Jacob's Birthday Present, Part 2

This first thing wasn't really part of Jacob's present, but I got 29 pieces of wrapped candy, typed out 29 reasons that I love Jacob, and glued them onto the candies.  I put them all in a brown paper lunch bag and stapled a cute heart tag onto the bag (which said, "29 Reasons I Love You for Your 29th Birthday!").  Then I stuck it in his backpack for him to have while he was at his classes on Friday.  Again, it wasn't really part of his present, but it was something to make the day before his birthday a little special. :)

The second part of his present was this:

I got the idea & the printouts from here.

Basically, we will be "traveling" to a new place each month over the next year.  I made us each a passport and plane tickets for each trip.  There are even passport stamps to glue into the passports for each place we go!  I also gave him an itinerary, showing where we are going each month and the date of each date night.  And for the plane tickets, I looked up each airport so I'd have the right airport codes, and I chose airlines that actually fly to each airport.  We will have each date night here at home, after the kids have gone to bed.  And the best part is that we can do it all for free!!  I haven't planned each date out completely yet, but I'm planning on us making/eating food from each country and watching a movie that either takes place in that country or is filmed in that country.  There are also some other random activities planned, depending on where our date is each month.  And I plan on decorating a little bit for many of the places we are going to, as well!  For some of the months, I chose a specific location for a reason.  For example, in October, our date night is in Germany so we can celebrate Oktoberfest!  In June for our anniversary, we are going to India in remembrance of our first date.  On our first date, we went to an Indian restaurant in Provo called The Bombay House.  (After our first date, I ignored Jacob for about 8 months and turned him down every time he asked to hang out... haha... but that's besides the point.  It was still our first date!)  It's going to be fun!!!

Our passports!

Saturday was Jacob's actual birthday. We drove to Odessa on Friday to stay the weekend with his family & celebrate with them. We had Jacob's birthday dinner & cake on Friday night, and on Saturday, Jacob & I went on a date! Jacob had wanted to go to Panda Express, and we had planned on just eating there, but I changed our plans at the last minute and took Jacob on a surprise picnic. I looked up parks in the area and found what I felt was the best park of them all... it had a lake and a gazebo and was just really pretty! I was worried it would be too far from Panda Express and I would have to choose another park, so I was happily surprised to find out it was a 3-minute drive from the restaurant! So we picked up our food and had a picnic in a gazebo. It was perfect. I also brought the books we've been reading so we could lay on a blanket in the grass and read for a while after we ate dinner. There was a wedding going on in the park just a short distance from our reading spot on the grass, so that was kinda cool! On our way home, we stopped at Quik Trip for milkshakes for dessert!

Our picnic in the gazebo!  (Just ignore the random people on the side... they came as we were cleaning up & getting ready to leave.)

pretty bridge

another view of the gazebo

the lake at the park... I took this picture from our reading spot.

Where they were holding the wedding reception.

You can see all of the people standing & watching the wedding ceremony, just on the other side of the playground equipment.  I could see the bride & her father as they walked down the aisle.