Happy Birthday to Me!

My 33rd birthday was seriously one of my best to date! I am a birthday person! I love them - all of them! I usually have pretty high expectations for mine. I want the entire day to be about me. I know, but at least I'm honest :) Ha! This year, I had no expectations. I didn't expect anything except a happy day with my sweet baby and his daddy. Sid had a great day yesterday! And Sean has had a really busy week, so unfortunately I didn't get my usual birthday breakfast from him, but to be honest, I didn't care! It was just perfect, regardless.

In true Parks' form - I opened my present the night before my birthday. Sean and I can never wait! We do it with all gifts. I remember last year I had a Christmas present for him that I was so excited about I had him open it a week early - whoops! But if we are ok with it, then who cares!!

Don't tell him, but I already knew what it was ;)

A new camera!

I have mentioned several times that I wanted a better camera. I don't really have a real camera anymore - I just always use my iPhone. Given, it does take great pictures, but I feel like I am going to want a better camera come Sidney's first birthday party, or his first soccer game, etc. I wanted something I could easily carry around in my bag, and not have a huge learning curve! This little puppy is brilliant! I am so happy and excited to have it. The zoom is amazing, and so are the megapixels! I'm excited!! Did I say that already :)

On the morning of my birthday, I finished the puzzle I had been working on for a few days! I am completely addicted to puzzles! Once I start one, I have a hard time walking away! My mom gave us this puzzle last year for Christmas. It was probably one of the most fun puzzles I've ever done.

Late morning, we had some unexpected visitors stop by! The Robinson's from Bentonville were traveling through town in their RV, heading to AZ! They wanted to come see Sid! It was nice to see them and their adorable dogs, Bentley and Rusty (they are larger versions of Louis!). They wanted to meet at a Starbucks originally, but due to their arrival time, Sid was napping, so they came to our house instead. When we greeted them at the door, I was hoping my mom and Louis were going to be standing there with them, no such luck ;)

I set out a few oatmeal cookies and got everything set up for coffee, but no one had any. I guess I just assumed since they said meet at Starbucks they would want a cup of coffee when they got here. They came in, we visited, we showed them our house, played with the dogs, and then they were off on their merry way!

Several hours later, my mom called to see how their visit was (these are really her friends, but Sean and I feel like they are our friends, too :). I told her I set everything out for coffee but no one ended up drinking any. To which my mom replied very matter-of-factly, "That's because they don't drink coffee. They are tea drinkers." WHAT!? That sure explained it! So after they left, I fixed ME a cup of coffee and enjoyed it thoroughly ;)

The rest of my afternoon was spent playing with my baby and taking lots of phone calls and texts from friends and family.

Sean asked his parents the night before if they wouldn't mind coming over to babysit after Sid went down for the night so that he could take me out to dinner. They showed up around 7 and then we left for Truluck's. We didn't want to go too far because we needed to be back at a decent hour so his parents could go home and go to bed!

Our dinner was really tasty, but mine was very spicy!

I made Sean promise me he wouldn't tell the waiter it was my birthday! I didn't want the complimentary dessert! I wanted to pick my own off the menu! Ha! So on the numerous occasions we were asked what the occasion was, Sean always replied with "Just a good meal in cold weather." -HA! - because everyone wants a good meal in cold weather, right? He cracks me up! We finished up and I remembered that The Cheesecake Factory was next door! I had the idea to go there for dessert instead. Truluck's is a little stuffy and I was just feeling like getting out of there and going somewhere a little less formal. We grabbed our tab and bundled back up to head next door for dessert!

We ordered coffee with Bailey's and White Chocolate Raspberry Truffle cheesecake! OhMy!!! I was having to instruct Sean on his bites. He kept getting all the good bites with the yummy raspberry inside! And he kept devouring it, where as I wanted to savor it! It was MY birthday after all ;) He had to eat MY cake MY way. Geez, I'm bossy :) Hey Sean, I LOVE YOU!!!!! ;)

We got home at 9:45 and got a good report on Sid. He apparently didn't make a peep. Good little fella :)

We then, with full bellies, plopped on the couch in our warm cozy house, watched The Voice, then went to bed. 

It really was a wonderful day! Thank you to everyone who made it special :)