Grandma's Birthday

We took a little weekend trip up to Grandma's house in Boise to celebrate her birthday. We had a great time that is most aptly described as filling.

Mom said she wanted to celebrate the big 66 by eating, so that is what we did. We made it into Boise just in time for a 6:00 reservation at the very fancy Barbacoa, where we enjoyed a delicious, unique dinner.

If you click on the photo, you can see some of the unique features: beet chips in the mashed potatoes, fried spaghetti, and my Latin steak is sitting on a cactus leaf.

We had a dessert of chocolate cheesecake with ancho chile ganache and carrot chips. Then, when we told the server it was Mom's birthday, they came out with an unexpected cylinder of cotton candy with a tiny brownie and candle inside!

Dane had been complaining since we got to the restaurant that his stomach hurt. I figured he was just hungry or maybe a little carsick from the trip. He ended up eating a decent amount of food. But then after dessert he said he was sick. Again, I didn't take it too seriously because he says he's sick every time he coughs or sneezes. Joel picked him up to leave, and Mom and I went to check out the fancy schmancy bathrooms, which, incidentally, were not marked for women or men, leading to awkward wandering and wondering by all patrons unless you were lucky enough to catch someone walking out.

Anyway, when Mom and I got back out to the car, we learned that Dane had thrown up on Joel right there in the restaurant and neither of us had noticed. Poor boys. But throwing up was what Dane needed, because he was his bright, chipper self the rest of the night.

Then we went home and enjoyed some delicious tuxedo birthday cake. Triple dessert in one night!

The next morning, birthday morning, Mom the Early Bird got up and had made pie and quiche before we even woke up. It was the best quiche I've ever had and very filling. Mom had been telling us how annoyed she's been at the geese around her complex; she wished she could catch one and cook it for dinner. But we decided that was taking the birthday weekend of eating too far, so we settled for letting Dane feed them and threw rocks in the Boise River.

Dane suddenly needed to go potty, so Joel attempted to help him learn the bladder voiding ways of the wilderness.

But it didn't go too well, so we cut our adventure short to get dry pants.

We went home and had warm blackberry pie with ice cream (dessert count: 4).

Then Mom wanted to show us a few of the sights in Boise. We checked out Boise High School and then went to the Idanha Hotel and visited the French pastry shop, where we got two delicious brioches.

Mom then introduced us to the Basque district of downtown Boise, where we ordered a Basque lentil soup and a freshly baked Basque baguette. We now had all the ingredients for a nice downtown Boise lunch.

We stopped for a little visit at the gift shop at the Basque museum, where Dane tried on a red shepherd's beret, called a txapel. He looked so cute Grandma couldn't help but get him one.

Here we are in the Basque district, and you can see the Basque flag behind us.

We went home to enjoy our lunch, which was much more delicious than I expected. I really enjoyed it. And then we had brioche and more cake and pie!

Mom is the Relief Society president in her ward, and a ward member--mother of two young children--had just passed away after a very long fight with cancer. She had some compassionate service to do in the afternoon, which Joel accompanied her to do. It was a very sad situation.

Then Mom's neighbor Michal took us out for ice cream (dessert count: 6) and regaled us with tales of Judaism and Boise State linguistics. She was a fun person.

We then had a delicious dinner of pork roast and roasted vegetables, followed by pecan pie and more cake and pie! And a milk chocolate Easter egg! (dessert count: 8)

Mom's brother David and his wife and son, Janet and Brian, came over to chat. Both Mom and Dane were just so exhausted from all the eating that they snuggled up and dozed in the recliner.

We went to church the next morning, and it was the saddest meeting I have attended. The ward was saddened by losing a beloved ward member. We happened to be sitting in front of the man and children who had just lost their wife and mother. A deacon gave an amazingly heartfelt talk about his gratitude for the resurrection. I couldn't keep from crying throughout the rest of church, and I never even met the sister who died. It definitely makes one grateful for the Plan of Salvation, but your heart can't help but break for the family who lost a loved one.

After church, we made lunch, ate more cake and pie, and packed up to go. As Joel and I packed up the car, Grandma and Dane snuck in one more story:

We're glad we got to spend Mom's birthday with her. I hope I portrayed well enough how well we ate during our short trip; I think we felt full constantly.

Happy Birthday, Mom, and thanks for being such an amazing host!

As a side note, I've had a couple requests for belly shots, so here you go:

I feel generally like I'm not as big as I was with Dane...but then I remember my friends who are about my size in their ninth month, and I realize that it is pretty much inevitable that I will be a whale again. Oh well. Oh whale.

Finally, last night we had Family Home Evening and enjoyed playing outside in the twilight. We played Ring around the Rosie, London Bridge, Round and Round the Garden, leapfrog, and playing on the swing.

It was a good weekend. I'm going to need a few naps to catch up.