Birthday Weekend

Happy 31st to me! I had a burger. Which would have been enough. But there is more!

It was a three day weekend of fun, thanks to my wonderful mother-in-law, Diane, flying in and watching the kids. She gave the gift of freedom, which is the best gift of all for this stay at home mom.

So here's how it went. Adam and I saw a matinee of Silver Linings Playbook on Friday. Great movie, love that J-Law. After that, Smashburger! A joint that distinguishes itself by smashing the pattie to reach beyond the bun circumference. You know when you fell in love with hot dogs that extended longer than the bun? This was the moment of falling in love with a burger than knows what we really want but can't articulate it until it's in our mouths. Smart move, Smashburger. That evening we went to a Martin Sexton concert at the Crescent Ballroom in downtown Phoenix. What a cool little place! 

And by little, I really do mean little! We got there early enough to be touching the stage the entire time.

He's a bluesy, soulful guy. And I really like that rug, too. This concert was my Christmas present to Adam because he's been a fan for a long time, but I wasn't familiar with a lot of his songs. I did my best to pretend to mouth along, like all the cool kids were doing.

 For his encore, he brought out a different mike, a different guitar, and stood literally three feet in front of me. I could have reached out and strummed his guitar for him. It was really cool. If you want to hear my favorite song of his (the only one I knew before this night), look up Glory Bound on Spotify. GOOD VOICE, this guy. He is the real deal. Also, he played with John Mayer once (there's a YouTube of it) and not sure if you know this but I was John Mayer obsessed for many, many, many years. Recovering now, thank you. But he has a similar sound. I may have even closed my eyes and pretended it was John. Shhhh, I'm recovering now, we don't need to talk about it anymore. Great night! Plenty of beer spilled on and around me and that was just icing on the cake. Nope.

 The next day we headed to Tucson. Don't make fun of us for going to Tucson. I did want to go to Sedona or see the Grand Canyon on my birthday, but we thought it'd be colder than we wanted. By the time I'd planned everything for Tucson, we realized it'd be nice in Sedona. Don't think of what might have been! Just don't!

Tucson did not disappoint! My friend told me a lot of great things to do/see/eat, so everything was just as I wanted it. We went on a great shuttle ride and hike through Sabino Canyon.

 




I took a hundred thousand photographs of cacti. I am sick of calling them cacti, by the way. Cactuses is so much better and doesn't feel so proper.

This was my favorite cactus. They made me think of spiky crazy knobby witch fingers!

This was the biggest saguaro cactus I've ever seen.

And check out that blue sky. The bluest skies are in Tucson, not Texas.

I envied him the Camelback.





I sweated (sweat?) a whole lot. And the sun burned through both slatherings of 100 SPF sunscreen on my face.

This was a naturally occurring cross. Naturally, I took a picture.

Who knew there'd be naturally occurring water along the way? And that it'd be FREEZING?! Nature is amazing. Naturally.


That evening we went out to The Grill at Hacienda Del Sol. I'm too tired to write up descriptions of the food here, so read what I already wrote about it on my other blog.
 

 We stayed at the Ventana Resort. So cool.

 Sunday morning brunch was at The Abbey. SO GOOD. I want to go back right this second. I wrote about it on the other blog.

 Adam gave me such a grown up gift: a watch! I love it. It also has pink and white bands. He is awesome. And also watch-obsessed. Which I'm fine with .... especially when I benefit from his good taste.

 We spent Sunday afternoon at the Museum of Contemporary Art. I didn't know what to expect, it was just that I hadn't been to a good art museum for a long time, and I wanted to just go.

Lo and behold, there was one installation (it's a small museum, a former firehouse - love that), and the artist himself was there and about to give a tour and lecture.

We totally lucked out. He and his art was fabulous.

 I'd put any and all of it in my house. I wrote more about it yesterday on my other blog here.

And on the way out, headed for home, I found this cute little house. This is why I love living in Arizona.

 

And when we got home, Diane had these paper balloons and Sienna's choice of pink snickerdoodles greeting me! The cookies say "31."

 30 was good, but 31 is gonna be GREAT!