february birthdays, part one.

so, it just so happens that a lot of my close friends' birthdays fall in february.

that means, a lot of celebration... and a lot of cake!

this past weekend, two of my best friends (oh yeah, they're my roommates too), turned twenty-one.

this seems to be a landmark of sorts... so, we figured we better make the weekend count!

we started it all off on friday night by heading up to draper.

amanda's aunt and uncle graciously offered up their home to us for the evening, so we jumped at the chance to get out of provo.

amanda chose pei wei as the destination for her birthday dinner... and a good choice, it was.

amanda, me, and our chinese food.

this proved to be true for all of us... though we were all starving, we patiently waited for our food, and man, was it worth it! plus, mary got two job offers within a few days of this fortune... if those aren't "good things", i don't know what are!

michelle & mary and of course, their food.

my meal: gluten-free sweet-and-sour chicken and veggies.

a fun fact for all of my gf followers-- you can get many dishes at both p.f. changs and pei wei made gluten-free; just ask for the gf menu, and stress to them that you need the chefs to be careful in preparation! post script: the food was delicious.

after our meal, we headed to amanda's family's house for the remainder of the evening.

there, we were greeted with a beautiful birthday cake... have you noticed how food seems to be a trend here? :)

the cake was a swedish recipe, handed down from amanda's great, great grandmother... and from what i heard, it was a knock out.

the birthday girl and her cake.

my ice cream.

lauren joined us shortly thereafter,

and we were treated like royalty by amanda's aunt and uncle--there's really no other way to describe it.

they brought us brazilian limeades while we were out in the coconut-mango-scented hot tub, they cooked us a phenomenal breakfast in the morning (including hot cocoa), and they even left us chocolates by our pillows.

a shout out to the petersons for their hospitality and kindness!

a quick little escape from provo has never been quite so sweet.