A Weekend of Birthday-ness

This past weekend was PJ’s birthday, and we set aside a whole weekend for it. The actual birthday was on Sunday, so we did the things that cost money on Saturday and some other things on Sunday. So on Saturday, we kicked things off in the afternoon with a movie – Step Up 4: Revolution. It’s no secret that I enjoy all dance/cheerleady/etc movies. I like all the Step Ups, I enjoy all the Bring it On’s, and all the miscellaneous ones that aren’t part of a series (yet). So of course, I enjoyed this movie. The thing about seeing the sequels to a movie that already won’t be a masterpiece is to realize, the acting is going to suck. The storyline will be practically nonexistent, you’re just there to enjoy the dancing and whatever until the movie is over. Thank goodness I know this, and will always like these movies.

Saturday night, we went to Taggerts for dinner. Haven’t heard of Taggerts, you say? Well that’s ok, not many have. It’s a restaurant up in Morgan, UT. Yes, Morgan, which is north, up past Ogden. To get to this restaurant, you have to drive about 90ish minutes from here in Orem. Needless to say, I don’t go there very often, because I just don’t want to drive that far. So, up we drove, waited for about 45 minutes (the first time EVER in my life I’ve had to wait for a table there) and ate a delicious meal, and took home a whole lot of desserts. Most of the reasons I go there is for the desserts. They are awesome, and I take home at least 2. This time was a brownie, a cookie (that I ate on the way home) and a small cheesecake, for PJ’s birthday cake the following day.

Sunday, we went on a hike. Specifically, the Fort Creek river hike. I’m not sure if I’ve blogged about it before, but it is a fun hike. It’s about 80% you just fording the river, like the game Oregon Trail. When I’ve hiked it previously, I stayed out of the water as often as I could. I would hike in it if needed, but otherwise, I hugged the shore and stayed dry, but this time was different. I think the only time we got out of the water to hike up the mountain was if we couldn’t physically make it up the river at that part, and I think it only happened maybe twice. The weather was nice and warm though, so the river felt pretty good. We finished it in about half the time, not getting out of the water. When we were done and were about to get out back at the beginning, PJ full-on fell in the water. Whole body slam into it, I laughed so hard, checked to make sure she was ok, and laughed again. When we got out of the river finally, we checked ourselves over, and we had a lot of bruises and scrapes from the rocks, trees, etc. I had a bruised shin, a cut heel and a cut leg, with some scrapes on the arm. PJ had a cut in her leg that went almost to the bone (not really, but it seemed like it). We limped back to the car, and went home.

For her birthday dinner, PJ wanted ratatouille. I don’t know who’s seen the movie, Ratatouille, but we’ve liked the dish since we saw that. I’ve made it several times, but this is the first time I did it like the movie’s recipe, when you have everything in slices and you swirl them in a dish. Here’s what it looked like before baking it:

I forgot to get a picture after it came out of the oven. It was delicious though. And the cheesecake from Taggert’s was good as well. And that was it. The birthday weekend came to a close. Good times were had, bodies were beat up, but we continued on, and lived to tell the tale.