Catching up part 1: Ben's birthday

I finally finished going through a bunch of pictures last night, and figured I needed a good clearance post documenting all the important things from the past three weeks.
First up: Ben's birthday!


Ben wanted to dress up and go to a nice restaurant downtown for his birthday. It was a beautiful day, so we ate outside.


My handsome Brigham, looking like a business man, examining the menu. He got macaroni and cheese, and it really was the best macaroni and cheese I ever tasted.


Joseph did NOT want his picture taken (surprise, surprise).



Mosey enjoying his chicken strips. We were sitting under a red umbrella and the light was all weird, hence the black and white pictures.

We ate at the Four Seasons Hotel restaurant, I think called Trio or something. It was fancy. I ordered Scallops with some fancy sounding salad topped with watercress. It was very pretty when it came, and I wish I had taken a picture of it, because its appearance was the only thing that was good.
I must be totally uncultured, because I thought it was *horrible.* Whatever the salad was, it was the most disgusting thing I've eaten. It had the worst, sort of scorched flavor. The scallops tasted *ok,* but were really slimy. I am honestly one of the least picky people I know. I like almost anything. I was shocked that I didn't like it. And of course, this was the kind of restaurant where you pay for everything. Ben paid $3.50 for a sprite. You'd think it would include refills, right? You would be wrong. He got a 10 oz. glass bottle of sprite and a glass of ice. I guess free refills are just a little too low-class.
Anyway, I am now more convinced than ever that I'm very happy here in my middle-class lifestyle. Give me Carinos or Cheesecake Factory any day over some hoity-toity fancy restaurant!
It was fun to get all dressed up, though, and try to teach the boys some good manners. And they were well-behaved. At least the children's menu was good. Ben got some sort of smoked salmon salad, which he said he liked, so that's good.


On the way home, we actually did stop at Cheesecake Factory and bought a mini-cheesecake to take home. Ben's favorite, Raspberry white chocolate truffle.
The boys gave them presents, which they picked out entirely on their own. Brigham gave Ben a half-gallon of egg nog. Joseph gave him the game Battleship. And Mosey gave him his own little stuffed-animal dog. Mosey immediately told Ben, "If you don't have time to take care of him, I'll take care of him for you!"
We also finally did order the wheat grinder which he's been using the past couple of weeks.

Happy 34th, Ben!