30 Years Young

Jonathon had a birthday this week. It was kind of a big one... The Big 3-0! He has been stressed about getting and feeling old lately, so I wanted to make sure it was an especially good birthday. The celebration started on Wednesday and lasted for the rest of the week. We had a ton of fun, and hopefully, 30 will be a wonderful year for my wonderful husband.

About a month before his birthday, I got on the Internet and signed us up for a whole bunch of free meals/desserts on your birthday from our favorite restaurants. The week leading up to his birthday, we got all of the free coupons in the mail, so we have had fun using a couple of them. We may be cheap, but we sure had a good time. Here are some of the restaurants that give out free stuff for birthdays: Red Robin (free burger), Chili's (free brownie sundae), Mimi's Cafe (free meal),  and Tucanos (free meal). There are probably many others, but those are the ones we got. Most of them require the purchase of one entree, but it still makes for an awesome date!

First, we took the whole family to Red Robin where Jonathon got a free gourmet burger for his birthday. Red Robin might be Jonathon's all-time favorite restaurant, so it was a fun treat for him.

Then on Saturday, we headed down to Provo to celebrate with his family. We dropped the boys off with his family, and then went to Tucanos for another free meal for Jonathon. Tucanos is a Brazillian churrascaria where they slow cook many different varieties of meat and bring them around for you to try throughout your meal. Every time I go I am shocked at how good everything tastes. They will keep bringing delicious meat (and fruit and veggies) around until you are too full to eat anything else. To signal that you are done, you turn a little stick (called a cue) at your table to red. We had a great time and a great meal.

This was when we first arrived. Our cue was definitely on green. Bring on the food!

Jonathon served his mission in southern Brazil where this type of cooking is famous, so it is always fun for him to go to these kind of restaurants. He had beans and rice, guarana (soda), pao de queijo (cheese bread), and lots of his favorite meats picanha (top sirloin) and fraldinha (beef tender).

After we finished eating, we went back to his parents house for a fun party. He wanted cheesecake for his birthday, so I took the challenge to attempt to make it. {On a funny sidenote: when Christian found out that we were having cheesecake, he said, "Oh no, that means we have to go back to New York." Even Christian knows about famous NY cheesecake}. 

Cheesecake is kind of temperamental, so I was a little bit nervous. I went to youtube and watched an episode on cheesecake from our favorite cooking show, Good Eats with Alton Brown. He explained everything and gave me tons of important tips. Did you know the best way to cook cheesecake is in a water bath? I was so excited when it came out perfectly! It was moist, creamy, delicious, and no cracking whatsoever. Hurray! You can find the recipe here.

We put cherries and whipped cream on top.  MMMM!

Blowing out all 30 candles... in one breath, even.

 Everyone loved it. Andrew was especially funny dipping his binky in the whipped cream and then sucking on it. Haha.

Jonathon got a whole bunch of new things so he could go fishing. His siblings got him this awesome pole. Now he needs to find someone to go fishing with. {Joe, when are you going to be in Utah again?} He also got a gardening book and gift card to start our garden. He is anxious for Spring.

To end the day on a perfect note, we stayed and watched the BYU/Gonzaga game with his family. Jimmer was nice and put on a show just for Jonathon's birthday.  Go Cougars!

He's saying "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" Can't you tell?