Happy Birthday, Sweetheart!

Last Thursday, September 24, was Josh's 24th birthday. He ended up having to work, but I was able to take the day off, and had a great time trying to make it a fun day for him. I love being a wife and spoiling my husband!

We woke up together and had breakfast and I gave him his first present: a box of .223 ammunition. As you all know, my husband loves guns and the number one thing on his birthday list was ammunition. As a girl, I couldn't just get him the ammunition (what kind of a birthday present is that?) so he had a few other surprises throughout the day.


Josh works at American Express and I had never been to his office, so we decided to have lunch together that day. I picked up some fast food and also brought him balloons and cookies. Because of security I wasn't able to see his desk, but I was able to see the main hall, lobby and cafeteria. Before I could even get in to these I had to sign in and put on a "visitor" badge and the security guard had to let me in.



We decided to eat lunch beside a beautiful pond that is outside of the cafeteria. It was such a peaceful place-like a little oasis in the middle of a busy city. Several trees surrounding the pond almost completely block out the sights and sounds of I-215 which is just behind the grounds of American Express. Several ducks and geese live on an island in the middle of the pond and it was the perfect spot to eat lunch on a fall afternoon!


After lunch, I headed to Comcast to get another remote as ours hadn't been working very well. We had needed one for awhile, and I know that Josh doesn't like to stand in line waiting, so I decided to make it a fun birthday surprise. I also decorated the apartment and picked up a cake the "cake lady" had made. Brenda Chance is the "cake lady" and she does a fabulous job making and decorating cakes! She also decorated a cake for Josh last year on his birthday. We were only dating at the time, but I wanted to do something special for him and had a Superman cake made.


Josh had decided that he wanted to pick up dinner and bring it home to eat while we watched a movie. So we ate chicken from KFC and watched "Chicago". After dinner Josh opened his last present: a necklace he had seen at a street fair we went to a couple weeks ago. That necklace was too small, so I collaborated with the amazing lady who makes the jewelry, and she was able to make another one that was longer. It turned out really neat and Josh really likes it. He's worn it every day since.

Last, but not least, was the cake and ice cream. Josh blew out the candles and made a wish after I sang "Happy Birthday" to him. The cake was german chocolate and it was so good! The decorations are all edible and Josh tried one of the bullet casings, but said it wasn't too good.


I hope Josh had a wonderful day and that this year is one of the best ever! I also wish him many more in the years to come! Happy Birthday, Sweetheart!

Outdoor Adventures

About a week after our first successful hike, we decided to venture out on another one. We invited our friends, Matt and Christy, to go with us to the living room which is located behind the University of Utah. There's an area where someone has carved a table and chairs out of rock that you can overlook the valley and view the sunset. We took a picnic dinner with us and were ready to discover this new trail.

Well, we didn't quite make it to the living room. Our guide book wasn't very clear and there were several trails that intersected with the main one, so we had a hard time deciding where we needed to go. We asked for directions from another couple enjoying the mountain and still ended up on the peak just across from where we wanted to be. We could see the living room, but as it was getting dark, we decided to stay where we were and have dinner and enjoy the sunset from there.

While the smart and beautiful wives were making dinner, the silly and adventurous husbands decided to scramble up the rock face close to where we stopped. Here's a picture Josh took from their extremely high vantage point (the pink and green dots are Christy and I). We were worried about the boys falling off the cliff, but thankfully our husbands were sure-footed and our worries were for nothing.

While eating dinner, we watched the sun set over the valley. It was so beautiful! The night was so romantic and we all enjoyed our night time foray into the mountains.


The following week we went on another hike. (I'm proud of us for being so athletic. Lol!) This time we went up into the Uintah's with my dad. He had invited all of my family but Josh and I were the only ones who didn't cancel on him. The rest of my family definitely missed out! We hiked to Notch Lake which is by Bald Mountain. It was 5 miles round trip and was a tough terrain of rocks, trees and sand. It was also very beautiful. Once we reached the lake we plopped on the ground to enjoy lunch and the peaceful scenery.


I really enjoyed this hike until we started hiking back to the car. Little did I know that we actually descended in altitude on our journey to the lake and the hike back was all up hill. It was actually really fun, but I was breathing much harder on the way out!