The Big 23

Ok, not exactly a milestone birthday, but my husband is really getting old. After his birthday celebrations Mike explained to me that his family only did big birthday celebrations on their 5th, 12th, and 16th birthdays. My family, on the other hand, did big celebrations EVERY year. I think I had massive sleepovers every birthday from the time I was 6 or 7 to 15. There was never a limit to the number of people I could invite (yes, Mom must be a little crazy, but I loved her for it). I still had big parties throughout the rest of high school, though they were not necessarily sleep overs....

So, for Michael's birthday, believe it or not, I was not planning much. I thought we could have a nice quiet night with the two of us. Go out to eat. Play a few games. Watch a movie. Eat dessert.
But because of all my years of big birthday celebrations (and not knowing Michael's family's birthday traditions) I felt bad not doing something big for him.

I didn't decide to make plans until the morning of his birthday while I was at work.

I decided to take Mike up to his favorite restaurant in Salt Lake called Molca Salsa (for those of you in Utah, I highly suggest it. It's basically Mexican fast food in this tiny little restaurant with a drive-thru window, but better food than you could ever believe. This is no taco bell.) But Molca Salsa just wasn't good enough - so I decided to also through him a surprise party later that night. Ambitious, I know. I am a little crazy - I take after my mother.

And this is how it all played out:

I picked up Mike from class and started driving up to Salt Lake. He didn't know any of my plans for the night (though there was no doubt in his mind that I was taking him to Molca Salsa). Even though I knew that he knew, I still made him put on a blindfold when we came around the point of the mountain. Everything was going well until we were going up 33rd south. I had wanted to comment on things we were passing, but I was doing my best to keep my mouth shut and not give anything away. We were almost there when I let slip "One dollar carwash!? You guys totally can't compete with that!"

Which I immediately regretted.

And Mike just said, "You shouldn't have said that."

So I let him take off the blindfold. But when we walked into the restaurant he totally wasn't expecting Michelle (Mike's sister) to be there! So I at least had that on him.



(pictures via Michelle's blog.)

After Molca Salsa I had to use up some time before heading home, so we stopped by Mom and Dad Bready's house in Sandy to say hi and watch the Jazz game. I had to tell Michael I had a load of homework to do to drag him away from the tv.

I was supposed to text Jeff when we were almost there so he could turn the lights off for the surprise. Instead, I fell asleep, and imagine my surprise when I woke up and we were home! I texted Jeff, and as we were walking toward the front of the house I saw that the lights were still on and yelled "WAIT!" before Mike could notice. Because, you know, I needed his help looking for my camera in the car before we went in!

I enjoyed Kevin's response the most when we entered the house. I everyone yelled surprise, but Kevin yelled it while jumping out from behind the couch with both hands in the air. It was hilarious. And the best part - Mike didn't see it coming. So we ended the night with delicious cake (I made an angel food cake, the traditional birthday cake in my family: ice cream, angel food cake, and cool whip: you can NEVER go wrong with this combination. Consider that next time you have to make a cake for someone) and good friends and present opening.

Happy Birthday Mike. Love chu, booooooiiiiiii.

Note: If you want a surprise party to be a total surprise, plan it the day of. It works really well - as long as you are awesome.