Happy Birthday Jeff!

Today is Jeff's Birthday. We always have quite the week of celebrating, because our birthdays are 6 days apart.

If honor of our birthdays, we enjoyed a weekend getaway to Manti. My niece Shelly came to stay with the kids and we left on Friday, and came home Sunday night. It was great. A much needed break. We loved going to a small town, and having that peaceful, slow paced atmosphere. As much as I love living in/near a big city, there's nothing like a small town. We love just driving around from small town to small town, and walking down Main Street and checking out all the little shops.We stayed at the Yardley Inn & Spa, a little bed & breakfast. It was so nice, and the owners were extremely consciencious of the guest, making sure everyone was comfortable and their needs were met.
This is definitely on our list of places we must return to before too very long. It was great to have a conversation with my husband and not hear little people yelling at me for things, or wanting to interject their own conversations.
It was also nice not to have to load/unload kids everywhere we went. I didn't have to pack snacks, carry a diaper bag, push a stroller, put hairbows in little ponytails, or listen to a temper tantrum all weekend! Talk about luxury!
The other thing we loved, and the main reason we picked Manti, was to attend the Temple. I have admired the Manti Temple since I was very young. My sister Dayna had a large picture of it hanging in her room, and I've always thought it was beautiful. Now I know the inside is even more magnificent. It is a definite favorite of ours now, and we can't wait to return again.

So tonight I decided to have a little (tiny crowd) surprise birthday party for Jeff. Coming off of a weekend away, it was quite little, and not as put together as I would have liked it, but it worked out to be a fun time. It was a "sports" theme, so he had a football balloon, and a baseball balloon. I quickly made these cake pops into basketballs and baseballs. My friend picked up these baseball candles (that's what's stuck on top of the cake balls - it's a little hard to figure out why they're double decker!) that went along with the theme perfectly.
And we had a baseball pinata. All the kids took their turn. It had to be in our basement because A) It was snowing outside, B) It was freezing outside, C) Even if it wasn't snowing or freezing outside, we have no tree or deck from which we could hang it from.
And the birthday boy got to take the final swings to break it open. I think he needs to get back on a softball team, check out that form!Happy Birthday Jeff! Thanks for a fabulous weekend, a fun day, and fantastic 10+ years of being together! Love you!