joe&kara: March 2012

Turning 30 is a pretty big deal. With the hope of avoiding Joe going through a mid life crisis or something, I tried to make his birthday all sorts of exciting. So far, so good.

On the Saturday before his bday, I caved and told Joe what I was getting him for his birthday. [I'm not the best at keeping secrets, especially when it's something I'm really excited about. And it turned out to be a really good thing that I spilled the beans cause I definitely would have gotten the wrong one.] Anyway, I told him I was thinking of getting him an Xbox and, believe it or not, he was ok with the idea. Before I knew it I was at Costco buying it, and then all of a sudden we were at home and it was unwrapped and we were playing the Kinect. So...happy birthday Joe.

On Sunday I attempted to cook Joe's favorite homemade meal: pot roast, carrots, potatoes, gravy, and rolls. His mom and my mom are both amazing cooks so I knew I had big shoes to fill! I'm happy to report that after several phone calls to my mom, one recipe re-do, a very messy kitchen and eating two hours later than planned, the meal actually turned out pretty tasty. [I'll admit, it didn't taste nearly as good as the homemade meals we're used to, but maybe after years of practice I'll get there.]
Two years ago, on the day before Joe's birthday, we met in Phoenix, Arizona while on spring break. So to celebrate that fateful day, we went to Joe's favorite restaurant: Chipotle. He would probably go there three or four times a week if I agreed to it...

Wednesday was his actual birthday so we celebrated by working! (Real life really gets in the way of birthdays and stuff sometimes.) After work we went to dinner at Cheesecake factory, one of our fav's. We spared no expense and ordered TWO pieces of our favorite dessert - the Lemoncello Cream Torte. One for the next day, cause we're not stupid. It is to die. If you haven't tried it, do. And then we went home and Joe took full advantage of his new Xbox (and I'm starting to wonder if I made a really big mistake...)

For the weekend we planned to go to the Redwood Forest in Eureka, CA. It's something we've wanted to for a while and decided this was the perfect time to go. Unfortunately, the drive up was done mostly in the dark and rain so it wasn't great, but we were able to see everything we missed on the drive home and that ended up being one of the best parts. It was all so pretty! Most of the drive is on "Redwood Highway" and let me say, it's called that for a reason. The highway is completely lined with dense, tall trees on both sides. Surreal. We also passed a lot of vineyards with rows and rows of grapevines. (We'll have to take the drive again when everything starts to bloom!)

Anyway, the Redwood Forest was definitely a success. We just drove around and explored and hiked (walked) and we were in awe the whole time. We walked around the Lady Bird Johnson Grove - named after the First Lady. It was amazing and we came across some gigantic trees. We stopped for lunch in Trinidad, the cutest little town right on the coast. They served fresh fish and clam chowder, homemade fudge, had the cutest little lighthouse, and we even sent post cards to our families. I've never been, but it reminded me of what (a much smaller) Cape Cod would be like. On our drive home we took a little detour to drive through a tree. In our car. Literally. It's called Chandelier Tree, it's 315 feet tall, and 2,400 years old. So, no big deal. Just really really cool and weird to drive inside a tree.
Ready for a million pictures?