Jake's 30! Surprise Party

It's a big one! Jake turned 30 on May 13th, and so we celebrated! I decided last year that I wanted to throw him a surprise party for his 30th, just to make it a little special. He had a good day, even though he had to go to work on that Friday. He woke up, opened presents, had a waffle breakfast (yaaayyy I made him break his no-breakfast diet), and went to work. At work, they gave him a dozen cupcakes and a big balloon bouquet, so I'm glad that made his day a little more fun. Cami sported an appropriate shirt for the day.

 We met Jake after work and went to Christopher's Steakhouse in Draper, which turned out to be quite fancy and very yummy. We felt a little silly bringing a toddler along, but she was a good girl and was content just eating her ice. :) Jake got prime rib, and I got halibut (YUM), and they brought out a huge piece of chocolate fudge cake for his birthday. I would've taken pictures, but it didn't seem appropriate in the dim candlelight setting!

Meanwhile, during dinner, my friend Carrianne texted as planned, and said she and her fam were at the West Jordan park and that we should go over there and let Cam and Bella play. I know, kind of a weak set-up....but I really didn't have a plan in mind as to how to convince Jake that we should end up at the park, where his party would be. Luckily, he said "okay, sounds fun", and we hurried and got the check, took the dessert to go, and headed out at like 6:50. I felt bad, because the party had started at 6:30, and I'd meant to have him there at quarter to 7, so we were running late. We drove the 15 minutes to the park, and luckily it was a beeeautiful 78 degree sunny day, so it didn't seem like such a stretch to take Cam to play on her favorite playground near our house. I had changed out of my dress pants and shoes into shorts and flip flops in the car after dinner, which Jake said later had kind of tipped him off. But really, I just wanted to be comfortable and didn't mean to make it look so planned! Oops.

When we got to the park and walked across the grass to the pavilion where Carrianne was standing, the whole group suddenly appeared from around the corner and yelled "SURPRISE!" And Jake acted pleasantly surprised, although I'm pretty sure he suspected it. :) It was fun to have all our family and friends there, and the pavilion so festively decorated with balloons and the table full of yummy food! (Thanks to some big help and prior preparation from fam and friends). All I did was make the cheesecake, which was Jake's request. It was my first attempt (although i did make mini cheesecakes last year...they deflated but tasted ok) and this cake turned out yummy but it sank and was more wet than it should be. Oh well, I tried.

 Everyone visited, the kids played on the "cowboy park" playground, as Bryan likes to call it. It's the biggest playground in Utah, and it's all wooden with tons of slides and Cami's favorite: swings! She and Bella reunited.

 We sang Happy Birthday to Jake, who was still stuck in his work clothes, poor guy. Check out all those flames!

 He blew those darn candles out in one swoop and I didn't get a picture of it, he was too fast.

 And here's some pics of playing, eating and visiting...

 And Jake's birthday balloons, which floated around the house for a week afterwards. It's always sad when birthdays are over, so we try to keep them alive. :)

Happy Birthday, my boy! Looking young and as handsome as ever!