Happy Birthday To Me!

I've been MIA because we went out of town this weekend to celebrate my 26th birthday. I love when my birthday falls on a Saturday. That's the best day for a birthday! We went to stay with my brother and sister-in-law. We got to town late Friday evening since we couldn't leave town until Joey got off work. By the time we got to the DFW area, it was pouring and storming. We got to my brother's house, picked them up, and headed to dinner. Let me say this: I LOVE Rosa's Cafe. I came to love Rosa's when I was a poor college student at Texas Tech. I haven't been back to Lubbock (unfortunately) since I graduated in December 2008. I've only had Rosa's THREE times since graduating. It was absolutely delicious. But the entire time I was eating my steak burrito, I was thinking, "Oh man. I have got to run my ass off next week."

We went to the Fort Worth Zoo on Saturday. I love going to the zoo and so does Joey. We went for his birthday a couple of years ago. I can't remember exactly when. Our newest tradition has been to go to the Texas State Fair for his birthday (in October). We usually don't do anything for my birthday. We may go out to eat, but we've never really celebrated it. Joey told me that he had plans for us over the weekend. I was surprised that he made any plans at all, lol. So we went to the zoo for a few hours. We had to slather Brynlee in sunscreen and I'm glad she kept her cute little sunhat on. I forgot my camera (as always), but luckily my brother and sis-in-law have an awesome camera and they brought it to take pictures of us. I'll upload them whenever they send them to me. For now, here's a few pictures I took with my crappy iPhone camera:

Brynlee ready to go to the zoo.

Brynlee & Daddy. Kyle in the background.

Brynlee and the gigantic crocodile!

We left the zoo a little early because Paige (sister-in-law) had to get home to rest before work. She is a nurse and works the night shift so she needed to get some sleep before heading to work. We needed to get Brynlee out of the sun, too. She was getting a bit hot. When we got her in the car, I gave her some water since the car wasn't cooled off yet. She threw up! It was gross. So I had to change her before we left. Poor baby.

Saturday night, Joey made dinner reservations for us at Ferre Restaurant in downtown Fort Worth. It's an Italian-Tuscan restaurant. It was delicious. To be honest, I have never been to a fancy restaurant before. It wasn't SUPER fancy, but it was definitely the nicest one I've ever been to. We don't have anything like that here! I had a delicious cocktail. It was a Picasso Punch. I honestly can't remember what was in it, but it was fruity and yummy. I know it had Bacardi Rum, grenadine, pineapple...and that's all I remember. Joey had wine. I am an awful wine drinker. I like the way reds taste, especially Merlot. But I am one of those people who likes my wine cold. Anyway, our service was great and the restaurant was clearing out by the time we had our reservation (7:30) because most of the diners were attending a concert or something across the street.

After dinner, we went to Flying Saucer. It is one of Joey's favorite places. I had never been there before. They have a very extensive beer list. They have hundreds of beers. I wasn't sure what to get so I stuck with something I know: Newcastle. Delicious. Joey leaned over and told me that he is "impressed" that I will drink dark beer because most women won't. So I suppose I scored points with my husband last night. BOOM! We just hung out and had a beer and headed back to my brother's (who was watching Brynlee).

My brother and Joey got me a new laptop! I never use my home computer because it SUCKS. Seriously sucks. I want to blow it up. So I typically only post from my work computer (I mean wait, no I don't...) so that's one reason I hardly post on the weekends. I typically use my iPad for internet capabilities, but it is way too difficult to post a blog from it. It screws everything up. Okay, off topic....so I am completely stoked to have a new laptop. The cool thing is that I had NO IDEA! My brother is a techie and the present was in a Dell box. I just assumed that he had a leftover box at work. I mean, I have lots of empty Pampers boxes to wrap presents in, lol.

My mom and step-dad, David, got me a book, The 5 Love Languages, and also a Camelbak! I am so excited. I haven't worked up to running long distances yet, but it will come in handy when I do. I also really want to start riding my bike again and that will come in handy then, too. My brother and Paige both use a Camelbak, too. It's really neat! If you haven't heard of it, you just fill the inner reservoir with water and it has a little drinking spout. Pretty nifty! I am excited to use it. I want to buy the Cadence bike sensor for my Garmin Forerunner before I start using my bike though.

After post-dinner drinks, we headed to Kyle's and stayed up late talking and having a couple of beers. It was a good time. I went to bed sometime after midnight. I knew I would be getting up early with Brynlee. Sure enough, she was awake at 7:50am! I let Joey sleep in and then woke him up around 9 so that I could go lay down and he could keep up with our crazy baby. She ended up taking a two hour nap (so did I!).

Today we had lunch with my brother and then went to my mom's new apartment. Her and David moved back to Texas from North Dakota. They're living in the DFW and just getting moved into their new place. It was pretty nice! Then we had a long drive back to WFalls. It's not actually a long drive, but it feels like it when you're tired!

Tomorrow I am back to my running schedule. I don't feel like I am in the funk anymore that I have been writing about lately so tomorrow night I should have an update about how hard my run was since I haven't ran in almost TWO weeks! I know it's going to be tough, but it's got to be done!

Goodnight everyone xoxo