day one: the birthday

so i wanted bryan's thirty to come and go with a bang. i spent a few months orchestrating and covering up my tracks for a surprise trip to san francisco. when the big day arrived, i packed the girls and the suitcases in the car and headed to bryan's office to pick him up for an undisclosed birthday celebration. here's how it went down.

first, i made lemon cupcakes for the office. a decent recipe (found here), but i'll probably keep looking for the perfect one. suggestions welcome.

then, i bought enormous balloons (3-0). it's really not a birthday unless there are enormous embarrassing balloons (fun wheeler family factoid: bryan and emily first hooked up over some birthday balloons).

after parading around the office for a bit, we left for the traditional birthday lunch. we tried red mill burgers in seattle. superb.

*finally* the moment had arrived. without knowing where we were going (potential guesses included the aquarium and a puppet show), bryan drove us to the airport. now, bryan does not get surprised in the "typical" sense of the word, and when we pulled into the airport parking lot, his initial reaction was a mixture of concern and confusion. but after i assured him i had packed his phone charger, excitement set in and we were off.

and a short plane ride later, we arrived in the bay area.

first stop? the beautiful oakland temple.

during our four day tour of san fran, the weather was grand, the girls were (all things considered) fairly well behaved, and the scenery was gorgeous.

stay tuned for scenes from our next episode, day two: the bridge.