Life Within the Cuckoo's Nest: Happy 30th Birthday Josh!

Josh had a pretty rockin' birthday this year! He turned 30 after all, so we had to make it good! The party started the weekend before his actual birthday. My Mom and Briana came over to watch Austin and I took Josh out for his big birthday surprise! I tried so hard to keep it a secret but he always guesses what my surprises are! Somehow he knew we were going to see the show Rock of Ages at the Venetian and eat at the Grand Lux Cafe. Either he is just that good at guessing, or someone took a peek at the credit card bill when I told him not to....

The meal was AMAZING! We decided to be brave and try the Asian nachos for an appetizer and split a pizza. Seriously, it was to die for! We also had a great time wandering around the Venetian while we waited for the show to start. The Venetian and the Bellagio are our two favorite casinos because of how beautiful they are. You could wander around for hours looking at the beautiful gardens and cool Parisian style shops. The greatest part of the whole night, however, was Rock of Ages! Josh was soooooo excited! I had the most fun just watching him :). He is a HUGE 80's rock fan and he has been wanting to see this show for quite a while now. They gave us these plastic lighters so people don't feel the need to pull out a real lighter and set the place on fire. Most of the people were drunk so there were still some rebels who pulled out their real lighters anyway and we had fun watching security try and explain to their drunken brains why that wasn't okay ;). The music was great, the acting was hilarious, and to be totally honest, we felt like a young childless couple again! We didn't want to go home just yet, so we bought a chocolate covered caramel apple at a cute little cafe and talked for a while before the night came to an end. Josh said it was the perfect birthday and I couldn't argue with him there!

The birthday boy!

Wandering around the Venetian.

A little pre-show lovin'

Walking around the beautiful Venetian gardens.

The AMAZING ASIAN NACHOS!!

Seriously, best rock show EVER!

Josh's actual birthday fell in the middle of the week and it just happened to be "Financials Week" at work which meant he was home super late and was feeling pretty stressed out. When he finally got home on his birthday, he came bearing gifts from his coworkers. It was very sweet of them and they were very generous. So we took one of the gift cards they'd given and went out to eat at Chili's. Then we came home and had birthday cake that I had made earlier that day. Austin thought the candles were pretty cool! It was a nice, relaxing evening.

The Birthday Cake!

Blowing out the candles!

The party continued into the next weekend when Josh's Dad flew down to celebrate with us! I kept joking with Josh that his birthday was the day that just keeps giving. We had a great time with Papa Art and crammed a lot of fun stuff into one weekend. We started by going out to eat at Lucille's BBQ at the District. We had never been there before but are now HUGE fans! Seriously, it was the best dang BBQ any of us had eaten in a long time! The weather is so beautiful now so we chose to eat outside and I'm glad we did because it kept Austin entertained a little longer than usual. The funniest part of the whole meal was when Josh told the waitress that he turned 21 and she actually believed him and brought out an ice-cream sundae and a card saying Happy 21st Birthday! It's sickening that he looks so young.....

YUMMY!!

Next, we went over to the Silverton where the Bass Pro Shop is because Grandpa has been looking for bullets for his 22 but they seem to be all sold out everywhere he goes in Utah. Sadly, they were sold out in Nevada too! Apparently people are stocking up for the end of the world. We had fun wandering around the store though and looking at all the cool fish and taxidermy. There was a mermaid show that we wanted to see but didn't have time because it was Austin's nap time and Josh and I had a movie to catch! So we headed home, put Austin to bed, and headed off to the movie theater! We love our baby, but nothing beats a few hours alone with your spouse. It's like you suddenly feel freedom you never knew you had! We saw the new DRACULA movie and, like everything else we did this week, it was dang good! After the movie we picked up a pizza and headed home for dinner. Austin had a great time with Grandpa and they were at the park when we got home. It normally takes Austin a little while to warm up to men for some reason but this time he had no problem being Papa Art's little buddy all weekend long!

Mom and Dad on our movie date!

After dinner we headed out for the last fun event of the night, the pumpkin patch! Austin was starting to get really tired so he didn't show much excitement in any of the pictures we took, but he had a really great time! He rode the train with Momma, braved the huge slide with Dada, attempted to pick up every pumpkin he came across, and had a blast at the petting zoo with Papa Art! The petting zoo was by far his favorite part. We thought he might be timid with the animals but we were so wrong! He went right up to them and started petting them! He loved petting the goats and had fun chasing the chickens. It was all fun and games until he discovered the yucky water troughs and then it was game over.

He loves his Papa.

Farmer Austin trying to pick up all the pumpkins.

The best part of the whole night! The petting zoo!!

Too cute :).

Papa rescuing Austin from the disgusting trough water...

Riding the train.

Right as Josh was about to go down the slide with Austin, this little boy asked him if he could ride on his lap too! It was too funny!

Such a good night :).

Josh had to speak in Sacrament the next day and it was nice to have Art here to help me wrestle with Austin while Josh was up at the podium. Josh did a fantastic job on his talk and we were all so proud of him! Austin liked watching his Dad talk and kept pointing and saying, "Dada!" It was the perfect end to the perfect Birthday week. After church we went to IN N OUT BURGER and picked up lunch/dinner and brought it home so Austin could take his much needed nap. Then Art left soon after that. We were sad to say goodbye and sad that our super fun weekend was coming to an end.