Birthday weekend!!

So Wednesday a few weeks ago (yeah I'm a little late writing this) was Damon's birthday. I'm not great at planning, but this was a big birthday and I really wanted to do something special. I planned way ahead and took months to scour my brain for fun ideas and ways to show him how grateful I am that he is here. Birthdays are definitely different as an adult than they were as a child. When you're a kid it's all about presents. The rest of the year you don't worry a whole lot about what goes on for other peoples birthdays. As an adult you almost try to forget that it's your own birthday. But for the people around you, it's an opportunity to celebrate the fact that you were born and how grateful they are for your life. This is how I feel anyway. I have to say my planning paid off; we both took Wednesday through Friday off, so we had a whole weekend just to play!


Wednesday morning we both woke up early and headed downtown to have breakfast at Market Street. We had an amazing leisurely breakfast with all the fixings and then headed to temple square. We spent an hour or so just walking the grounds and enjoying the visitors centers. It was the PERFECT morning for a walk. Beautiful weather, no crowd, it was wonderful.

The Salt Lake City Temple, and UPSIDE DOWN DAISIES I want some of these.

After this we strolled across the street to City Creek to explore the shops, since neither of us had been there before. I was pretty impressed, and again grateful that there was not a crowd. We did a little shopping and then went and saw a MOVIE. This never happens, so maybe it was more of a gift from Damon to me... or me to me. Anyway, we finally saw The Avengers, which was just as awesome as everyone has been saying for weeks. And because we apparently needed a reminder as to why we rarely go see movies, we both walked out of the theatre with killer headaches. We decided that this would be a good time to check into our room. I didn't tell Damon exactly where we were going before hand, so it was a surprise as we drove up to a beautiful Victorian style bed and breakfast in the Avenues. This place was adorable and our host was so sweet! I had never been to a B&B before, so I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised by the service and hospitality. I took a nap to get rid of my headache and our host made us chocolate chip cookies. We relaxed for a while there and then decided to drive up the mountain and take a short hike so we could look out over the valley.
For dinner we did something really fun, that I would recommend to anyone who has the time and ability. Damon called it a "tour" of Salt Lake City. First, we went to Bambara for an awesome appetizer. We had the "All Local Cheese Board" which came with olives, salami and grilled bread. I'm kind of a cheese freak so this was absolutely delicious. Our waiter was kind of a snot, so it wasn't disappointing to leave after just the appetizer.

Next we went to the Cheesecake Factory for our main course. This is one of our FAVORITE places to eat. Their sweet potato fries are to die for.

Lastly, for dessert, we went to the Melting Pot. If you haven't been there before, GO. We had PB&J chocolate fondue. It was amazing and fun! Now we just have to save up our pennies so we can go back to do the whole meal!

I forgot to take a picture of the beautiful food when it got there. I was too excited.

At this point we were both pretty much exploding and on the verge of food coma, so we decided to call it a night...
The next morning we had a surprisingly delicious breakfast (fruit, sorbet, french toast, sausage, juice, etc...) and headed home.
Damon worked on his Halloween stuff for most of the rest of the weekend, which he loved, so I would call it a success! He told me I set the standards pretty high for next year, to which I responded that he only gets the special treatment every 10 years or so... :)