a birthday

Christian had his 26th birthday on Friday. We had so much fun celebrating with his family. Friday night we had dinner at Famous Dave's. That's only the 2nd time we've eaten there, but it's definitely one of our favorites!

After dinner, he opened presents at our place.




Eliot decorating herself for the party!



Fin helping with the presents.


And it can't be a party until we've teased the baby a little bit.

She loved it. Okay, not really. But it IS monsoon season, so we're actually just helping her.

Instead of birthday cake, I made Asphalt Pie. Mine didn't look as pretty as this, so we'll just pretend. It tasted even better than Winger's though!


Rocking some of his new gifts. Check out his sweet shoes from Stacy!


Christian is awesome. He is perfect for me. He is very, very funny and can always make me laugh and smile. This was his 4th birthday we've spent together and we look forward to many more. Happy Birthday Christian!

the weekend

SATURDAY:
We had a great weekend! On Saturday, we went to an awesome fish store. Someday we want a tank full of clown fish.

Then we drove around and stopped wherever we pleased. I wanted to stop at the "On Auk Mor Trading Center" in Scottsdale. I was thinking it would be something cool...like a trading post for furs...or fine jewels. I was thoroughly disappointed. It was nothing more than a boring old indian smoke shop. I hate when that happens. But at least the outside of the building was cool to look at.

Then we drove through a really fancy neighborhood in Scottsdale and looked at hou$e$/man$ion$. We thought about buying this lil' beauty...but the 3 guest houses are still under construction so it might be a few months. And yes, there are really 3 guest houses that come with this.
Half of the front view:

Other half of the front view:

Side view:

So perhaps this house will do in the meantime:

Later Saturday night, we got pizza and rented a movie, and then watched fireworks downtown Mesa from the back of our pickup.




MONDAY:
We had so much fun celebrating the 4th of July yesterday! Christian made a great friend in his architecture program so we got together with him and his wife and their 2 boys. We went swimming, had a fantastic bbq, and then went to the fireworks in Chandler.

With my American Doughnut:

Christian with his new best friend:

The fireworks were so good! But we all decided they would've been better with music.