Birthday Celebration // Recap

It's officially been one week since my birthday and I'm so excited to share a little bit more about how great a day it was and how Paul totally spoiled and surprised me repeatedly throughout the day. 

It's important for me to also say that Paul is NOT a planner by any means. He is one of the most spontaneous people I know which I think is really good for me (because I am an uber planner) and also frustrates me at times! So he was a little stressed putting all of this together, but he did amazing and I was so honored and felt so special that he put some much time and thought into everything! 

I got to sleep in a bit and when I rolled over I was greeted by a hot cup of coffee in this new mug! Ya'll know we are proud of being Team '76 so this mug was perfect! In addition to the coffee there was a huge vase of flowers as well. Awww. 

He also brought me in a glittery crown that said "40" on it as well as a super sweet card. I was already feeling the love and I had only been awake 5 minutes! 

There was also a super funny surprise in the bathroom waiting for me as well. Totally made me chuckle. (See below photos...nothing horrible I promise) ;-) 

He told me we needed to be out the door by 10 so I showered and got ready and then we headed out for the day. It was gonna be rainy and cold which was kind of a bummer, but I was excited for whatever surprises were ahead of me!

Our first destination was about an hour away, so we listened to the latest episode of Serial on the way. We are such podcast junkies. 

Our first stop was at Carlo's Bake shop! If you aren't familiar, Carlos is the guy from Cake Boss which is a TV show. I'm not a huge fan or anything, but I've seen the show a few times and it's cool experience and the cakes are AMAZING. 

Paul picked up the cake he had ordered for me and we made an impulse buy of red velvet cupcakes as well to eat after lunch. 

Speaking of lunch it was time to find a place. We found this awesome place called Think Grill and had some Gyros which were SO good. The fries were pretty amazing as well. 

After we had lunch, we stopped at 7-11 for an afternoon Diet Coke and then headed off to the next location....Liberty State Park!

I've been wanting to go to Liberty State park for a WHILE now and it's just never happened. Its a beautiful HUGE park right on the hudson between Jersey and NYC with amazing views of the city, tons of bike and walking paths, a very cool and historic train station, boats to Liberty Island and a memorial to to 9/11. 

We walked around for a bit, but it was so cold and wet and windy that we didn't last long! We did drive around a bit just to explore the park and we made plans to come back during the spring for some bike riding! 

Paul's back up plan in case the weather was bad, was to head to Newport Center which is a HUGE mall in the area and walk around a bit in there. We headed over and checked it out and then stopped for a coffee to re-energize for the afternoon. 

Once it was time to head to our next location we headed out and Paul navigated us to Hoboken. I had a feeling I knew what was next...a massage!! 

We went to Massage Envy in Hoboken and while the store was really nice, my massage was terrible!! I'm kind of a massage snob and this poor lady just did not know what she was doing. But as my friend Brandy says, a bad massage is like bad pizza or cake...disappointing but still edible! ha! 

After the massage our tummies were rumbling which was a good thing because now it was time for dinner!

Paul took me to Ruths Chris Steakhouse and we had probably one of the best meals we have ever had! We both had the Prix Fix menu and had a salad, 6 ox filet with shrimp, mashed potatoes and a yummy little pecan crusted cheesecake (which neither of us could finish). Our table was overlooking the Hudson and it was pretty foggy and rainy but it was fun watching the people run to the ferry to NYC. 

By the time we got home, we were totally stuffed and exhausted and couldn't eat a bite of the cake Paul had picked up earlier. We did however have two slices the following day. It was AMAZING. I detest whipped cream frosting so that was my only request...none of that! It was a vanilla cake with a lovely buttercream frosting that was perfect in every way. 

And there you have it!! A perfect birthday spent with my best friend! Thank you Paul for making my day so special and for making me feel so loved! <3<3<3