Birthday Bonanza

My birthday fell on a Sunday this year. For the past two years, Jill and I have traveled to NYC to watch the first and second parts of The Lord of the Rings trilogy at Radio City Music Hall, where the music is performed by live orchestra and choirs.

This year, the birthday "celebrating" started early. (I'll explain why "celebrating" is in quotes later). A wonderful friend of ours came over on Saturday evening once CJ had gone to sleep so that Jill and I could slip out for the evening. We decided to use another pair of our AMC passes, so we drove over to the mall to catch a late show. Jill had checked on a few before we left, and -- based on some web-crowd-sourcing -- so we decided to see Contagion.

It turned out to be an incredibly shocking and make-you-think thriller.

You know how most times you leave a great movie and there's a buzz in the theater as everyone is leaving. Not from this show. I guess the way to describe it was everyone was subdued and pensive, slowly shuffling out of the theater. I don't want to spoil the movie in case any of you might go see it; just know that you'll probably want to wash your hands every 5 minutes for the rest of your life and carry hand sanitizer at all times... Hence the "celebrate" -- it was great to get out and spend time with Jill, the movie was well-acted and intense, but it was kind of a downer.

On Sunday, I slept in, then played with CJ before her morning nap. We went to church (although CJ wasn't feeling very well so she and Jill came home early). I got to play the organ in sacrament meeting, and then substituted for the primary pianist during their run-through of the primary program today.

When I came home, Jill had been busy getting dinner ready and setting up our traditional scavenger hunt. I found this taped to the front door:

Which sent me to the Target cube that holds our Wii-motes, where I found this:

Which led me to the kitchen, where Jill recently added homemade chicken soup stock to the freezer:

Which led me to look behind the shower curtain, where I found another card with a note that said "Here's a quarter, nickel, and dime / It's just too bad it's not yours or mine".

Which led me to CJ's piggy bank where we drop in our change.

This clue was the hardest. I had to think back to a conversation Jill and I had about wanting to be more deliberate instead of accidental. The clue took me to this black box we have, that was mostly empty when we moved but somehow ended up on the floor next to the game cabinet - where it has remained. Inside I found:

CJ helped me unwrap the box. The picture below doesn't do them justice, but the one on the left is my new shoe! and the one on the right is my trusty dress shoes that I bought while working the 2008 campaign cycle. I think there's still a little life left in the old pair, but I am super excited about the spiffy new shoes to wear around my new corporate halls...

Then I opened some cards that I received in the mail. The ones below were from BYU-Idaho (a snail mail card and an e-card):

I also got a nice card from my grandparents that included some old photos of when we went to Camp Michigania when I was a wee lad. I had a blast both years I went. I think some of the younger cousins went recently; we need to swap stories.

Mom sent a card, too. She reminisced about the scavenger hunts, piñatas, and themed parties I had as a child.

My dad sent a funny card:

And I also got a card from some nieces and nephews:
(back/front)

Everybody wrote something =)
(inside)

My littlest sister, who's serving a mission in Florida for our church, sent me a funny card:
(inside it says "...Age is Relative")

I also got eCards from two Aunties:

and promptly added them to my Amazon account =) Thx Aunties!

But that's not all!

Jill put our food processor to much use today as she made some fabulous and delectable dishes for dinner and dessert.
Here she is slicing the potatoes for homemade zuppa toscana, a la Olive Garden (except better!).

She also made homemade breadsticks. Yum!

Just when I thought the evening couldn't get any better, she turned off the lights...



...started some mood music...



...and brought out a fancy, two-tiered cake that she made completely from scratch while singing Happy Birthday! (I happened to be on the phone with my dad at the time, so he joined in, too).

It was white cake with Nerds inside. Between the layers were chunks of kiwi. And it was frosted with a mango, buttercream frosting (with more Nerds).

I dove right in and quickly ate my way towards a sugar coma. Definitely ate too much, but couldn't help myself!

(Yes, Jill had some too - this wasn't just all me...) :-P

Spoke with family on the phone this evening and heard from a few friends.

All in all, a pretty incredible birthday, spent with my two favorite people.

Apparently a few things are straggling in the mail, so I look forward to extending this birthday clear through 'till Halloween ;-)