The Dirty Thirty: Harris Edition

Last weekend, that sweet hubby of mine turned the big 3 - 0! For about a month and a half prior to his birthday, I had been keeping a surprise from him, and it was just about to burst out of me, so I am glad the birthday weekend arrived when it did!

Thursday evening, we dropped Lucy off with a babysitter for the weekend. I think this was Harris' first inclination that we might be doing something fun for the weekend (prior to this, I had only told him that he needed to take Friday the 30th off work). At this point, Harris really wanted to know where we were going, but I held out, and tortured us both a little longer. All I would tell him was that we needed to be out of the house by 6am Friday morning!

Friday we were up bright and early, of course. I finished packing us up, and then finally clued him in to our destination - Philadelphia! Harris loves Philly, so I knew he would be pleased with the locale of the celebration, but I was still holding out on him, so the drive up was still a bit torturous for me! See, I had arranged for two of his best buds from college, Brett & Josh to meet us in Philly. Brett and his wife, Whitney live in Pittsburgh, and Josh and his wife, Nicole, live in Chicago. Brett, Harris, and I were quire the trio back in college, so it is always fun to see him, and I am pretty sure I haven't seen Josh since Harris' ring ceremony back in 2005!

Long story short, we made it to Philly, and checked into our awesome hotel, The Hotel Monaco (which totally reminded me of Alice in Wonderland, and I loved it!), just in time for me to tell Harris we were going to lunch. We walked a few blocks, wandered into a local joint, where Harris followed me as I charged through the restaurant to a table in the back where his eyes about popped out of his head when he saw his buddies sitting there! It was so worth the planning, nervousness, and anxiety about giving it away!

It was so great to be able to surprise him in such a way, and I think he really loved being able to show other people all the things he loves about Philly. We spent Friday afternoon walking around Old City and down to Penn's Landing, and then over to the Reading Terminal Market. We then had tickets to the 7pm Phillies v. Met baseball game, where I had secured us some pretty sweet seats, if I may say so. They were in the Diamond Club, which was a little over-hyped in our opinion - I mean, yes, it was nice not to have wait in line for drinks or food, and to have an air-conditioned club we could go into, but the seats were fantastic - right behind home plate, 17 rows up! The game ending up going 14 innings, which meant we were at the ballpark until almost 1am, and I don't think my birthday boy could have been happier!

Saturday we all made it to breakfast, and then down to the Navy Yard for the International Beer Expo. Now, not being a beer drinker myself, I couldn't honestly tell you what the selection was like, but all the beer drinkers did seem pretty impressed! It was actually a really awesome festival - so much space that we never felt like we were all cramped up together, especially considering the sheer number of people there - there were some really great booths set up, and everyone seemed to have a really great time!

We spent the afternoon walking along South Street, had some cheesesteaks, and then ended up at a cocktail bar on the rooftop of our hotel. Sunday, we made it to a nice birthday brunch before everyone had to leave town. Overall, I would deem the weekend a success!

Harris, Happy 30th! I love you so much, and am so glad you were born :) I am so happy to have spent these last 11 birthdays with you, and I cannot wait to celebrate every one for the rest of our lives. Here's to many, many, many more birthdays together!

A guy rode his bike up to the ATM...it made Harris laugh so I took a picture

Catching Up

How is it possible that it is already July?! I honestly don't know where the past month went. Well, I do - celebrating, traveling for work, and so on, but, seriously it went by so very quickly. The weekend before this past, was so much fun! Thursday night, the Norfolk food trucks kicked off their new business with a little celebration on MacArthur Square. Of course we had to go check this out, and neither the tacos nor the (overpriced) cupcakes disappointed! Also, we were fortunate to have my parents in town to celebrate my Mom's 50th birthday! They got in late Friday evening, which means we sat around catching up until everyone was ready for bed. Saturday, my Mom's actual birthday, we got up, headed over to the Bayou Bugaloo (yet another of the Norfolk festivals!), enjoyed some cajun food (including our messy attempt at crawfish - still not sure they are worth the effort), drank some strong Hurricanes and some dark, dark beer, took a boat ride around the harbor, and then headed home once our feet were tired and we were starting to get a little rained on. We then ventured out for a sushi/hibachi dinner downtown, and then came back home for more drinks and pie! How awesome of a day was that! I will share the recipe for the "Lime in the Coconut" pie I made my Mom (she requested a coconut pie rather than a cake for her birthday, but my Dad doesn't like coconut, and both of them love key lime, so this was a win-win!), but for now, here are some pictures.

Our yummy food truck tacos!

Do you see this excitement?!

Mmm...pb and red velvet cupcakes

The chocolate was a bit too rich for me, but hubs enjoyed it!

Lucy is ready for a visit from the grandparents!

Lime in the Coconut Pie! Recipe forthcoming

A little weirded out by its eyes.

This crawfish was as big as my Dad's hand!

Birthday girl in her birthday beads! And, we bought those - promise!

Mom & Daddy!

Hot, sweaty, but loving the festival life

Mom and Hubs on the boat tour

See those clouds rolling in? Yeah they opened up on us right after the cruise.

Daddy trying his first sushi

Isn't my Mom adorns?!

After the weekend of wonderfulness, I took a Sunday night flight to Dallas/Fort Worth, where my co-workers and I spent a busy, busy week in training, meetings, a conference, and so on. It was a good week, but it was exhausting! Especially when there are customers involved (which certainly was the case this week), our days usually start around 5am (if you have any hopes of getting a workout in), and don't end until about midnight. There is an ungodly amount of food and alcoholic beverages, and not enough sleep for the likes of this lady. Fortunately, I have some really awesome co-workers, so shout out to you guys for keeping me sane, and letting me pawn drinks off on you when I was too done to keep up, and the customer kept buying them for me :). Also, major shout out to the husband for not only holding down the fort, taking care of the Lucy-pup (who promptly decided upon my departure that she should definitely eat two chocolate protein bars out of Daddy's briefcase - she's fine, no worries - I am pretty sure they were imitation chocolate at best), and working his crazy schedule, but for also being kind and patient with me during my 972 rounds of "I just want to come home now!".

My one and only picture of the week -
a valet claim ticket because we lost our physical copy

Luckily, albeit not without delays and complications, I made it home late Friday night to a pup who was happy to see me, and a husband who bought me beautiful flowers, and was equally happy to see me when he got home from work Saturday morning!

Beautiful flowers!

I had grand plans of doing absolutely nothing on Saturday, to which I succeeded tremendously: Lucy and I laid around Saturday morning while the hubs slept - we watched some TV, movies, snuggled on the couch, took a walk, and otherwise did nothing. Glorious. After the hubs woke up, we snuggled and caught up on our previous week in more depth, which was even more glorious. I finally got out of my PJs around 5pm in order to shower and go pick up Thai food for an impromptu date night picnic in the park with Harris on his dinner break. Afterwards, Lucy and I were in bed before 8pm and asleep around 9. My body is thanking me! Sunday I did my "Saturday things" - groceries, some cleaning, and the like. Harris and I took in an afternoon showing of World War Z before he had to go into work. My thoughts on it? Meh. It wasn't a super scary zombie flick (thank heavens! I am such a scaredy cat), and as I told Harris, I didn't think it was bad. I just didn't think it was good either. My vote is to wait until you can watch it at home. Save yourself a buck or two.

After all that, I am certainly glad that this week contains a holiday, and that, because of aforementioned holiday which then causes many folks to take vacation, it should (hopefully!) be a pretty tame week all in all!

Happy Birthday Harris!

Happy Birthday dear Husband!!! Can you believe you are the big 29!!! Wow-za! I need to get started on planning that dirty thirty party because it will be here before we know it! I am so grateful, thankful, and happy for your birth, and fully believe that it deserves as much celebration as possible! You light up my world, and I hope that your birthday is everything you hope for and more!

Because who doesn't want to be wished a Happy Birthday in six different languages?!