Another one under our belts

Since there is about a week between my birthday and Bill's, we celebrate our birthdays together on "Birthday Weekend" - the weekend between the two. We have done this since the beginning and this year was our 11th Birthday Weekend.

Throughout the years the Birthday Weekends have been anywhere on the edge of crazy to the complete opposite, being downright boring (those were the years that I was pregnant and dying). This year was a good one - not too crazy, but not boring, either. For weeks we've been trying to decide on what to do and honestly, it's at times like this that you realize kids cramp your style. There's not much you can do with kids in tow at the end of winter in a small town. After much thought, we decided to go out for a very nice dinner and then have a night cap at home.

I hoped that we would be able to find a friend to come over to watch the house while the kids slept, but everyone else had plans too. This is where I'm very thankful for the barter I'm doing with the owner of the drop-in childcare center. Although Carter isn't old enough to go yet (he has to be a year old), Logan loves it there and we can drop him off any time - for free. So, that we did. Bill made reservations for later that night after bedtime in hopes that Carter would just sleep in his car seat the whole night.

We ate at one of the most expensive restaurants in town. I was pretty excited because I've wanted to have dinner there for quite some time. We got dressed up, dropped Logan off and Carter was all snugly and falling asleep. We had a delicious dinner with Carter waking up before our dinners arrived. He was quiet and very good, just looking around and fighting going back to sleep. At least he didn't even make a peep. While the dinner was very good and expensive, it made me realize how small of a town we live in. Bill and I have been to some very nice restaurants since we've lived in some big cities, like Vegas. This place while nice, wasn't as nice as I thought it was going to be. People were wearing jeans. And so were the waiters. But, that's our town for you - small,relaxed college town.

Anyway, dinner was fantastic, Carter was on his best behavior and we came home, got the kids to bed and had a few glasses of wine while watching some of the funniest stand up ever. We laughed so hard we were crying and it was a great way to end the night.

This was one of those simple happy moments that remind me of how much I love Bill and our little family.