Ryan's 30th birthday

Among Ryan's skills of hottiness and braininess, his other claim to fame is sharing the same birthday as Michael Jackson. Sadly, as we all know, the "Gloved One" died over a year ago and so sharing his birthday doesn't mean as much anymore.... at least not to Ryan. We recently spent a weekend celebrating Ryan's birthday and had a blast. As is common among most young married couples, we are not picking money off the tree in our backyard. To be honest, funds are a little tight right now, and while I wanted to do something memorable for Ryan's big birthday, I knew I'd have to get creative. Drawing upon past experiences of creative dating up here in Idaho, I decided to send Ryan on a little scavenger hunt. I created clues associated with the names of the buildings on BYU-Idaho's campus and got to work hiding the clues. Ryan saw the notes I had made about the scavenger hunt, and even though he knew what this birthday surprise was, he played along with it. He knew there was a scavenger hunt, but he didn't know much beyond that.

We began with lunch at Ryan's favorite place, Wingers. It was there he got his first clue. He immediately knew where to go.

All the clues were hidden on the backs of the signs of the buildings. His first clue was "I was the 13th prophet of the church."

Look at the genuine surprised look on his face at what? Yes, another clue!

Zoe came along with us. It was a sunny and windy day and it wasn't long before she was asleep.

We always take time for a cheesy picture. Aren't we just cute?

He had to get in deep with the plants for this one!

Thinking about this clue, "When I'm around, you know it's cold outside."

After Zoe had woken up, she got to ride with Daddy! And just look at that beautiful green grass! The campus at BYU-I really is impressive.

The previously posted clue led him to the "Snow" building whereupon he got this clue: "Speaking of cold things, go somewhere where they serve cold things and where they definitely aren't hiring."

A couple weeks prior we'd gone to Twizzleberry and plastered all over the doors, windows and front counter were signs stating, "We are NOT HIRING at this time." I guess they had one too many college kids coming in asking for more than a sample of the ice cream.

So we ended up at Twizzleberry and Ryan got to pick any size, flavor and topping he wanted.

And the little toaster got in on some of the good cold stuff too.

Ryan's favorite meal is shrimp stuffed, bacon wrapped jalapeno poppers. We made them up and he was even willing to cook his own dinner!

Add a little corn on the cob to that and we were set! So was Zoe!

Jordan and Priscilla joined us for the festivities.

The poppers really are quite good. You never know when you're going to get one of the really spicy poppers either. The suspense is exhilarating.

That is one happy 30 year old man.

Love you Ryan!