So good. We started with the traditional cheese fondue and a salad. Then we went ahead and had an entree. I've never fondued meat before and was a little leary but again, so good. And they had great sauces to dip in. I was afraid it would just be boiled meat, but very tasty. Then for dessert we had dark chocolate fondue and actually left a lot behind! Criminal!

After dinner we saw Spiderman 3 at the IMAX theater. I actually enjoyed it for the most part. I still don't know what's the big difference between IMAX and a regular big screen movie. It is bigger, but is that all? It was fun to do something different though.

We got home and the boys, by Sterling's report, went to bed without a problem (Bode did take advantage of Sterling's good nature and read many more than two books at bedtime but I had no problem with that!).I'm starting to get a hang of leaving the kids with a babysitter and going out on dates with Doug again! Woo hoo!