Birthday Celebrations!

**I wrote this a couple of weeks ago but have been waiting to post it because I wanted pictures.... I think I only have a few I could post.... so today I thought, what the heck, let's just post this! The reason is partially due to the link my future brother in law, Danny, posted on Facebook this morning, that will be on my blog, too. Just scroll down to the bottom of Celebration #1 :) .

So my 22nd birthday was about two weeks ago, and I failed to write about it! So here it goes.

Celebration #1: The weekend before my birthday, we celebrated with my family both on Friday and Sunday. Friday, we had a super fun Mexican Night. First, we all went to Maria Bonita's Restaurant in Orem. We love this place to death. The owner, Maria, is so sweet. She calls all the women "Princessa" and the men "Champion." The service is on the slow side, so you must be prepared to wait for a while for your food, but it is dang good and there is a ton! If you're going on a date, you could easily split an entree. And the entrees I believe range from $8-12. I got beef fajitas (normally $16 other places) and I think my plate could have fed a family of four! I'm not kidding. Jed generally gets a burrito and he can't even finish half of it. Next time, though, I am getting their flautas! They are divine. You get three that are LITERALLY the size of an arm. No joke. And they taste awesome. And if you are a Pepsi fan, as Jed is, they have Vanilla Pepsi. Jed I think died and went to heaven when he found that out.

So after a slightly rushed but awesome dinner, we went up to Salt Lake to see Who Shot Juanito Bandito. It's a troupe of 6 actors who in the summertime have a playhouse in Bear Lake (The Pickleville Playhouse). They had done this show in SLC last year and Brittany had seen it, and she said it was hilarious. Well, we had no idea how hilarious. Jed says it was the funniest play he has ever seen, and one of the funniest things in general he has seen in a very long time. Seriously. The man who played Juanito Bandito was amazing. He had the funniest fake accent and he did improv better than anyone I've seen. Better than Who's Line is it Anyway. He could dominate that show. Jed even said if the second night wasn't already sold out, we for sure would have gone. So, this summer, they are doing another Juanito Bandito at the Pickleville Playhouse. You want a weekend getaway this summer? GO TO BEAR LAKE AND SEE THIS PLAY! If you're feeling extra rich, do the dinner and a show. I bet the food is great. Here's the site for the Pickleville Playhouse in Bear Lake.

*** I told you I was excited about a post from Danny? It was that they posted Who Shot Juanito Bandito online (the whole video) for the duration of the month of March! So I am terribly excited and want all my family and friends to watch this hilarious show. I haven't actually watched this online version, so I am hoping it's as funny and I'm making it out to be.... (there's lots of improv) but I'm sure it is! So click HERE to go to Pickleville's blogpost about it and watch the video. Please? You won't regret it!*****

So that was birthday celebration number one! It was awesome, to say the least.

Celebration #2: That was Friday night, now on to Saturday! It wasn't a birthday celebration, but it was a great evening. Jed's mom was in town for a Family History Conference, so we got to go to dinner with her in SLC and then she stayed at our house that night. Before dinner, we walked around the Church History Museum and the Family History Library. Both are really cool, but the library was SO overwhelming. I don't know how people browse through that place and find specific names! I hope I find the drive to do family history one day.

Then was dinner at the Roof on the top of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. I have heard of how great this restaurant was, so I was super excited. It was amazing. We got the most requested table available, which was in the northwest corner. So on my left was the Temple and in front of my was the Conference Center and the mountains. Awesome. And the food. Wow. First off, Jed and I both for the vanilla raspberry italian ice. You could hear the angels singing as you drank that thing. I loved it to pieces and if it was not so expensive, I would have gotten another. But it was well worth the money. If pinterest can find me this recipe, I would be eternally grateful. The food is a buffet, and so I only tried a small portion of things so as not to stuff myself silly! There was only one thing I was not thrilled with, and everything else was really good or amazing. There was some tortellini salad that I would have ordered a tub of and this amazing sushi thing on a cucumber that I meant to get another one of so I could dissect it and figure out why it was so good! They chicken cordon bleu was amazing, and none of us could figure out what it was, but there was some other flavor in there that they put in that made it one of the best I've had.

Am I making you hungry yet? I'm sure you're already craving Mexican food and chicken. Now on to the dessert!

The dessert buffet. Yes, there was a buffet of dessert. And there were 30 desserts! Oh my gosh, you could have died in there from the overdose of chocolate. So, I had to choose wisely, because by this time I was definitely full. The best desserts there were definitely the chocolate mousse, the key lime pie, and the creme brulee. I actually got a second of the brulee because they were so little! It was the only thing I got a second of. If I had been crazy and wanted to blow up, I would have gotten a second piece of key lime pie because that was amazing as well. (I'm sure the fact that lime/sour flavors are my pregnancy craving have nothing to do with how much I loved it....)

***Quick side story. We went to Applebees this weekend and I squeezed a lime over our Fiesta Lime Chicken. Throughout the rest of the evening, My hand would be near my face or pass by my face and immediately I would think or say, "What smells so amazing????" And I forgot everytime and had to recall every time that it was simply lime juice on my fingers. This story was to attest to my major pregnancy craving. Seriously folks, lime is so great!

So, that was Saturday. It was a beautiful restaurant with amazing food and the most beautiful piano music being played from the coolest piano.

Celebration #3: Sunday was the Super bowl! We had some great finger foods, tres leches cake with amazing raspberry sauce on it, and opened presents. It was great. I love my family, and I got some great things! Thank you family :)

Celebration #4: Finally we are on to my actual birthday which was on a Wednesday. At school, we always have birthday parties for the kids and teachers. So, as it was my birthday, I knew I would get a fun little party. I came back from lunch to my kids all sitting in our calendar area and yelling "Happy Birthday, Mrs. Stephenson!" They were so excited and it was adorable. My co-workers were so great and got me a gift card to Olive Garden. For a while, it sat on a desk next to the card the kids signed, and the kiddos kept asking, "When are you going to open you presents???" When I did, they all oohed and ahhed over the card ha ha. And then one student said, "Is this the only present she's going to get?" Ha ha it was cute. Throughout the rest of the day, one of the kids would tell me happy birthday and it would set off a chain of happy birthdays from the other kids, and that was just plain adorable.

Celebration #5: (And the last of the celebrations.) Jed was an awesome husband and took me to Happy Sumo for my birthday! We had a coupon for $15 toward your meal, so we had to use that! It was great, too, because generally when we go to Happy Sumo, we go on 1/2 off night. We love it, and we love the selection of rolls, but there is another page of rolls we never get to try because they are never 1/2 off! So for my birthday, we tried those rolls. Oh it was good. One of them we got the previous year when we went with my mom and step dad for Jed's and Tony's birthdays, and I remember it being amazing. This year, not so much. Our favorite by far was the Samauri Roll. If you go to Happy Sumo, get this one! It's very rich and creamy. Then, we went home and watched a chick flick! Ha ha I've been trying to convince Jed to watch our edited version of Love Actually since Christmas because I knew he would like it and it is one of my favorite chick flicks. He has refused every single time, though he did promise he would watch it "eventually." So for my birthday, he suggested that we watch it. We did and it as great and Jed liked it! So, I consider my birthday a success. He was also an awesome husband and got me some great gifts.

So there you have it. I was thoroughly spoiled for my birthday and it was great! I only hope that I can thoroughly spoil Jed on his birthday. I have come up with like 6 different ideas of what to do, all depending on it we have had the baby or not! It's so hard to plan! Here is my dilemma: Baby is due April 5th (Thursday). Jed's birthday is Sunday the 8th. So, I really shouldn't plan anything that weekend and we won't be going out to eat on his birthday since it is Sunday. So, we resort to the weekend before, right? Wrong! It is General Conference! So the only time we can go is Friday night, because I don't see it being very good to skip any of the sessions to celebrate a birthday..... But on of the plans actually has us driving up to SLC during the 2nd session, doing my fun activity between sessions, Jed going to priesthood while I.... ? And then us going out to dinner after. So, hopefully I will have some great inspirational idea come to me, but I have a feeling I won't be able to really plan what to do until his birthday is upon us!