We had planned on taking a small little day trip on Thursday while the girls were in school, but for reason unbeknownst to me (at the time!) we had to push it to Friday. So on Thursday, my actual birthday, I woke up to a slew of cards and "coupon" books from the girls. Seriously, the cutest stuff EVER. My lover brought me the most gorgeous orchid and lily for the kitchen. Seriously beautiful. And coffee. Who can forget the coffee? :)
After I dropped the girls off at school I came home and got ready and then we went out to breakfast. I chose IHOP...Im a HUGE sucker for their banana nutella crepes. YUM! AND, I have never (knock on wood) had a bad experience at IHOP. Im super picky about food at restaurants, so this says a lot. Obviously, IHOP is no gourmet, knock your socks off typa' joint, but I get EXACTLY what I order, every time. It's presented cleanly and neatly and not just slopped on a plate. It's the small things people. ANYWAYS..... :)
That evening we went to look at some more houses in the Harris Ranch and East and SE parts of Boise. Saw some really great places!! More on this later. Then we had dinner at mi madres house- lasagna and salad with bread. One of my faves, and a yellow cake with chocolate frosting.
Thursday wrapped up nicely- and then a curve ball was thrown, as I was sitting in the tub that evening Louis came in and told me that my mom had bought me something special for my birthday and it was being delivered the following day, Friday, between the hours of noon and 6...so we had to be out of the house.
I was a little shocked, she had just given me my birthday gift, thanks for the Instapot mama!, but it wasn't really that big of a deal because Louis had already told me we were gonna take our day trip on Friday instead of Thursday (tricky eh?). We threw around the ideas of McCall and Sun Valley and even SLC so I could go shopping at IKEA. Ultimately however, I chose Baker City.
BAKER CITY?!?!?!
Yes, Baker City. :) Same reaction I got from everyone. Really there are two main reasons I wanted to go and I'm not sure which one makes me a bigger nerd, but I'll let you decide for yourself. The first reason is that there is a kitchen store called Bella there. I've seen the billboards for this place for years and have always wanted to go. Secondly, I wanted to go to the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center. So a kitchen store and a museum....apparently these are the things that 'blow my skirt up' if you will! ;)
Let me tell you- NOT DISAPPOINTED in any of it. When we got to Baker we first had lunch at the Lone Pine Cafe. It was a great little place right down on Main street in the historic part of town, and, lucky for me, is about 4-5 buildings down from the kitchen store.
Bella was awesome. It actually surprised me at the selection of the kitchen wares as well as gourmet food items they had available. Call me ignorant, I guess I just didn't really think there would be large enough demand for things like that in Baker. I was clearly very wrong. I walked around for over an hour, looking at things-ooh'ing and ah-ing over this and that, finally filled my basket with a few things I just couldn't live without and was done. Louis was such a good sport the whole time. I can only imagine how boring that must be for him. He never let on and even acted like he enjoyed it. :)
Then to the Interpretive Center. I was really looking forward to this all day. It is a museum dedicated to the Oregon Trail. Living here in Idaho, our history is rich with the Oregon Trail and pioneers and Native Americans, and the Wild West- it's really the only history we have so to speak. The East Coast has a different type of American history- which one day I would LOVE to see, but this is our piece and I totally dig on history and things like this.
The center is really well done and I learned a ton. There's a trail system that goes around the museum and takes you down to the actual wagon ruts on the Oregon Trail. It's out in the middle of no-where, so as you're down on these ruts looking around, you see it just as I imagine they must have- there aren't buildings or cars or noise even. It was really sobering for me for some reason. I highly recommend you check it out if you live in the area. :)
After that we decided it was time to go home. This is when things started to get a bit weird. As you remember, Louis told me mom was having something delivered, it had been in the back of my mind all day, but now, as I was driving home, the questions started forming.
Louis acted as interested as I was, but just kept telling me to slow down and watch my speed. I do tend to drive too fast so I willingly obliged and set the cruise control for 5mph over the limit. After a little bit, he glances at the dashboard clock, and tells me I'm still probably going to fast. I'm just like ok, and slow down a bit, but think he's getting a little crazy.
We pull in the driveway about 6:45 and I head in, ready to discover whatever it is that has been delivered....when suddenly I open the door and walk into :
SURPRISE!!!
Out jump the girls, out jumps more people, out pops my mom, and Marcie...and Curt and Colleen...and so many kids....balloons and streamers everywhere. Cake and food everywhere. I had been bamboozled.....Louis has thrown me a surprise party! My mind had gone a thousand places, but seriously never once did I think a surprise party. Well played mi amor, well played!! :)
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| Getting ready to head to breakfast on my b-day |
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| oh man, I love these dorks |
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| my love eating lunch at Lone Pine Cafe in Baker |
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| at the interpretive center |
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| he told me to make my 'dysentery' face.... |
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| heading down to the ruts....pretty desolate out there |
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| These are the actual ruts of the Oregon Trail. How crazy to be walking the same trail the pioneers did all that time ago |
and unfortunately no one got pictures of the surprise party...videos yes, pictures no....I'll try to get a video from someone and upload that soon. :)
