Bountiful Birthday Blessings!

Saturday was Amanda's 32nd birthday. There are two wonderful things that happened that day.
1) I think (hope) I very largely contributed to it being a memorable and enjoyable day for her.
2) We were able to spend some really great quality time together that evening.

To start with, I let Amanda sleep in. When she awoke I made us all breakfast. During the day, we proceeded with the painful process of purchasing our Honda Odyssey minivan. Then she squeezed in a pedicure before getting ready to go out for the evening. Now we get to the really good part - our friend Monica offered to watch the kids for us so we could go out for the evening and even stay at a hotel overnight.

Knowing that we were going to be out on the town, and that it's a very rare occurrence since having kids, I decided to purchase an outfit for her as a birthday present that she could wear that evening. I went to Kohl's with the kids and decided on a stylish looking black number. Then I found some shoes to match and headed home.

Now let me say that while I thought the outfit would probably fit her, I also expected it to be less than stellar and that she would choose to take the whole thing back and pick something different out. This is mainly because it's hard to tell how something will fit and look when it's just hanging from a hangar.

As it turned out - the entire outfit was way better than I expected, both in fit and appearance. She looked absolutely gorgeous in it! The proof is in the picture below.


After leaving the kids with Monica, me and my hottie wife headed to The 4th Street Grille for dinner. When we got there we found the ambiance inside to be acceptable, but not as good as we had hoped, especially since we felt so elegantly dressed (especially compared to normal). We almost left to go somewhere else, but decided to stick it out instead - and boy were we grateful that we did. The food there was incredible!

Amanda's pork chop was the best either of us had ever tasted - seriously. And my rib eye steak was covered in seasoning and cooked to perfection. It was one of the best steaks that I had eaten in a long time. The rest of the meal, including the wine, was phenomenal as well. You can see our meal with us in the picture below.


We followed up the meal by walking around the Westfield plaza, getting coffee at Starbucks, then driving to Rick's Dessert Diner for the last course of the evening.

Finally, full but happy, we checked into the hotel and crashed for the night. At this point I need to give a special thanks to Monica O'Brien for making it possible to wake up two hours later than usual the next day. What a rare treat!

Although the day itself was busy, I think/hope it turned out to be a truly blessed birthday for her. And to be honest, that's even more gratifying than my own birthday.