Birthday Fun!

(This post is obviously a little late, but I need to post about it.) My birthday happens to be on "International Speak Like A Pirate Day" so Justin goes all out to ensure that I have the best pirate-y birthday every year!   Each year I get an amazing, hand-made elaborate treasure map complete with a riddle or code to decipher to figure out what my gift will be, and this year was no different.  But there was a little twist to it this year.  My map was hand-delivered by the most adorable pirate ever!

Here is the treasure map.

His maps are getting more and more detailed and clever each year.  We live on North Pointe Dr so that's where the "North Pointe Island" comes from.  The "Gulf of People who wear pajama pants in public" is Albany because everyone here wears them all over the place.  The "Vegan Sea" is Corvallis of course.  (He's so clever!)  "Epic Isle" is a spa in Corvallis that Justin booked for me.  He was so amazing to take the day off work and agree to watch the kids for 4 hours while I got a massage, pedicure, and manicure with my friend Jessie.  It took longer than we thought, but it was so incredible.

The riddle I had to decipher, led us to Seattle where the rest of the birthday celebration took place.  We left later than planned so we hit awful traffic and ended up spending over 6 hours in the car to get to Tammy's house.  Justin had made a reservation for dinner at Elliot's (a nice seafood restaurant on the pier in Seattle,) but we were too late getting there so we had to grab dinner on the way.  There weren't many options right off the freeway when we stopped, so we chose KFC.  How bad could it be?  Ok it was the WORST place I have ever eaten in.  EVERYTHING was dirty…floors, tables, benches, bathroom.  Yuck!  The food was terrible too.  We just had to laugh the entire time because it was so awful.  Justin felt so badly that it wasn't the nice relaxing meal that I wanted for my birthed.  It definitely is a funny memory though.

We had a great time in Seattle with Tammy and her family.  Luke and Claire love them so it was fantastic.  Tammy's daughter's birthday is 2 days after mine, so we were able to be there for her birthday party.  It was crazy with a bunch of 8 year old girls, but we were definitely entertained.  

Tammy was nice enough to get a pie for my birthday so I did get to blow out candles.

We did get to go to Elliot's for dinner the day after my birthday.

They even gave us free dessert!

Tammy offered to watch the kids while we went out for dinner in Seattle.  I was so excited and we had a great time together, but it was kind of a bust night too.  We parked in a garage that ended up being a residential garage so it took us a long time to find a way back in after dinner.  Our dinner reservation was for 8:00.  We were seated at 8, but didn't get our food until after 9:00.  It was crazy and I was starving!!!  It took forever to order because I had to go through the menu with the waiter and find dairy-free options (because Claire still can't have dairy.)  I ordered a Salmon dish without the butter sauce they pour on top.  After waiting for an hour to get our food, I took a couple of bites and realized my salmon was still pretty raw.  I asked the waiter to have it cooked a little more.  He took it away and over 20 minutes later finally brought it back.  Unfortunately, when he brought it back we realized the chef had poured the butter sauce over the salmon so I couldn't eat it.  The waiter took it away before I could say "never mind."  He ended up placing a completely new order.  It didn't come for another 25 minutes.  By this time (almost 10:00) I wasn't hungry anymore and just wanted to leave.  The waiter tried to point out that I should be happy with getting two salmon dinners.  Unfortunately, I didn't want two salmon dinners.  One would have been just fine.  :)  We did get free dessert out of the deal and it was pretty delicious, so I guess I shouldn't complain too much.

By the time we got to our car, it was almost 10:30.  We headed back to Tammy's only to find the freeway closed for construction.  We couldn't believe it.  What a perfect ending to a silly night.  We eventually made it back and now can look back and laugh about it all.  I was so grateful for the effort that Justin put into it.  He really did try to make it a wonderful birthday.  It was in many ways.  I guess we have better stories now at least.