this weekend was all about celebrating thirty-onederful years of the love of my life. and celebrate we did, over the course of the past three days. because as evidenced by last weekend’s extended birthday shenanigans for yours truly, when it comes to another rotation around the sun, we go big.

since my parents weren’t able to celebrate my birthday with me before santa barbara, S and i spent friday evening co-sharing the title of birthday prince/princess. we were treated to another fabulous meal at vintana -a restaurant that has fast become a family favorite, complete with celebratory cocktails/wine, delicious entrees, and a decadent piece of mud pie. it was a perfect way to kick-off the weekend.

it’s kind of the best sharing a birthday month with him.

saturday was S’s big day (yes, he shares his birthday with the olsen twins, a fact, i am actually very jealous of) and after i taught my morning studio barre classes, we met up to grab a quick bite and get our bowl on. S brought along his not one, but two custom bowling balls as well as his personal pair of bowling shoes. he clearly takes his bowling very seriously. we headed over to eagle bowl, an alley i knew all too well from visits there in my youth. we purchased two games a piece and a pair of shoes for me (not nearly as cool as S’s custom version) and set up camp at lane 36. i tracked down a turquoise 11 lb ball with large thumb holes and spent the next hour or so wondering if i was meant to bowl left-handed or right. turns out, i’m ambidextrous. too bad that didn’t work more in my favor -S smoked me scoring 147 in the first game at 181 in the second. i will refrain from mentioning my scores for ego’s sake, but i will in the very least mention i had one spare and two strikes.

after bowling, we came home to rest and i iced the homemade funfetti cupcakes i had made as a special birthday treat. around 5:45 p.m., we headed out for S’s special birthday dinner at wood ranch bbq.

psa for all pepperdiners or lovers of good bbq, there is now a wood ranch location in san diego! it just opened up a month ago in hazard center and we were more than happy to christen it with our inaugural visit. S was happy as a clam with his order of onion strings and tri tip sandwich and i, with my beloved roasted vegetable salad and baked potato -a combination i consumed many a saturday night on one of my weekly visits to the agoura hills location in college.

on sunday, we finished off the weekend with a trip to the san diego county fair. we managed to maneuver our way through the crowds relatively quickly -skipping the rides in favor of a tour of the agrifarm (cows, goats, sheep, oh my!), bing crosby hall, the photography exhibit, and of course, sampling some of the culinary creations only the fair can produce.

it was a magical weekend celebrating my main squeeze and i’m so grateful for another 365 days of making memories together.