I came home from alert and Mandy hugged me tight saying "happy birthday!" I set out all of my materials and my bags that I take out on alert and began unpacking. I noticed on our ottoman she had wrapped presents for me while I was on alert. Somehow, she has always been good at conjuring up my birthday presents for me without me knowing it. She is always good about hiding presents and keeping surprises from me. We had lunch and went down in our living room so I could have enough time to open up my presents. We were going to the movies later that night to see Inception and go out to eat with friends (Charlie, Kari, and Jerome) so she figured if I opened up my presents now it would be alright. I unwrapped my presents ferociously and realized how wonderful my wife truly is. She bought me 9 movies that I've wanted for awhile (hot-tub time machine, taken, losers, green zone, clash of the titans, daybreakers, repomen, Law Abiding Citizen, and Shutter Island). She also gifted to me a new bed spread (pillows, bed spread, sheets), washable toothpicks that look like teeth (hilarious!), wall decorations in the form of a male/female bathroom sign (vases for a couple flowers), the original rabbit which is a wine bottle opener (gotta have it when we're winos), 8 of our favorite wine from Honeywood Wines based out of Oregon, and a Gamestop gift card for when I want to get another video game.
Going into town we had a few hours to kill before our dinner and movie so we walked around the mall. We bought plates and napkins for my birthday party which would be the very next day. We ended up getting some ice cream from Coldstone Creamery for my birthday and some new clothes for the Las Vegas trip coming up in September. Around 7pm we met up with our friends and went to dinner at Grizzlies. I had my birthday beer (blue moon...yum) and my favorite chicken fried steak with white gravy. After dinner we parted ways with our friends and met up with another good friend, Jeff, to go see Inception. We watched the movie (which was amazing and mind-blowing) and went on home. It was an awesome 27th birthday because of my friends and my family.
6 August 2010: The cookout
All day long Mandy and I were making goodies for the arrival of our guests at 5pm. She was filling the lemon cupcakes with gooey lemon filling and topping them off with a lemon buttercream icing on the top. I was making mayonnaise/bacon/chive filling for our cherry tomatoes that would get filled before guests arrived. We also were making green beans with bacon, feta chive mashed potatoes, fruit salad, and pineapple cheese roll dip. Around 430pm, after all of the goodies were finished, I went on a beer run and we went to the BX for some last minute shopping.
The first person to arrive at 5pm was Ashley. She brought some ham/sour cream roll-ups and deviled eggs. Soon after, Jeff, Lok, Joe, Katarina and her friend Matt, Blake, Tim, Natalie and Elizabeth, and Katherine showed up for the party and to wish me a happy birthday. I took the brats and hot dogs out to throw on the grill to get the party started. Mandy organized all the sides and where the main course plates would go on our card table and we dug in. It was down right delicious! We spent time catching up with everybody and playing bean bag toss in the back yard while drinking and having a good time. Almost everyone stayed late and we all had a good time with the good food and the great company.
7 August 2010: Bismarck
We invited the Moore's the night before to Bismarck and they accepted the invitation. They showed up at our house around 1030am, we loaded up Elizabeth's car seat, we got in the Silverado to drive to Bismarck around 11am. Our first pit-stop was Starbucks so we could re-fuel on coffee before heading out on the 2hour trip. All along the way we talked, and talked, and we talked some more. As the miles crept by we started realizing how similar we are to the Moore's and how much fun we were having together. We arrived in Bismarck around 1230pm and immediately went to Olive Garden for some awesome food (we don't have it in Minot)! After that we went to Kohls, petsmart, and bestbuy for some much needed shopping. I bought some new tennis shoes and Mandy bought a new BiOrb fish tank for some salt-water fish. We decided to drive to Kirkwood mall and realized we had no idea how to get there. We tried using Natalie's phone and I still managed to pass the exit ramp we were supposed to get off on. We had to drive down a few miles to find the next exit and turned around. We got off on the right exit this time, but found out we didn't exactly still have any idea where the mall was. We used our on-star through the truck to give us directions and finally "arrived at our destination". We walked around for a bit and bought some Auntie Anne's pretzels and took a rest. Come to find out, the mall was about to close at 7pm (who closes down their malls on a Saturday at 7pm! Holy ****....oh yeah.....North Dakota does) so we decided to head back since we still had a 2hour drive in front of us. The ironic thing about this trip came when we tried to get back to the main road to go home. We found a direct road that connects to the main road which means we never had to get on the interstate in the first place (stupid mapquest)! Oh well, I had a fantastic time with the Moore's and my wife and it was a fantastic end to a 3 day birthday extravaganza. Now we have 2.5 new great friends to spend time with here in Minot!
.Matthew.
