30 is the new 20!

I recently celebrated my 30th birthday (no shame) and received a wonderful surprise trip to Carmel from Ryan. He had not said much about my birthday plans during the week, so I started to make some plans of my own... pedicure in the morning, dinner with friends at night... I think he realized he needed to say something before I put too many things on the calendar. So, the night before my birthday he gave me a card outlining the weekend's plans. I was so surprised and so so so excited. He even set up babysitting with Doug and Jan, and got my lesson covered for church that Sunday.

Before the weekend away, Ryan needed to get through an intense week at work, so on my actual birthday, I got to hang out with my little man our our friends the Pettingills (who were also celebrating two birthdays, Onjali's on the 3rd and Owen's on the 4th). We went to lunch and spent the afternoon at the park.

I then came home to finish my birthday cake - the Momofuku Milk Bar Birthday Cake, to be specific. I came across this cake a little while ago on Pinterest (of course) and by the picture alone, knew I had to make it. It came as a shock to me, lover of all things peanut butter, caramel and chocolate, that I was dead set on making a sprinkle filled, vanilla cake for the big day... but it was well worth the peanut butter, caramel, chocolate sacrifice. This cake was that good! It may sound like a simple vanilla birthday cake, but that's far from the truth. The crumbs you see on top, are also in between each layer. They're called the cake crumbs, and taste like cake batter cookie crumbs with a little hint of salt that lingers on your tongue after a bite. The cakes are also coated with a cake soak (a mixture of milk and vanilla) to keep it all nice and moist. The frosting has a little cream cheese in it, but I actually didn't taste it at all. I think the cream cheese, along with the butter, sugar and shortening, along with several minutes of beating, just helped to increase the light and fluffy, whipped texture of the frosting.

And funny thing, the girl who posted this cake on her blog, also baked it for herself on her 30th. It was clearly meant to be my 30th cake as well.

The next morning, we headed to the Pettingills, to celebrate Owen's 4th birthday. Onjali gets major props for throwing her son's birthday party on her birthday! (Seriously, way to go Onjali! Fabulous party!)

And that evening, we were off to Carmel. We arrived late, so our fun started Saturday morning. We drove over to Monterey and began our day with a three-hour bike ride along the coast, part of the famous 17-mile drive. We had really nice weather - a little cold and windy at times - but not much to complain about. 

After our bike ride, we grabbed lunch, did a little shopping, and then drove the complete 17-mile drive route to see a few things we didn't get to during our ride (we couldn't miss the famous Pebble Beach golf courses!). By the end of our drive, we headed back to Carmel to clean up and go to dinner at Clint Eastwood's restaurant at Carmel Valley Ranch. 

After our yummy dinner, we took advantage of being childless and hit the movie theater to see Iron Man 3.

The next morning, we walked to the beach, had brunch at a little place called La Bicyclette, and enjoyed some window shopping around the downtown Carmel area.

We had a fantastic weekend and I couldn't have loved my gift more. Thank you, Ryan, for making my 30th such a wonderful, memorable birthday. Really looking forward to this new decade!

And thank you Rich family for taking in a 5th child for the weekend!!!