My birthday was yesterday. I turned 28. Glenn knew he would have to be out of town on my actual birthday so he planned some fun things for the few days before.
On Thursday morning he had arranged to drop Tate off with a good friend who was going to watch him all day and night. He took off work, "kidnapped" me, and we went down town. We had a blast, shopping at the galleria, lunch at California Pizza Kitchen, went to a movie, browsed at pottery barn and crate and barrel, a cupcake at Sprinkles. Then we checked in at the Hotel Icon where we stayed overnight. It was a really awesome hotel. Glenn did a great job.
He also planned an activity for that evening. He told me the night before that he had planned something. As he put it, "I'm going WAY out on a limb here. I mean, way out on the end of the limb where it bends." I was a little nervous. What if it was terrible? How was I supposed to react well? He told me that he couldn't find anything else going on in the city on a Thursday night, no plays, concerts, or anything that was perfect, so he bought some tickets to the only thing he could find and he said, "It could go two ways: we could be surprised and actually like it, or we could spend a great night completely mocking everything about it." I am pleased to say we had a great night doing the latter. He took me to see Yanni in Concert. Oh my dear. It was hilarious! Not really my style of music or entertainment, but that's exactly what made it so enjoyable. That, and the fact that I was sitting next to Glenn. The lady next to Glenn was just weeping the whole night and would "conduct" along with her favorite songs. Then there was the binocular couple, and intense camera man. Good times.
I was actually really impressed with Yanni's band. There were some killer violinists, a jazz harpist who seriously rocked, and a flugelhorn player who was pretty surprising too. I think it was Yanni's over the top personality that just made it hard for me to think of him as a serious talent. My favorite move was when he would stand in between two synthesizers facing the audience with one hand playing one note over and over (yep, just one), dancing and smiling seductively to the audience, and the other hand was punching the air and strongly pointing to cue his band behind him. It was just so hilarious. It was like he was commanding the universe instead of just standing there flipping his hair, playing one note, while his band played all by themselves in the background. Hilarious. So much punching, pointing, swaying, and hair flipping. It was a great time. One of my favorite moments was when he was trying to talk all seriously about his next song and a man yelled from the audience, "Will you kiss my wife?" Yanni said, "Are you serious? You want me to kiss your wife?" And then he said, okay and the guy brought his wife to the edge of the stage and Yanni kissed her on the mouth. Yuck. Then there were the three encores that the audience didn't really want. Oh we laughed so hard.
It was super fun to spend all day alone with Glenn. We had so much fun. It's great to be able to talk to him all day long and remember how much I like to talk to him all day long. Such a good man I've got.
Then on Saturday he had arranged a little surprise party at our community swimming pool. He made a cake from scratch and had emailed tons of people in the ward who I've even just mentioned before, to come eat cake and swim. It was very sweet.
Yesterday was kinda boring but I wasn't bummed about it because I felt like we spent so much of the last week playing. I went to church and spent time in nursery (Glenn and I were just called as the Sr. Nursery leaders of our ward. Good times.), opened very thoughtful presents from my family, spent time on skype and the phone, played with Tate. It was nice.
I was telling Mallory about my marathon date with Glenn and she said, "You know, if he had just taken you to another movie, five years from now you would never remember what that movie was. But you will never forget the birthday when you went to see Yanni." So true. Thanks everyone for a fun birthday.
I'm pretty sure Tate could play in a cool fountain all day long.
And we climbed up some stairs (also a hit) to the big exhibit room where we met some huge bugs: spiders, roaches, grasshoppers and the like. 
And loved to see the different food that all the different bugs were eating.
And a special thanks to this little exhibit for confirming my fear that a large spider just might be hiding in my shoe every time I go to put it on. 
After that big room we went out to the butterfly conservatory. 
The conservatory was enormous and looked like a lush rain forest. There were thousands of butterflies everywhere! 
It was very cool. Tons of butterflies everywhere you looked. All different colors and sizes and they were not shy. They'd fly right up and flutter in front of your face. That freaked Tate's freak a little. He was fine until one came right up to his face and then that was it. I was holding him and pointing to butterflies at least a few feet away for the rest of the time. It was amazing. I couldn't wipe the smile off my face and Tate was much happier too, as long as they kept their distance. Tate was especially mesmerized by the waterfall and frustrated that I wouldn't let him dive in.
Then we had a butterfly treat on the way out. 
It was a great outing.
It was so cute. 
A very fun and full day. Glad we took a break from the daily grind to really play for a whole day.
