Nathan's 30th in Sedona!

Well my hubby has officially moved into the next decade of his life...and I think he makes 30 look pretty good!  His siblings have made a tradition out of doing something special for the 30th birthdays...so we've been brainstorming for a couple months now on what to do for the big day.  We finally decided on surprising him with an 'adults only' overnight trip to Sedona.  In the 3 1/2 yrs we've lived here in AZ, we still hadn't been!  So it was about time we check it out.  As far as the 'surprise' factor went...we did pretty good and I think he only halfway suspected what was going on.  I had just been telling him that we were going to do something small with our little family on his birthday weekend and that the bigger surprise would come in March when Ashley came to visit with her family.  Thanks to some other accidental slips of information...he actually bought it!  So Thursday night Ashley flew in from Oregon and she, Brooke, and Andrea drove over to our apartment.  I unlocked the Suburban from upstairs and they climbed in.  When I asked Nathan to run down and get the laundry detergent from the trunk...he got the scare of his lifetime!  They screamed "Happy Birthday" at him from inside the car and I think Nathan literally jumped back about 10 feet! We could hear his scream upstairs!  I got it on video from our upstairs window so I will try and post that as well (I seem to have issues posting videos on blogger).  His sisters brought a bunch of desserts with them and we just hung out and talked about our fun plans for the weekend.  We left midday on Friday and dropped our kids off at Kristie's.  (A HUGE thanks to Kristie and Wes for watching them for a day and a half...not an easy task in a small apartment with 4 kids under 4 yrs old.  I was a wreck about leaving Violet over night but they all survived and it was comforting for me to know that they were in good hands.)  

We made the 2 hr drive up to Sedona (Nate, Ashley, Brooke, Andrea, and I...we missed Erin who is due with her first baby in about a month!!!).  Paul met us up there a little later and Nate's parents even drove out from Las Vegas to meet us there.  We spent Friday afternoon walking around the little town and tourist shops and had some fabulous Mexican food for dinner.  I found a quaint little resort to stay at through my parents Time Share.  It was called the Sedona Pines Resort.  We went to the hot tub in the evening and just talked for a while that night.  It was so nice just to relax somewhere without kids or responsibilities for a bit.  We all slept in the next morning (or at least we tried to...I don't think I can even do it anymore...8 a.m. is my max and even then I feel like I'm forcing it!).  Then we enjoyed a little game of put-put at the resort...no one was there but us...super fun.  And then we ate at the most amazing little breakfast place.  I'm seriously tempted to drive up there again just to eat the breakfast.  The Heartline Cafe, people...check it out.  And get the Sedona Sunrise.  It was unreal.  After breakfast we went and saw this little chapel up on a hill where we had a great view of Sedona.  Then we hiked Devil's Bridge.  It was a pretty simple little hike but it was just perfect for what we wanted that day.  Everything was super low key and relaxing.  We left for home about 430 that afternoon.  A short trip but super fun and just what we needed!  

The view from the church

Devil's Bridge (there was no way you were gonna see me walking over that thing!)

That's about as close as we were getting!

The Heartline Cafe 

In front of our little 'cottage' :)

I felt like this place was the employee quarters on Dirty Dancing!  It was such a cute little place...so different.

Ok and here are a few pictures of Nathan's actual Birthday...we kept it simple that day.  Cake and ice cream...Kristie & her fam and Isac & his fam...

Got the BEST recipe for an orange cake from Nate's Aunt Jessie...and with our delicious Arizona oranges it was the perfect choice!  We WILL be making this cake again.

Sawyer wanted me to take a picture of him...

        

Violet enjoyed the balloons...(sidenote: why does that girl always have an orange nose?!)

Random picture...had to throw it in there...it was a rare moment :)