Happy Birthday!

I celebrated my 34rd birthday this last Friday and AJ and I had planned to have a night away in Portland as celebration!

Friday I had to work on my actual birthday and I ended up working late but when I walked in the front door at home, I was greeted by my husband and happy child and beautiful flowers. AJ had gotten them for me along with a super cute card and a gift card to my favorite local place, Jori Zan's, a body piercing store. I had been wanting new plugs for my ears. I was excited. So after opening that, we headed out to go to dinner as a family and do a little Christmas shopping.

On Saturday morning we had a brunch to go to with 3 other families that we have done this with for the last 3 years and we do an ornament exchange. We got up and got ready, gave Porter a nap and packed our bags for a night away. Porter was going to stay with Grammie and Grandpa DeBacker and spend the night at their house. This was the first time since he was born that AJ and I had gone somewhere together without him! Off we went to the brunch and had a blast!

Then we ran by Jori's and I picked out some new plugs and we headed to Al and Lori's to see Al's side of the family before lunch and drop off Porter. We said hello to everyone and said goodbye to our baby and climbed in to the Subaru and headed to Portland as just US! It was amazing!

We had booked a night at the Hotel Modera in downtown Portland and checked in to our room. It was cute and very nice. The hotel was very modern and we both felt it was pretty trendy, almost too trendy for us. But we loved every moment of it.

The hotel lobby and cool sitting area.

The other view of the lobby.

Covered walkway entrance to the hotel. On the left are full fire pit type things you can sit around at night and have your drinks and enjoy being outside and be warm!

After we checked in and got to rest a little, we headed out to the spa as AJ had booked a hour long pregnancy massage for me. Ah, it was amazing and relaxing. I am always wanting AJ to scratch my back or rub my neck and he does but never for as long as I would like. So this was his treat to me. It was warm and relaxing and so nice to decompress.

After that we headed back to the hotel room and put on our warm comfy clothes and headed out to walk to the theater where we were going to have dinner and a movie. On the walk over I realized my head was really cold and I had forgotten my hat at home, not the hotel but home. And AJ had forgotten to pack socks so we were both pretty cold. We decided to stop at Columbia and buy a hat for me and AJ bought some new socks. It made the walk there and back much more enjoyable.

Here is AJ putting on his socks right in front of: (hehehe!)

We then walked on to the Living Room Theater. It is a smaller theater where they serve dinner and refreshments. We ordered dinner and ate most of it in the lounge and then took the rest in to the theater and had our dessert there. The food was amazing! And truly, creme brulee for dessert while watching a movie is really the best thing ever.

The theater seats maybe 50-60 people and the seats are much more comfortable and there is lots of leg room. We went to see Morning Glory and we both enjoyed it. It was a great date. On a random side note the bathroom stalls are tiny! If I had been much more pregnant, it would have been really uncomfortable. Everything else was amazing!

The bar and lounge area of the theater.

Dinner...

After the movie we bundled up again and headed back to the hotel. It was cold and quite the walk for me but it was still fun and we just took our time. On the way home we did run in to a street band that was performing in front of Nordstrom. It was a pretty cool band and had an interesting sound. AJ likes supporting the locals and so we bought a CD. It was cool to stand there and watch them for a little. Then we walked over to get a closer look at the Portland Christmas tree only to see it was all tented off as in Pioneer Square they were having a Holiday Ale Festival and we couldn't get close. So AJ took a picture of the tree above all the tents. It was really pretty but would have looked better if all the tents were then. We then arrived back at the hotel and put our jammies on and crawled in to the warm and cozy bed. Ah, blissful.


The next morning I woke up at 8 as I can't sleep in anymore. I think part of it is I end up having to pee so badly in the morning that it wakes me up and I can't fall asleep again. I let AJ sleep in and then had to wake him up at 9:30 as I was getting hungry! He was the best and went out and got us Starbucks coffee and pastries. I was loving life, reading the paper, watching TV and drinking yummy coffee. Man, it was amazing! So about 11:30 I decided to take a shower and get ready to go do some shopping!

The coolest thing in the hotel room was the bathroom mirror. When I stepped out of the shower I noticed a square on the mirror was not fogged up. The rest of the mirror was foggy from the shower steam but not the middle square. It was cool. You could still see your face to get ready even though you had just gotten out of the shower. Check it out!



After getting ready, we packed out stuff back in the car and headed out for lunch. One of my favorite places we used to eat at all the time when we lived in Vegas was Buffalo Wild Wings and they came to Portland about 3 years ago, so I love going there whenever I get a chance. Yummy lunch with just my husband, wonderful.

AJ treated me like royalty and no matter what it was, the decision was mine. AJ would just say, "It is your weekend." It was the best. I sort of considered this a babymoon as well, seeing how Porter is 20 months old and we have never left him for a night at the same time. AJ has gone places and I have gone places but we have never been able to go together. I know Porter will have to have some nights away from us while we are in the hospital after Maggie is born so this was a good experience for him. We are so thankful and grateful for Al and Lori for taking Porter. Thank you! We knew he was in good hands.

In 5-6 short weeks, AJ and I and Porter will be a family of four and welcoming Maggie in to our lives. It was good to get away, be refreshed and enjoy each other and gear up for the next stage in our lives. Maybe in another year, AJ and I can leave both the kids for 2 nights!