Tom turned the big 4-0 this month, so of course we had to celebrate!  We had two celebrations — a surprise party and a quick trip to Vegas.  It was so much fun celebrating him all week!

I had been working on a surprise party for him for quite a while, and it was fun to see it all come together!  I scheduled the party for the weekend before his birthday so he wouldn’t suspect anything, and it totally worked!  I coordinated with Jeff and Kelly to devise a plan to get Tom out of the house that afternoon so I could pull everything together, and they were awesome partners in crime!  Jeff took Tom to a movie, King Arthur, while I was “spending time with my mom and sisters” (or so Tom thought!).  As soon as they left, I hit the ground running as I hadn’t even made his cake or some of the food yet!  Thankfully my sisters showed up to help, and everything came together just in time for him to arrive at 7:00.  He was so surprised!  We were so grateful to everyone who came, and it seemed everyone had a really nice time!

Tom’s actual birthday was on Tuesday, May 16th, and again I’d been busy with some sneaky planning!  I wanted to take him to Vegas for a quick overnight trip, so I’d contacted his coworkers to ensure they didn’t schedule any meetings on Wednesday, May 17th.  Tom was already planning to take Tuesday off, but I needed to be sure his Wednesday was clear, too!  It worked, and again he was very surprised!  I made him a big birthday breakfast while he talked to his mom, and then he put on his new birthday “Vintage Made in 1977” shirt and we hit the road for what is now a very special place to us — VEGAS!

Our first stop was the hotel, where we checked in and then got an Uber to the strip.  We figured that was easier than having to find parking!  We were dropped off at Caesar’s Palace as that’s where we were having dinner, but we had about an hour before our reservation so we walked down to see the Bellagio fountains.  They were so pretty, as always!  It was also fun to see some of the places we’d been the night we got married and relive some of those memories!

We then had dinner at Mesa restaurant, which is Bobby Flay’s restaurant in Vegas.  What’s funny is on the way down, we were talking about the restaurant and Tom had me convinced that Bobby Flay knew the owner of Acquia (where Tom works) and had been to dinner parties that Bobby had catered.  I totally fell for it! 🙂 Dinner was delicious and very unexpected and different than anything either of us has ever had before!  I had the sixteen-spice chicken and Tom had the pork tenderloin… It was so yummy!  Then we ordered dessert to celebrate Tom’s birthday, and when they brought it out, it had a little candle on the plate and they told him Happy Birthday!  I had put on our reservation that we were celebrating his 40th, so it was fun to have them recognize him!

After dinner we had to rush down to the opposite end of the strip to go to the Blue Man Group show… It was a crazy blast!  We literally at times ran down the strip so we could make it on time, but that just added to the adventure.  I’d contacted the Blue Man Group ahead of time to see if they could get Tom’s name on their LED screen, and they totally did it!  They had him stand up and had everyone say “We love you, Tom” — it was awesome!  We also got to put on these neon bands that they’d given us and which were glow-in-the-dark.  Neither of us had seen the show and didn’t know what to expect, so that made it even more fun!  It was crazy and off-the-wall, but it was so much fun and a really great time!

After the show, we walked back down the strip and stopped at a few fun spots along the way, including a T&T restaurant (totally perfect for us!), the Hershey store, the M&M store, and the Coke store.  Tom had never done the Coke World Challenge, so of course we had to do that… What’s funny is one of the drinks is SO nasty, but it’s the Italy drink so I was curious to see what Tom thought and if he recognized it.  Indeed he did, and in fact he said his kids love it!  He drank the whole thing, while I gagged down a sip, and he’s the only person I know who has ever downed it without losing a bet! 😉  When we got back to the hotel, we saw that there was a pro bowling tournament going on, so of course we had to stop by!  Neither of us is very good at bowling, but it was fun to watch for a few minutes!

The next day we went to breakfast at the hotel’s breakfast buffet, and it was pretty yummy!  We had a coupon which made it cheap, so that was nice and we didn’t feel like we had to stuff ourselves to get our money’s worth!  We then headed to Mandalay Bay to go to the aquarium… It was pretty cool!  We saw sharks, a giant octopus, starfish, piranhas, and tons of other cool fish.  We also got to touch a stingray and Tom even got to kiss a komodo dragon… It was really fun!

After the aquarium, we went to their polar exhibit, but it was less than exciting and we didn’t get any pictures. 😉  We then thought it would be fun to drive by the little chapel where we were married — exactly three months ago!  It was definitely a different experience being there in the middle of the day, but it was still fun to re-live some of those memories!

After that we decided to head home so we didn’t get stuck in traffic and could make it home at a decent hour.  We stopped in St. George to get gas and ended up getting dinner as well.  We ate at Denny’s, which isn’t too fancy, but it was surprisingly good!  It was also “Free Pie Wednesday” so that was nice!  It was CRAZY raining while we were there, but thankfully it had stopped by the time we left.  The weather the rest of the trip was pretty touch and go, and we had to drive through some crazy rain, but thankfully we made it home safe and sound!  Like everything else in our lives, it was a whirlwind of a trip but we enjoyed every minute!