John celebrated his 34th birthday last week. No offense John, but that sounds kind of old. I have a feeling we'll both be celebrating our 40th birthdays before we know it. Unfortunately John didn't have a fabulous birthday this year...but hopefully it was okay. He had a long day at work and even had to decline a lunch invitation because he was in court all day. He came home to a wife still had a thrown out back (although I gave in and went to the chiropractor that day...best decision ever....I'm now a HUGE fan of massage) and I was trying to get ready to head out of town the next morning. But we still managed a yummyy family dinner at Red Robin and I made awesome cupcakes. Emmie even said, "Wow!" and clapped when we were making them. But then again, how could any food item that contains chocolate cake, chocolate mousse, chocolate frosting, snickers, and chocolate ganache not be awesome? I don't know how either.

And my favorite pictures of the night were of Emmie and John blowing out the candles. Emmie is under the impression that every time a birthday is celebrated it's her birthday, which somehow makes these pictures even better.

And the very next morning I left on a girls trip to Portland to see Wicked. I have an awesome husband who is always supportive of me getting out of the house...even if it means he has to stay behind with the kids.

We spent Thursday driving to Portland, checked in at our hotel, got some delicious Thai food for dinner and then headed to the theater. Unfortunately, the moment we got on the freeway we were in stand still traffic. We were all a little sick inside and ended up missing the first 20 minutes of the play. Luckily we had all seen it before. And it was still amazing!

Afterward we went to VooDoo donuts for dessert. It definitely didn't disappoint. It's in a kind of scary part of town. The line was long even at midnight. But we had a great time with the homeless people! My favorite doughnut was a plain doughnut covered with marshmallow, chocolate, oreos, and peanut butter. It was amazing! They had all sorts of funky doughnuts covered in cereal, bacon, and other delicacies. If I ever go to Portland again I will definitely be going back.

The next day we caught a morning showing of Hunger Games (which I really liked and cried a lot during) did some shopping, ate food. And then spent about 6 hours on the couch in our hotel room talking and eating. We were so tired and perfectly happy to sit and do nothing.

Saturday morning we went to the Portland market on the waterfront. It was huge! We spent hours there and had fun shopping and eating. I had my first gyro. How have I never had one of those!On our drive home we stopped at a waterfall and walked around for a bit. It would be fun to go back there with the kids one day and hike to the top.We enjoyed the drive home (because lets face it, any car ride without children is enjoyable:) and got back late Saturday night. It was a fabulous little break and I came home refreshed. And then reality hit quite early Sunday morning! Ahhh, motherhood. It's these little breaks that make it even more enjoyable!