Happy Birthday Todd!

Todd's birthday in November was fun. As is our tradition, I had put a few things together for us to do that Todd would like and were a total surprise to him. Todd had school in the morning, so as soon as he got home we set off toward Salt Lake. Unfortunately, we had to turn around at about American Fork because Todd forgot his cell phone. I would have just told him to go without it ntil we got home, but we wouldn't be home at all for quite a while and I wanted him to be able to get his birthday phone calls. Lunch was at Tucano's, for which of course we used his birthday coupon making it a 2-for-1 deal. Still expensive, but at least manageable.

Then we walked around the Gateway mall since we didn't have time for my next activity. We were going to go bowling at the U of U, that would have cost $2 for parking $1 for Todd's shoe rental (I have my own!) and then only $1.50 per game. That's only $6 for our first game and $3 for each after that! Pretty good deal. But we didn't have anymore since it took us about an hour just to go back for the phone. So after some fruitless shopping for shoes for Todd (I had saved some birthday money so he could pick out his own), we headed for Sandy.

We went to Jordan Commons, where we walked up to the movie theater. I hadn't heard Todd talking about any movies he really wanted to see, and as early as I was planning and finalizing everything my only movie option was Harry Potter 7 (since it came out on the same day as Todd's birthday), so that's what we saw. I was afraid Todd wouldn't think it was so great, but it turned out he had actually wanted to see it! I was so happy. It wasn't as exciting as either of us thought it might be, so we are looking forward to part 2 with a little more action.

Todd blinded by the camera in the dark movie theater. (Don't worry, it was before the movie. we didn't disturb actual movie time)
After the movie we went to an indian restaurant for dinner. It is pretty much Todd's favorite way to eat out. It was a good place, we liked it. But we still think our favorite indian place is the India Palace in Center Street in Provo. Yum!

After that was the ultimate surprise! We drove just down to the next exit off I-15, and pulled into the Jim's Family Restaurant parking lot. Actually, we were pulling into the parking lot of the Hampton Inn, but for some reason all Todd noticed was Jim's. It made me laugh how long it took Todd to figure out where we were going. I had picked a hotel that had a pool so we could go swimming if we still had some energy, but we were both pooped. My wonderful and fantastic grandma Faber had done me a favor in delivering a pumpkin pie and whipped cream to the room earlier in the day so we could have some birthday dessert. We opened up the trunk where Todd found all his presents and our stuff for the night stay, and settled in. Then we opened presents! I think he liked most of them, I tried to make sure he would like them all.

The pictures are a bit hard to see, but he got some nice smelling candles, turkey jerky, some scrubs for school with the patch already sewn on the sleeve (Congratulations nurse Todd!) a tie rack (desparately needed, as shown by picture below), Glenn Beck's latest book, some socks (a gag gift, they were free since they were hand-me-down's from my little brother. Styles he doesn't like anymore. However, they are all in much better shape than the ones Todd was wearing!) and a knock off of rosetta stone for Italian. Todd considered using both his Christmas and Birthday money to get the Italian Rosetta Stone, but I found this awesome version at costco for about 30.00! We took a look at some of the features and I think it will be just about as great.

Just as a side note, Todd loves his ties and normally would never let this happen. However, since our church changed to 9:00 at the end of September and his meetings changed to 7:00 am, our hanger that had been just fine for 3 years just didn't cut it anymore. Now it was early and dark and Todd had much less motivation and time to make sure his ties all stayed on the hanger as he pulled off the one he wanted. The tie hanger I got him has proved to fix the problem!

After we opened presents Todd played with his rosetta stone knock-off for a while and looked at his Glenn Beck book a bit. Then we had pie!

Yummy! (Thanks again Grandma!) We both basically passed out after that. We must have had a long week. We enjoyed a hot continental breakfast in the hotel in the morning, then drove down to Orem in the morning for a ward Turkey Bowl. Ironically enough, I left my cell phone under the bed and we had to turn around and go back for it, making us late for the football fun. At least we found it!

Happy Birthday Todd, I love you!!!!!! (even though you are so old!)