Chapter Twenty Seven: A Daniel Weekend

This is my bestie, Daniel.

He just turned 27!

(He's also my hubby)

He is in his final year of PA School at Duke. He's the smartest person I know. He's also the most humble person I know. He is not an attention seeker. He is a giver and not a taker. He is pretty close to perfect in my book.

I remember when we first met. I was 19 and I walked into one of the student government offices (we were both really involved in student leadership in college) and I saw him sitting in a chair. The first thing I noticed about him were his rosy cheeks. He had just turned 22 and I thought he was the cutest guy ever. We've almost been married for 4 years and my life with him is a dream come true.

Like I mentioned before, he never brings attention to himself and he is the most selfless person I know. Which is one of the reasons I love celebrating him. Ever since we started dating I've thrown him big parties with either family or friends. Everybody loves Daniel so everyone comes! But this year I decided to go in a different direction. When I was thinking of what kind of party to throw him, a quote from Leslie Knope crept into my mind:

"Why would I throw Ron Swanson an Ann Perkins party?"

So I changed courses.

Daniel is currently on an OB/GYN rotation in a city a few hours away. He comes home on weekends. This weekend he came home on Saturday Morning and would need to leave by Monday. His Birthday is on Sunday January 17th so a birthday weekend celebration was in order! I wanted to do exactly what I thought he would want to do. This was essentially a test to see how well I knew my spouse. So I came up with this itinerary:

These are all activities that Daniel loves. But I also know he likes surprises so I purposefully left out a few details on this itinerary - and a few extra secret presents!

We don't eat out very often so whenever we do, its a real treat. I figured for his Birthday weekend we could totally do the opposite and indulge!

Star Wars. Need I say more? We've already seen Force Awakens a few times but I was 100% sure he would want to see it again on his birthday.

He loves his friends so a birthday weekend wouldn't be complete without a friend surprise! I had arranged for some of our friends to meet at Daniel's favorite Greek restaurant 15 minutes before we got there.

He loves Barnes & Noble. We usually don't buy anything when we go so I knew how much he would enjoy picking out any book - and a treat from the cafe!

Hiking is one of his favorite past times. Naturally I had to include a family hike!

Family snuggles are also a no brainer. I mean look at this face....

Of course we also had a little birthday cake and sang to Daniel.

I definitely had a lot of fun planning the perfect "Daniel Weekend." However the best part was just being able to celebrate him (and with him) all weekend! 

HBD, mi amor!