Matthew's B to the irthday

Last weekend we celebrated Matthew's 28th birthday. On Friday night we went to Costa Vida for dinner. Matthew and I both love CostaVida, it isexactly like Cafe Rio except, it has a Mango salsa and dressing that bring its sweet pork salad to a whole new level. While there we actually ran into an old friend of minefrom the first ward Iwas in when I moved to Salt Lake City. I knew him as Elder Jensen because he was serving a Service Mission at the Institute when we first met.

After dinner Matthew and I met up with our good friend Eric Quimby and his soon to be bride Ashley for some good old fashioned bowling fun. This was the first time we met Ashley and she was delightful. I really enjoyed that her and Eric banter just as much as Matthew and I do and that when they are telling stories, they both have a view on how something "really" happened. We discovered how well Ashley bowls, even with her right hand, she kicked some tail even though she is left handed. It was a lot of fun.

On Sunday, as per tradition, we went to the Bowen homestead and had a dinner selected by Matthew and then cake, ice cream and gifts. Matthew chose to have baked pancakes, which is pretty much a dessert. I wasn't sure how I felt about having a dessert dinner followed by more dessert, but Matthew and I hadn't had baked pancakes in a long time and I had forgotten how good they were.

Matthew and I also played a very old version of "LIFE" with Liz and Cole. It was a lot of fun and had some interesting rules. After dinner Matthew opened up the gift his mother and I had been keeping from him since Christmas (and that is a very long time for me to keep a secret)...a new keyboard!! He has been talking about wanting one so he can brush up on his piano skills and it was on sale, so I thought it was the perfect idea.

Twenty Eleven

This year Matthew and I weren't in a particularly party mood for the New Years celebration, besides that, we hadn't really heard of any parties to go to. We also received an email from Matthew's mom stating that if no one had plans she would love for someone to come over and hang out with her while Matthew's dad was at work. So we decided to ring in Twenty Eleven with the parental units.

I really love spending time with Cynda and Steve. I have realized over the last few years that I am a very lucky girl. Matthew and I get along with and love both sides of our family. We never hesitate to spend time with them and we always enjoy ourselves.

There are typically three ingredients to a Bowen get together: food, talking (laughter/teasing) and games. The Bowen Clan is a clan that loves their games. And I have to say, I am a Bowen! We have our typical favorites: Ripple, Nertz, Presidents and Sequence. But there have been several occasions where new and old games alike have been brought to the table,

such as, Cross Boards, Discombobulation and Chinese Checkers. These last three games were stars of our Twenty Eleven New Year.

As far as the food goes, we enjoyed several appetizers like crackers and chocolate orange sticks. (Cynda and Steve had the orange sticks because a few weeks back when we had them over for dinner we teased them about loving Pete more because Cynda always makes sure she makes the cookies he likes, but this year she neglected to buy the orange sticks) and of course an assortment of sparkling cider.

In typical fashion we all stayed up way too late talking, but in this case Matthew and I planned ahead. In recent years it has been a tradition for Cynda and Steve to treat us to a movie on New Years Day, so Matthew and I had already planned to stay the night

at the Bowen Homestead and combine our traveling powers to the movie theater half way in between Salt Lake and Logan, so we could meet up with Pete and Steph. This year we were privileged to watch Tangled. It is Disney's take of the story of Rapunzel, very cute.