If I told you I ate tacos (twice), a lamb burger, spicy fried chicken, duck (also twice), soft shell crab and my body weight in chips and salsa this weekend, would you judge me?

It’s finally April!  Which means baseball is back, birthday celebrations are the norm and warm weather is here to stay.  Please please let that last part be true!  I could probably feel gluttonous about this past weekend, but instead I’m feeling happy because this time of the year is just the best and there’s too many fun things happening to not get caught up in it all.  April, I am so glad you are here.

I texted Joey Thursday night and told him I was declaring Friday the start of his birthday, meaning we were gonna ignore the stuff we “needed” to do and just have fun from then on.  I also told him we could do WHATEVER he wanted and he wanted a red velvet cake.  And that’s how you end up carrying two sticks of butter in your purse.  Full cakes are intimidating but I’ve vowed to perfect it by the end of the year.

Oh and Joey also really wanted me to get a lunchtime manicure on Friday 🙂

We skipped out early, for the traditional birthday weekend happy hour at Root Down.  (In actuality, this is only the second year we’ve partook in that “tradition,” but it should most definitely be a yearly thing.)  We were lucky to grab two spots at the packed bar, then proceeded to order most of the menu.  I wish I could get to the root of it (see what I did there?), but for whatever reason, sitting in the sunshine on a Friday afternoon, sipping a Spicy Paloma and eating lamb sliders and duck wings with my favorite person just makes me the happiest girl in the world.

In true, J&L form, we left Root Down saying “we should go there EVERY Friday!”

Joey (and okay, me too ) has been dying to try the Perk Coffee Saison that Diebolt & Huckleberry collaborated on, so we walked over and enjoyed a glass each.  I think I need to dial it back on my IPA drinking, it makes everything else taste “not hoppy enough” 🙂  But, a coffee saison isn’t something you see or taste everyday, so this was really unique and a nice change up from what I usually drink.

Saturday started with a warm and sunny walk to get ICED COFFEE!!!  Tis the season!  Also,  nothing delights me more than being able to walk up the street and get an iced cold coffee made from freshly roasted beans.  Well, except maybe being able to walk up the street to get coffee and then finish drinking it while I whip up some honey-sesame pancakes for two.  I’ve been trying to keep my mornings stress free by not doing things like trying to make two different kinds of pancakes for breakfast, so I waited for this moment all week.

I real quick (or as quick as I could) saw my dad for another ZB session that afternoon then hustled back home because of that promise I made Joey that it was HIS weekend.  Which meant he wanted to clean up our front yard, read on the porch and go for a run/walk.  I’m down with all of the above!  Here’s to marrying someone who gets as much joy from walking around and looking at all the cool old Denver houses in our neighborhood as you do.  Can you call it exercise if you stopped into a cheese shop halfway through your run?

Around 7:30, we headed out to dinner at Hop Alley, which we have both been dreaming about for far far too long.  Like it may have been two months ago that we were looking at the menu and already deciding what we’d order.  Send help!

It is in such a random/mostly deserted little part of the RiNo neighborhood that we had a hard time wandering around while we waited for a table, but we did find this little twinkle light alley outside of an event center.  Hop Alley is pretty small (though bigger than its sister restaurant, Uncle) but we got a table within half an hour, then feasted on share plates of traditional Chinese dishes with Kanye blasting overhead.  I really liked my drink, the duck roll and the steamed eggplant and Joey really liked his drinks and the soft shell crab, but we felt like the spicy chicken really fell flat and that it was really pricey!  So overall, we weren’t as impressed as we thought we were going to be, but it was still a great dinner.

Sunday, Joey’s actual birthday, — or Name Day, as we’re calling it now that we watch way too much Game of Thrones — there was present opening (I got Joey a Nixon watch that he hopefully loves!), more walking to get iced coffee, yard work and uh… eating, of course!  I put up zero fight about going to Home Depot, loading and unloading bricks or sweeping up dirt.  Is that what you call true love?  Our little garden bed is really close to being done (I think?) and I’m really excited about it.  Joey’s got a whole plan for our backyard and I can’t wait until our little oasis comes together.

Later on, we met his family at La Loma for dinner, which started like this…

And ended like this.  I think it’s safe to say Joey had a good birthday!  In other news, today is Rockies Opening Day, I’m getting my hair cut at lunch, we’ve got a date with my dad on Wednesday and dinner plans with my entire family on Saturday.  Plus… ROCKIES HOME OPENER ON FRIDAY!!!!!  So I have a gut feeling it’s going to be an amazing week.

Happy Monday, Happy April!