Happy birthday, Boyfriend.... and Uncle Sam

It has been a seriously great past few days. From D's birthday to a relaxing 4th of July weekend, I've thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Let's rewind to the night before D's birthday, the night of the special birthday dinner. It turned out great! My menu was:

Appetizers: Crab Stuffed mushrooms and fresh sliced mozzarella
Entree: Pan fried salmon in grape seed oil and scallops in lemon butter sauce
Sides: Asparagus bundles wrapped in prosciutto and roasted garlic mashed potatoes
Desserts: Krispy Kreme bread pudding and chocolate covered strawberries

It might have been my finest moment in the kitchen ever. Anyway, D came home from work, and I had appetizers ready. He had kind of a rough day at the office, so it took him a little bit of time to unwind. When he was finally in a position to be showered with surprises and affection, I decided it was present time.

My first part of the gift to him was 3 items wrapped up. Let me preface all this with the one thing I know to be true in life more than anything else: He loves the Chicago Cubs quite possibly more than anything except me (I hope!). He watches almost every single game, he has a subscription to mlb.com to watch them online when they don't air on tv, and we often schedule things around when the Cubs play.

So, the first present he opened was a Cubs jersey with his favorite player, Kerry Wood's, number on it. Ok, great present number one. His second gift was this retro Cubs t-shirt that I thought was very cool, and he did too. Alright, second gift, good! The third present was a smaller version of the t-shirt I gave him, which caused a bit of confusion. That t-shirt was for me. D is always getting on my case about wanting me to wear a Cubs t-shirt to a game when they come to town, so I decided the next Cubs game we saw, I would wear a Cubs shirt for him. Nice gift number 3.

So, he was very pleased with his presents, and he thought that was where the surprises ended. Boy, was he wrong.

After D opened the first three gifts and thanked me, I told him I thought there might be one more gift. I went and got a large envelope, and I pulled a smaller envelope out. He opened it, and it was 3 sets of Cubs tickets. Danny started to thank me, but tell me I shouldn't have bought Cubs/Astros tickets that far in advance, his firm could probably give us their tickets at Minute Maid. I told him to look more closely at what park the tickets were for, and he realized the tickets were at Wrigley Field instead of Minute Maid, and D proceeded to get more confused then I had ever seen him. He slowly began piecing things together as I started pulling out other pieces of paper, like airfare to Chicago, hotel reservations, confirmations for dinner reservations, tickets to Second City..... we are going to Chicago!!!!!!

I have never seen D go speechless. And then get SO excited. Going to Chicago, seeing the Cubs at Wrigley field, taking a vacation.... he loved the gift. And I loved giving it to him. 30 is a big birthday, and I wanted to do something very special, and I think I succeeded.

Anyway, the rest of the night was lovely, and filled with talk of our upcoming trip (we are going August 2). I even talked to his boss in advance to make sure he could get the time off. I'm kind of proud of myself for putting this all together AND actually keeping it a secret!!!

Anyway, July 3 was D's actual birthday, and we drove up to Frisco, TX to visit his family for the long weekend. His folks live on an awesome lot overlooking a whole lot of land and a lake. It's a great place to get away from the city and be in a relaxing environment. Their community has a very nice amenities center with an awesome pool, and so it had the makings of an idyllic weekend.

We went out to dinner on Thursday night with his folks and one set of grandparents. We came home, and played hours of darts in their garage with his mom and dad, which was very fun. D and I spent the 4th of July running around, grilling out with his parents, and watching about 7 different fireworks shows from their back patio. It was the perfect place to watch the shows.

Yesterday we all went up to Lake Lewisville as part of D's birthday gift, and his parents rented wave runners. D and I shared one, and we had a blast. I had never been on one before, so of course he felt the need to terrify me on choppy water at 50 mph, but after I got used to it, I gave into my need for speed :). I got to drive as well, and it was awesome. We drove to Fort Worth last night to visit the other set of grandparents, as well as his uncle, aunt, and baby cousin. Babies make my heart melt, I can tell I already have baby fever.

D and his dad are out golfing this morning, and after lunch with everyone, we'll head back to Houston and the real world. I'm not ready for this vacation to be over, but it has definitely been the relaxing getaway that we have both needed.... and the next one is just around the corner!!!