Jason's Birthday and Billie's Visit

We've had a busy few weeks around here. Jason's birthday was May 5 and of course required a week of obligatory celebrating. :) Jason's mom, Billie, came to town on May 6 and was here until May 15. We started celebrating Jason's Birthday the weekend before by having friends over for Margaritas and then going out to dinner at the Powerhouse. We got a very cool Jimmy Buffett Margarita Machine as a wedding gift and used it MANY times over the course of Jason's Birthday week. On Sunday, I made Jason a German Chocolate Cake from scratch. I forgot how much work it is, but it was worth it!

On Tuesday, Jason's actual birthday - we went to Dad's for fajitas and Margaritas. Both were of course fantastic!
Jason had a piece of leftover Birthday cake, since it was his Birthday after all! Billie arrived the next day and quickly began cooking. During the course of her trip, she made meatloaf, chicken casserole, pineapple upside down cake and apricot cake. The best part is the TONS of leftovers we now have in the freezer. I shouldn't have to cook for a month!
On Friday, we went to my Dad's to celebrate Billie's birthday. He grilled his famous steaks and we finished the meal off with a strawberry shortcake cake that Rick made. Got to love that Rick! And in case you didn't notice - we ate a ridiculous amount of cake this week!
On Saturday we woke up early to head to Kansas City for a little Mother's Day trip. Billie is very fond of Precious Moments so we made a stop at the Precious Moment's Chapel in Carthage, MO. Even if you're not a huge fan of Precious Moments, this chapel is pretty amazing and definitely worth a trip. It's completely free to get in and absolutely beautiful. We were a bit disappointed because Missouri had had major storms the night before our trip and all of the electricity was out when we got there. They were still doing tours with a flashlight though. Thankfully, about halfway into our tour, the electricity came back on so we were able to enjoy everything fully.
We celebrated Mother's Day that night with a very yummy dinner at the Capital Grille in the Kansas City Plaza. On Sunday we headed back home after a trip to the Cheesecake Factory.
This week I am headed to Phoenix for work. I get home on Thursday night and then we leave on Friday for a long weekend trip to San Francisco/Napa Valley. Anita is going with us and I can't wait! Should be a fantastic trip. I will admit though that this month is exhausting me. I'm looking a little forward to June when I can relax again.
Hopefully we will have some beautiful pictures from our CA trip to share. As always, all of our pictures can be found here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/Stiles2008