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For my birthday this year Ben surprised me with an iPad. And it really was a surprise; I had no idea! Being out of school and having a job really pays off, literally :) That evening we all went to dinner at a chain restaurant here that always looks packed called Cheddar's (the food was decent,  it was kid friendly, and pretty inexpensive) and then to dessert at Red Mango in Elizabethtown. This Red Mango is self-serve and had about 12 flavors. Yum.

The next day was a Friday and Ben had the day off. He told me we could spend the day doing whatever I wanted. So first we drove about 30 miles to the 6pm Outlet in Shepherdsville. This outlet receives all the returns from Zappos and the prices are unreal! There are SO many shoes and everything is at least 50% off. There are tons of items that are 60% and 70% off and on top of that they give a 10% military discount. So yeah, that's the first place I wanted to go for my birthday :) Ben stayed outside with the kids and I spent an hour browsing by myself. I found a bunch of shoes for Paige and Claire and my nieces, but couldn't decide on anything for myself because I was feeling a little pressure to hurry up (Grant was hungry).

This is what I left with:

 

9 pairs of shoes for $100. What?! So crazy. 6 of the pairs got shipped off to my nieces in Las Vegas. Watch out, friends and relatives, if you come to visit I WILL drag you here.

After the outlet we headed north to Louisville. We ate lunch at Cheesecake Factory and then headed over to Cost Plus World Market and then Trader Joe's. A couple of weeks ago I asked for advice on Facebook about what to buy since I hadn't shopped there since high school. I got a lot of suggestions and we came home with more snacks than we've ever had in our house at one time. And guess what. They were ALL good! Very impressed.  Here's Ben goofing around with Grant in the parking lot.

After Trader Joe's we took a quick drive by the Louisville Temple, 'cause I wanted to see it. Better watch for it. Don't blink or you'll miss it! And then we went to stock up at Costco. Every time Ben feels homesick he wants to go to Costco in Louisville. Something about it just feels like home! Hmmm, maybe we spent too much time there when we lived barely 5 minutes away from one in Orem :)

It was a fun day of doing exactly what I wanted to do. Thanks for a great birthday, Ben!