Welcome Home.

Last week, Joseph and I flew into Des Moines and arrived Wednesday afternoon. Look who came over and greeted us!

Bethany & and her beautiful baby girl, Piper, came over and spent the afternoon with us. We laughed, snacked, and hung out by the pool. It was the perfect welcoming celebration to the rest of the long weekend.

We came home to celebrate Josephs' sisters & brothers birthday. Sophie turned 14 and Topher turned the BIG 2-1. As usual, we went to Des Moines' fabulous 801 Steak & Chophouse.

I ordered lobster, while mostly everyone else had steak. We had oysters for an appetizer and Truffle Mac & Cheese (which I ordered!). To drink, per usual, I ordered the Troon, an amazing grapefruit and vodka martini with a sweet sugar rim.

Here we are with the birthday girl. For special occasions, we try to coordinate outfits, so she told me to wear something with hot pink, so I got a ew tie at J.Crew for the occassion and she approved! Cute, cute! I was wearing a suit jacket too, but I got so hot and took it off.

Joseph and I got the birthday girl some gifts, so she opened them up while we waited for dinner. We got her some high tea from Henri Bendel's because she loves high tea, some cut napkins that I found in Coronado that read "The day you were born, the world made room for a little more fancy." And finally a string of hand-made butterflies that she really wanted when she came and visited from Seaside Papery!

We finished the night eating desserts and singing Happy Birthday! I had my favorite, the Warm Chocolate Molten Cake.