My Birthday

My birthday turned out to be a great day!  I felt special all day thanks to friends and family with all of the surprises that I received.

My first surprise happened as I was leaving to drive to school that morning.  I opened the door, not expecting anything, and balloons came flooding into the room.  There was a poster taped saying 'Happy Birthday Emily' to the outer part of the door as well.  I was in a little bit of a hurry to leave and the balloons flooding in scared me so bad.  It makes me laugh that it would scare me so much, but it was a good scare.  After continuously asking Scott if it was him, I discovered that it was Andrew and Rebecca who did it.  Thanks guys!  It was a great way to start my day!

I moved it to the wall later since I couldn't take a picture in the morning.

The balloons that scared me.

I had been having this craving for a doughnut for a while, so I stopped at the grocery store on the way to school and figured that since it was my birthday, I could eat one and not feel guilty (that is such a good feeling).  Teaching went really well and I found out that 3 other students had birthdays that day as well.  April 30th is a good day.

My second surprise came when I went to my mail box at school and found cookies, a truffle bar, a 10 pack of Baby Ruth's and 2 cards.  It reaffirmed to me that I love birthdays!

My third surprise came while teaching when Scott came into my last class with flowers and a card.  He stayed for about 5 minutes before he had to run off to "do some stuff".  On the card, Scott said that he had cleaned my car while I wasn't looking.  Scott had taken my car to a place to get it washed, waxed, vacuumed and just cleaned out of any trash that was in there.  Not that my car really needed cleaning, but it was such a nice surprise and thoughtful gesture.

Flowers and goodies from school.

Up close of my birthday flowers!

Once I came home, I got some presents from Scott.  We had gone shopping at Kohl's about a week before and I picked out a food processor that I wanted, so hopefully this will save me some time in making dinner.  Scott also got me some other chocolates and the movie "I Am Number Four".  My dad and Roberta sent a birthday package and I opened that as well.  Part of my birthday request was a shopping day since I was in desperate need of spring/summer clothes.  So, about a week and a half before my birthday I took myself on a shopping trip.  I couldn't wait until my birthday, so I wore all my clothes right away.  Haha.  Why wait?  Clothes are for wearing right?

Relaxation, TV watching and nap taking then happened until it was time for dinner.  We actually went and got my cupcakes before dinner, dropped them back off at the house and then headed to dinner.  Scott had in mind to go to Tucanos restaurant.  Apparently that is a popular place to eat on a Monday night and there was a 2 hour wait, so we went to Macaroni Grill instead which was delicious.

My delicious cupcakes!!

Out to dinner with my sweet husband!

Drawing on the table at Macaroni Grill.

After dinner we headed home to change before we went to this trampoline place called Jump On It.  I had bought a Groupon for it a few months ago and convinced a friend to buy one too.  I figured my birthday was the perfect time to use it.  I've never been to a place like that before, but it turned out to be surprisingly fun!  They had a huge trampoline area and a rock wall where you could climb and then fall into a foam pit.  It was actually pretty good exercise as well.  We were all sweating by the time we were done.  Our friends, Heather & Skylar, are great and took me out for ice cream.  We went to McDonald's, ate ice cream and talked until it got late and was time for bed.

It really was a great birthday and I can't wait for next year!  Now, time to start planning for Scott's birthday...

Tulip Festival

There is this place called Thanksgiving Point here in Utah.  It has a bunch of different activities you can do, a movie theater and beautiful gardens.  This post talks about the time we went there last October.

During the spring, they have this thing called The Tulip Festival.  Ever since I've moved to Utah, I've wanted to go and see it, but have never had the chance to...until this year.  When Scott asked me for a birthday list, going to the tulip festival was on it.  The festival ended 2 days before my birthday, so that's when we went (28th of April).

I was actually expecting something much different.  I was expecting there to be rows and rows of tulips in a field, like this:

However, this is not Holland, so this is not what it looked like at all.  It was pretty much going to the Thanksgiving Point Gardens and seeing tulips mixed in with a bunch of other flowers.  Despite that it did not look like what I expected, it was still very beautiful.  It was a little chilly when we went, so it will be fun to go back to the gardens when it's warmer and have a picnic or something there.  I have lots of pictures to share on this one since it really was very pretty.

These were my favorite flower.

These were Scott's favorite flower.

Pretty tulips along this little creek.

There's going to be this area in the gardens with statues depicting parts of Christ's life.

This one and the one above are the only ones built to full size.  It think there will be about 12 total.

Afterwards, Scott and I came home, ate diner and watched a movie.  It was a fun date night with my favorite person. 

Temple Trip

On Saturday, April 28th Brianna got her endowments taken out at the Oquirrh Mountain Temple.  I've been in the Oquirrh temple for a sealing, but haven't done endowments.  It was nice to be there with family, but mostly nice to be there with Scott.  I love seeing him and being with him in the temple.  We don't go together as often as we should, so I'm excited for the wedding and being in the temple for the sealing.  It will be fun to reminisce on our own sealing and the covenants we made to each other.

It was a sunny day, but windy and cold.  We all went out to eat at Zupa's Restaurant afterwards which is always yummy.

Can this be the one?

In the afternoon on Friday, the 27th we went house hunting again!

House hunting actually went quite well!  It didn't start out so well as every house we looked at, I just didn't feel good about any of them.  It wasn't until the last house that we visited that I actually thought about putting a bid on a home.  This house is actually pretty perfect.  It is in a great location (best we've looked at so far), pretty much move in ready, not too large of a yard to upkeep, no carpet or tile needing to be replaced or walls repainted and refrigerator and swing set is included.  The home is 1800 square feet, but it does not feel that small or that large for us.  It just seems perfect for us to start a family in.  This is the first home that I am really excited about.  I would actually be pretty disappointed if our bid got rejected.  I know that there are other homes out there, but I just feel that we might not find something as good as this one.  Plus, I am tired of looking and ready to move onto the next step.  It probably is a little pretentious to post pictures of a home we don't even own yet, but like I said, I am pretty excited about this one.  Here's a little sneak peek:

Okay, so this isn't our dream home by any means, but for a starter home, it's pretty nice!!

We will find out Monday night what they say about our bid.  Please pray that all goes well and that this house may become ours! 

Date Night at LaCaille

Tuesday, the 24th was a busy day.  I had school, LaCaille and the family wedding shower for Brianna.  The weather for LaCaille this year was beautiful!!  It made wandering around the grounds much more enjoyable in nicer weather than in snow or rain like it has been in the past.  Scott and I showed up earlier since we had to leave right away so I could go to the shower and I got some nice pictures of the grounds this time.

This is the new dessert.  It is a little lame compared to the bananas foster being set on fire.

LaCaille was delicious as usual.  Not on purpose, but Scott & I got to sit at a table all by ourselves.  It was actually really nice to be able to talk to each other without worry of what surrounding students might hear us say.  It was like a little date night for us.

The shower for Brianna afterwards was nice.  I didn't take any pictures while there though.  My present for Brianna was a scrapbook with guest book pages for them to use at their wedding that can be part of her wedding scrapbook later on.  It had been a while since I'd seen some of the extended family, so it was nice to be able to chat with them.