Birthday Rent

Every once in a while I like to trick Diana into thinking I'm a good husband. Well, with her birthday this year I did just that! At the beginning of May I realized her birthday was just around the corner, so I started brainstorming. I did a little plotting and planning and came up with a pretty good good one, I think. Here's what we did (now keep in mind, she was unaware of any of it...):

First, we dropped off the boy at Mema & Papa's house so we could go out on a little bit of a  romantical adventure! We got in the car and I drove downtown Grand Rapids. She wasn't really familiar with the area, so I used that to my advantage... Our first stop? Spirit Dreams bookstore. A kind of independent bookstore that also specializes in crystals and rocks. Knowing how Diana loves geology, I figured this would be a hit. And boy, was it! She absolutely loved the place and spent a good half hour thumbing through the eclectic collection of books. She delightfully picked out a book and a small rock carving, and then we were off to our next destination. Now it was time to eat, and that meant stopping in for our reservation at Maru Sushi & Grill! It's a cute upscale sushi place that we had been wanting to go to. The AC in the place was broken, but there were enough wide open windows that the heat wasn't even a bother. The amazing food made us forget about the heat too! We had a really cozy time talking, laughing, and reminiscing as we filled up on some really great sushi and rice. With our tummies full, we walked out to the car. 'That was fun, huh? Should we go get our boy now?' I asked. 'Sounds good, that was a fun special day, thanks.' She replied. We did not go get our boy, dear reader, in fact the fun had just begun! I finally cracked and laughed, letting her know that I had one more special thing planned for us: tickets to go see a live performance of her favorite musical, Rent! A big theater in Grand Rapids just so happened to have a traveling tour of Rent coming through town- what luck! We drove over to the theater and pulled in. She was a bit confused about it but realized we were going to see a show. I held off telling her what show until she saw the banners for it in the lobby. She was shocked and absolutely pumped about it! She loves the movie and has the original Broadway performance album memorized, so the was really thrilled to see it live! It was a really great performance with clever staging. I had seen the movie years and years ago, so I had forgotten the story, but I was just as engaged as she was; we both really enjoyed it!

As we were walking out at the end of the night, she was absolutely glowing with delight at the fun surprise I was able to give her for her birthday! I'm pretty sure I earned enough brownie points to last me quite a while...

(more pics)