Birthday Festivities

Well, I think I can safely say that this birthday was epic. :)

Melissa promised me birthday surprises on Friday. She made me promise to be off work at 5:15. At 5:15 on the dot, I came upstairs (oh, the joys of working from home!) with my purse, ready to go. Melissa was waiting patiently on the couch. A moment later, the doorbell rang, and we opened it to discover.... the Puppies for Rent delivery girl, with our very special guest, Jamie!

Puppies for Rent is this great company in town that takes unwanted puppies and helps them find homes. You can rent to adopt, or just rent for a little while (we had Jamie for an hour and a half). So far, Puppies for Rent has had a 100% success rate of finding homes for their puppies.

We took Jamie to the park to play. She was a little explorer, always wanting to run around and sniff everything.

After the delivery girl came by to pick her up, we grabbed our purses and headed out the door. Melissa turned the sound off on her Google maps and kept it tilted away from me when she consulted it, so I had no idea of where we were going until....

we arrived here!

Scheels is a giant sporting goods store that is almost like a mini-theme park, complete with animatronic presidents,

Why hello, Abraham Lincoln!

 photo opts with adorable animals,

 and even a Ferris Wheel!

Melissa remembered I'd had "ride a Ferris wheel" on my summer bucket list, but I didn't get to do it. So she looked up the nearest one, and voila! :) The funny thing is, I was so excited to go on it, but the first time we went around I freaked out. My fear of heights kicked in. Slowly, though, I got over it, and I ended up having a blast. I would like to go back and ride it again. :)

We ended up having dinner at Scheels. I tried my very first bison meat.

It was pretty good, but I'm probably not starting a bison farm anytime soon.

Now for obligatory pics where I pretend to be sporty:

I have it on good authority that I am holding this gun wrong.

Also, here is me with George Washington.

After Scheels, the night was not over. We headed over to Trafalga's Family Fun Center, where we had a rousing round of glo golf (I actually do pretty okay at mini-golf :) and laser tag. Laser tag was a blast--running around in the dark, with dramatic music playing. Unfortunately I need to work on my stealthiness, my aim, and holding the gun with both hands (I didn't have my left hand in the right position... for most of the game my gun was beeping loudly and proclaiming that I needed to hold it with both hands. I couldn't seem to find the sensor). I came in second to last... but it was still epic!!!

Then to finish things off, on Saturday, we went to see "The Giver" at the Dollar Theatre. It is waaay different than the book, but it has a beautiful message about agency and opposition in all things. I really loved it. :) If you haven't seen it, definitely Redbox it.

And then today, Elder Ballard came to speak at our multi-stake conference!!

All in all, it was an excellent birthday. A million thanks to Melissa for making it one of the best.