Happy 30th

to my amazing, extraordinary, talented, brilliant, secretly-superman, gorgeous husband. We celebrated.

part one was operation birthday bench.  Around Christmas I came up with the idea for his birthday present and began planning.  I had to sleuth out details of how he wanted it, embezzle from my own budget to fund it, sneakily arrange for bids on the project and finally, coordinate the work to be done while we were wandering around in Zions for a few days.  So that upon our return, his birthday present was waiting for him.  It was a garage workbench, complete with cabinets, extra electrical outlets, a sink and a 15 feet of counter space.  I had the help of some very talented men, including a close friend who installed the cabinets and made the counter and my dad who played electrician. It turned out pretty awesome and I definitely surprised him.  There was a little bit of initial hesitation but the more he gets to explore it and get his tools and such into the now organized space, I think he likes it and he's pretty excited about it.

part two, commence celebrating.  His birthday was Friday so we kicked off with chocolate chip waffles, smothered with strawberry sauce and whip cream.  (My "strawberry sauce" is from when I made freezer jam last week but I intentionally make some of it into a sauce for pancakes, desserts, drinks, etc.)  Then we surprised him at work with a lunch party.  He works with his parents and the company is still rather small and intimate, all of which we regard as close friends.  So his mom generously arranged most of it and I just showed up with a herd of overly excited girls and dessert (reese's peanut butter cup cake and ice cream).  The office entry was decorated with an enormous "30", spelled out with thirty bags of chips and we feasted on deli sandwiches and desserts.  Knowing his serious popcorn addiction, his parents gave him a counter top size, theater style popcorn machine (which we quickly put to use) and had taken the girls shopping to pick out a bag full of odds and ends for his new workbench.

Then the celebrating had to be put on hold since he left right after work to attend our ward's Father/Son Campout.  But he returned early Saturday afternoon to help me with some "honey-dos", reorganizing the garage and setting up for the evening festivities.  We invited friends and family to join us for a backyard BBQ to celebrate his birthday and graduation.  (he's actually rather humble about it all but I love to brag about him and we always love a good excuse for a BBQ.)  It was a fantastic night with the usual chaos to get things underway and then an evening of fun, spent with some of our favorite people and a boatload of tasty food.  It meant a lot to us to see the friends and family that were able to come and we had such a blast.  The kids ran around like crazy, we got to visit and chat with friends and family (I always wish there was more time to spend with everyone individually, especially since some family are people we don't get to see very much) and all in all, it was a beautiful night for lounging in the backyard and celebrating my amazing husband.