Heather's Birthday Weekend Extravaganza

We tried something new this year. Heather's birthday fell on a Sunday this year, and so instead of doing a nice, home-cooked dinner t hat night, we had a birthday weekend. Unsurpisingly, Heather loved it and wants a repeat next year. Yeah ... not likely. But this year did go well.

Friday night we used a gift certificate we had and went to a really nice restaurant called Clydes. The restaurant is a collection of old buildings that formed a homestead built in the mid-1800s, complete with the main house and a gigantic barn (which we ate in). The inside of each building has been extensively remodeled into a modern restuarant. It was great food and a good start to the birthday celebrations.

Saturday had beautiful weather, and so we went hiking around Great Falls, which is a rocky waterfall on the Potomac. There were fences around the lookout spots to encourage the young and inexperieced from climbing around the falls, but obviously they were not really meant to keep the likes of us out. While taking a picture of the falls, Heather dropped her glasses off a 35 foot cliff. Luckily, I have some experiece with rock climbing. So as my first gift to my wife this year, I gave her an unforgettable adventure of scurring down the side of a cliff, hiking around the bottom, and then having a thrilling climb back up. Even though she may say that she was scared for some parts of it, I know that deep down, she was grateful for the unforgettable adventure.
That night, we met up with some friends from Heather's work for some of the best mini-golfing I've ever had. Not far from where we live, there is an awesome mini-golf course called "Perils of the Lost Jungle." The outdoor course is decked out in Indiana Jones-esque jungle decorations and all sorts of things that jump out at you while you golf (triggered by motion sensors). One hole, for example, is surrounded by all these frogs that "spit" water at you while you golf. Another hole that is right next to a pond has an alligator that jumps out at you. My favorite is the last hole. When you go to pick up your ball after sinking it in the hole, there's a sensor that shoots a blast of air and the ball right back out you. It scared Heather witless the first time.

After an exciting round of golf, we ate a nice dinner at Olive Garden. While we were waiting for our table to open up, our friends went and picked up about 10 huge helium balloons and gave them to Heather. It caused quite a stir as we all stood outside the restaurant with Heather holding a huge string of balloons. I would have never guessed that so many people would be so interested in her balloons. We had small kids and grown adults alike stopping to give Heather a quick "Happy Birthday." One little girl even gave Heather a small toy as a gift. And we even got a couple of cars to drive by honking and shouting "Happy Birthday" with the windows down. It was hilarious, and Heather and intensely embarrassed. It was perfect!

The birthday weekend ended on Sunday with a nice breakfast in bed and a hearty Primary birthday song.

This is the cliff we had to shimmy down to retrieve Heather's glasses.