Twenty-Seven!

We are starting to feel OLD. Especially this guy...

He turned 27 this week! Welcome to your late twenties, husband. Not to freak you out... but THIRTY will be here in only three years. Craziness. Good thing we both still act like we're 21. Just keepin' each other young. 

His actual birthday wasn't anything too spectacular, or out of the ordinary. We both had to work, he had class and we didn't really start celebrating until 7pm in the evening. But we made the most of it. I surprised him with dinner at the Jacktown Pub, a place a coworker told me about. It's in an even smaller country town than ours, which is hard to imagine. (But it's one of those back road intersections with one flashing stoplight). The minute we walked through the door everyone stared at us and the hostess said, "You're first time here?" We must have looked out of place. All the other tables were definitely locals, on a first-name basis with their waitress. The atmosphere was laid back and felt like home. We enjoyed some all-you-can-eat, fresh Lake Erie walleye, french fries, mac n' cheese, coleslaw and rolls...a birthday FEAST! It was delicious AND the leftovers fed us for days. 

Then we came home, opened presents and Christopher was serenaded by my solo rendition of "happy birthday." Check out that homemade ice cream cake! Not to toot my own horn, but it was aaaaaamazing. (Ice cream sandwiches layered with whipped cream, caramel, crushed oreos and Reeses peanut butter cups). 

Love this guy :)

The REAL birthday celebration began two days later when we road tripped to Maryland for a fun-filled weekend with Chris's BFF / adopted brother, David! Our quality time included HALO4, shooting compound bows, playing tennis, devouring Cafe Rio, and playing  indoor cornhole - during which I got my FIRST game-winning "corn hole" (4 in a row) ever! I felt bad beating Chris four times in a row on his birthday weekend... but not bad enough to let him win. Competition > Love. (This also applies to our Friday night NFL Madden challenge, but I think my pick-6 for the win in overtime was beginner's luck, so we'll just skip over that moment of glory).

We also drove up to Philadelphia for some fun adventures!!

The Rocky statue: 

Running up the Rocky Steps:

Posing like Rocky: 

Enjoying the view of the Philly skyline: 

Feeling the LOVE (and wishing it wasn't that awkward in-between stage where there's no pretty fountain and the Christmas tree isn't decorated yet...)

Touring Independence Hall: 

Standing in the room where our founding fathers debated, drafted and signed the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. Such a historical and amazing place!

Visiting the famous Liberty Bell:

Eating TWO Philly Cheesesteak Sandwiches at the country's greatest rivalry restaurants: Pat's and Geno's. After some deliberation... we agreed that Geno's wins! Based on the quality of bread, perfect Provolone cheese and flavor of meat. At the time, I wasn't sure how impressed I was. But boy, I'm craving them now.

And lastly, to end our day, we attended the Eagles vs. Cowboys football game. Everything was themed for Veteran's Day so it was really special. We even witnessed a live homecoming of a soldier and his family! Of course, I cried. We were so lucky we had such beautiful weather on this fall day... it was definitely sunny in Philadelphia! Just like they say.

This game was especially exciting because neither of us had been to a NFL game before AND it was Christopher's favorite team, the Cowboys playing against one of their big rivals. I'll admit though... it was a little frightening cheering for the away team in a crowd of extremely violent, vicious, rowdy (drunk) fans. We were constantly booed, people shouted "F*** YOU" every time we walked by, and flipped us off at least 75 times, probably more that we didn't notice. While getting this picture taken it was crazy - one fan told us to jump over the edge and die while others walking by put up their middle finger in front of the camera. Rude.

Then during the game, we witnessed about 10 Cowboys fans (& their families) being escorted out of the game for starting fights. Then we also saw Eagles fans start to turn on each other which consisted of a large, heavy-set man yanking down 3 Eagles fans by the backs of their shirts. And lastly for the grand finale... an Eagles fan got so angry he started pointing to his own fans nearby saying, "F-YOU, F-YOU, F-YOU, etc." and then stripped off his Eagles jersey, shouting "I give up! I'm done! Go Cowboys!" Which then resulted in security escorting him out of the stadium.

Needless to say, it was an exciting game! It was close until the 4th quarter when Dallas returned a kick off for a TD and then minutes later intercepted the ball for a pick-6. There was still 8:30 left in the 4th quarter but Eagles fans started streaming out the stadium like ants, chanting to fire their coach and booing their own players for mistakes. I couldn't believe they were giving up with so much time left! You could see how the fans' negative reaction rubbed off on the players too. Even being down by only two touchdowns with plenty of time left... everyone acted like the game was already over.

We were happy that so many fans left early though because it made us feel safer when we walked back to our car. We even stayed a little extra and caught some up close views of Tony Romo, DeMarcus Ware, Miles Austin, Dez Bryant, Jason Witten, DeMarco Murray and other players. Chris was super excited... although most of the players acted like stuck-up snobs and barely acknowledged their supportive fans. So annoying. They just WON and get paid millions of dollars... they can't even smile and wave for literally 10 seconds? Ridiculous.

But anyway - I'm SO happy Dallas beat the Eagles... such a great birthday present for my Cowboy-loving husband.

27th Birthday Weekend Celebration = Success.