"30 and fLiRtY and Thriving!" (pics included)

At least I think that's the quote from 13 Going on 30. Love that movie by the way! Anyway, for those of you who've been on the edge of their seats wanting to know how my 30th went and the fun things we did, and for our family journal too for posterities sake...here is the story: After I asked people for advice on what to do, since many of my first ideas were way too expensive (ie: hot air balloon ride= $500 for just Jason and I for like an hour). Then, my birthday was on a Sunday, and we Mormons (Latter Day Saints) try to keep the Sabbath Day holy the best we can...we're old school following the 10 commandments in the Bible-we know. And we're cool with it. :) It turned out just perfect though because I got to celebrate ALL weekend! So, it was more of a double celebration-"Goodbye to my 20's and Hellooooo to my 30's!" We went with Susie Darter's idea (can't think of her married name at the moment) where her husband paid for a night out for her at a hotel with all the sleeping and reading that she wanted. If you have 1 or more young children, you will totally get why this is a dream come true. Shoot, even the thought of being able to use the restroom in peace sounds wonderful. But, I had to twist the idea a little because as much as I love to read, I had no intention of doing that. Lately everything that we've gotten excited about (in life in general) has fallen through lately, so Jason was a little skeptical that this would work and that we could find anyone to help with the kids, but I knew we would. And we DID! Becca Lords, the complete angel that she is, not to mention amazing friend (the is depressingly moving in a month :( agreed to stay the night at our house, so that we could have a kid-free night at The Hampton Inn and Suites. It's true what they say; if you can't go go somewhere cool on vacation, going to a hotel makes you feel like you did. That night around 6:30pm, I nursed Jane down to sleep, and waved goodbye to Becca and Henry. As we were driving the long drive of 5 minutes over there, I said casually "Man, we should've bought cool glasses and sparkling cider or something. I don't want to waste time going to Meijer now though. Oh well." As we walked inside, Jason took my hand and walked right past the desk. I tried to pull him back, telling him that that was where we needed to check in. He just smiled and said, "It's already covered." Now my heart was beating fast! I don't know what it is, but there's just something really sexy about your man providing and getting everything ready ahead of time. Feeling like a princess is always a good thing. So, I'm glad that there was no one else in the elevator... Here was our room-wait for it...!

How romantic, and cute, and thoughtful, and sweet, and sexy, and adorable and exciting and the list goes on! My man ROCKS!

This next one he was trying to throw up in a hurry since he was already late to come pick me up. But, I still love the banner. And, true to someone that's an elementary school teacher, he used sticky notes to 'write' me a note.

This next picture was by the whirlpool. Henry 'helped' Daddy with it. The little scribble on it is Henry's drawing of an Elephant for me (his favorite animal right now).

I just kept jumping around the room saying something like "I can't believe it! You did all this? WHEN? I love this! This is perfect!" and so on in between many kisses. But then there was another surprise! He says "Open the fridge." (I had already seen the pretty glasses on the table so had an idea)

*Just sparkling grape juice, and very yummy!*

We went to order room service because that's something I've never done and it looks like a lot of fun in the movies at least. ;) But, the room service there was a little lame. The hotel didn't actually have it, so you just ordered from a restaurant nearby and then had to pay delivery fees. Blah. We opted to drive 2 minutes down the road to Wendy's where Jason got his favorite-a bacon cheeseburger baconator thing, with fries. I got the wonderful Almond Berry Chicken Salad. LOVE that salad. If you haven't tried it, you should. It's only out during the summer. And, we shared a frosty of course, and enjoyed our goblets full of Sparkling Grape Juice.

Then we went swimming in the pool downstairs. Well, Jason played, and I swam. Poor Jason never learned to swim, and never will unless he gets over his aversion to getting his face wet. Big baby. lol :) But we just enjoyed the water and eachother. I swam laps and did fun jumps (dives would've been more fun if it were deeper-oh well). Oh, and about laps. Doing laps at 30 years old (or just about 30) when you're out of swimmer shape is a WHOLE different story than doing laps out of shape when you're 20. It was pathetic. I swam freestyle for about 5 minutes and I was out of breathe and my arms hurt. Pathetic. But, I still enjoyed every minute of it. I LOVE to swim and just be in the water. Water fascinates me. This is after we got back from the pool.

Couldn't be happier! Oh wait, yes we could. We were a little cold from walking dripping wet through the air conditioned building, so we then enjoyed our huge hot tub/whirlpool...with some non-alcoholic bubbly. ;D

The water was still filling. And believe you me, we filled it as high as it would go. It was heavenly. And that was Friday night (other than some private details left out of course :).