Curious 'bout the Clarks?: Justin's last birthday...

Justin caught me offguard when he woke up on Friday and said that it was his last birthday... and then I realized he meant he was turning 29 and holding... ;)

Friday evening, we dropped the girls off with their grandparents, and we drove downtown to Chima Brazillian Steakhouse. So awesome! If you like steak, you would LOVE this place. It's a little pricier, but the whole experience is like a show. It's a lot of fun, and the service is top notch.

The gauchos speed around the restaurant with these huge skewers of meat, probably 2 feet long. You turn a little "chip" over to the orange side when you want them to stop at your table. Then you decide if you want that particular meat or if you are going to wait for another one to come by. If it takes more than like 30 seconds for someone to stop, one of the "servers" will use their iTouch to send a text to the back to make sure the gaucho with the meat you want comes to your table right away. That's how they send your drink orders in, too. Pretty high tech, if you ask me. Once the gaucho comes, you tell them if you want med-rare, medium, etc., and they slice the meat right there for you, and you use your little tongs to grab the meat before it falls. It's awesome! My absolute fav was the top sirloin. It was the best I've ever had. Justin loved the lamb.

Justin has been to Chima before to wine and dine customers, but he said it was FUN to have me there. He said it was cause he didn't have to work and was with his wife, but I joked that it was cause his Country Bumpkin coming to the City was pretty funny. ;)

In the center of the restaurant, there is a fancy-schmancy salad bar. Here's one example--it's the smoked salmon salad. There were ALL KINDS of things in the salad bar! Fruits, cheeses, calamari, caesar, arugula, shrimp salad, etc. When you dine at Chima, you just pay a flat fee for your meal, and it comes with delicious mashed potatoes, fried bananas, all the meat in the world, the salad bar, and cheese bread. Since it was Justin's birthday, they brought a complimentary chocolate lava cake, although they said they usually just do tiramisu or cheese cake for b-days. I was STUFFED by the end. It doesn't help that I have a 3.5-4 lb. baby taking up space in my abdomen. ;)

Earlier in the day, we stopped at Justin's office for presents and to pick him up for lunch. We were pleasantly surprised that his mom was happening to pick up his dad for lunch at the same time, so we all went to eat together at a pizza place near the office.

Izzy giving her present:

Clara watching Daddy open the present from her:

On Saturday, we HAD to have cake cause Izzy said we needed one in order to sing "Happy Birthday." ;) Justin's fav is Graham Cracker Chocolate Eclair Cake...