its a bird! its a plane!

nope.  its only the greatest 29-year old in the world.

i had richard's birthday planned months in advance, thanks to

groupon and pinterest.  he took the day off of work, so he got to

wake up on his own terms, which you should always get to do on

your birthday!  as he sleepily walked to the kitchen for breakfast,

he found 29 balloons scattered about the front room, each with a reason

why 29 will be his best year yet written on it.  and a batman birthday

banner.

i met him for lunch at criddle's cafe, which we'd never been to

before.  he decided to channel tyson for his smile in this pic.

he spent the day doing what he loves the most:

playing music.

after work, i took him for ice cream.

austin and his girlfriend, brienna, met us to celebrate, too.

it was then that i surprised richard with his first present...

indoor skydiving at i-fly.

when this place first opened a few years ago, richard would occasionally

insist that we go watch people in the wind tunnel, and each time he would

say how fun he thought it would be...if only it weren't so expensive.

so, when i saw a groupon for this little adventure, i knew it would be a

birthday present he'd never forget.

the groupon was for two, and seeing as i'm becoming great with-child,

richard selected our friend dave to join him in flight.

i invited some friends and family to join me in watching richard start this

next and greatest year of his life flying high. 

he said it was a blast.  and the only reason i don't have any action shots of

the experience is because i was filming it with our video camera.  richard was

a natural, and he and dave had us all laughing our heads off.

everyone then came over for presents and a pizza dinner.

austin gave richard some sprinkler timers, which he was clearly ecstatic

about.

i gave him some pickle ball paddles that he was slightly less thrilled by.

this happened two christmases ago, too.  apparently i put my gifts to him

in much too large of bags/boxes.  next year i'm not wrapping anything.

the best gift he got wasn't wrapped, anyway.  after weeks of me grabbing his hand

and shoving it to my growing belly in failed attempts to let him feel our bundle

of joy squirming around, he finally felt the little guy move!  it was very exciting, and

a pretty special birthday present from his future mini-me.  score.

keeping with the tradition that i've pretty much practiced my whole life of

celebrating birthweek rather than just a birthday, i did something to

acknowledge richard's birth each day of that week.  saturday, we went to

dinner at one of his favorite mexican eateries in slc with my parents before

going to the bees game.

the best parts of the game:

1. the jazz bear made an appearance (which should explain the streamers)

2. the ginormous boobs of the girl in the row behind us that we were all sure

would either suffocate her or fall out of her shirt before the end of the game

(which my mom is keeping her eye on in this photo)

and finally, on sunday, my family came over for cake and "ice cream."

ice cream was richard's favorite frrrozen hot chocolate from serendipity 3.

i used the recipe from the cookbook i bought last time we were in the big apple.

not only is this the least classy cake in the history of birthdays, but it isn't actually

a cake at all.  its a tray of brownies.  slutty brownies, to be exact.

thank you, pinterest.

and thank you, richard.

thank you for being my best friend, making me laugh every day, and just making

me happy in general.  and for loving me enough to tolerate me making a huge deal

out of your birthweek, even though i know you would probably be happy with me

just giving you birthday spankings and a pinch to grow an inch.

29 never looked so good!

the exotic smith family vacation

took place in park city over the 24th of july weekend this summer, which was

not quite the cruise we'd gotten our hopes up for when early planning talks first

started before heidi and austin were r.m.'s, but it was a vacation nonetheless.

most of the weekend looked like this:

there were more walks taken around where our condo was located than

we can count on both of our hands and feet combined, and plenty of card

games and delicious meals eaten around the kitchen table, in true smith style.

sunday afternoon, while the rest of the family was either tracking down a church

block to attend or reading their scriptures, richard and i left for a walk...

around the park city farmer's market.

we've never attended church on vacation, and stubbornly we didn't feel like

starting that new tradition on this trip.  we like to worship by taking in all that our

temporary surroundings have to offer (justification/best excuse we've come up w/ so far).

so, we recruited tyson and hit the town.

we made it to the end of main st. where there was a stage set up for live musical

performances, where we saw this unique one-man-band from southern california.

he played a stomp-box, didgeridoos, guitar, chimes, and harmonica.  impressive.

i found a killer pina colada

and we made our first of many stops at the rocky mountain chocolate factory.

i think its safe to say that those caramel apples were the highlight

of the weekend.  no joke.

there are no pictures to prove that our eventful float down the provo river

actually occured, but it surely did.  i blame the river's name and location

for the fact that the boat with a pregnant woman and toddler sank like the titanic,

and for the cows (a.k.a. bear, according to liz) that were clearly working to

infect us all with giardia.  lucky for us, they were unsuccessful.

on our last day, dale treated us all to a ride down the mountain on the

alpine slide.  there was some serious arm-twisting in the beginning, but

eventually all in our party agreed to participate.

after sliding down the mountainside, and a long, awkward conversation

about where to eat, we made our way back to main st. for a delicious

mexican lunch...

and one last trip to rocky mountain for treats to get us home with

just the right amount of sugar coursing through our

family vacationed-out veins.