That time we saw Ben Stiller

It was March 17th.

We were somewhere warm, soaking up the sun during our spring break.

We were eating a delicious & gluttonous steak dinner at about 9:00pm when he walked right through the archway into the back room of the nearly empty restaurant. He had a big smile on his face and was walking fast & before my brain even processed what was happening I blurted out, "Hello Ben Stiller!" in a this-isn't-real-so-he-won't-hear-the-ridiculous-tone-of-my-voice sqeak/squeal.

But it was real.

He sat down for dinner with only an empty table separating us.  

We decided not to be "those fans" and bother him during dinner.

So we finished, paid the bill & went back to our room (for our better camera).  And I maybe put a quick swipe of mascara onto my bare lashes before we went back to camp outside of the restaurant and wait for him to reemerge.  (& get a picture with him on our better camera with my eyelashes standing out!!!).

Much less annoying and creepy.

He came out, but I was freaking out about not being stalker-ish so we hung back and only saw him sitting in the front seat of the car ready to drive away.  

And then he was gone to who knows where, his private villa or something.

Still, a pretty cool story, even with no picture as proof.

So funny to see a celebrity in person.  Even if you think you'll be cool and not even care because Hollywood is so removed from actual society and totally corrupted with too much money for their own good... you will not be cool if it's Ben Stiller.  

He's the best.

We also-

Read books: Outliers (Fascinating!), These Is My Words (Positively heart warming and wonderful), The Glass Castle (Pass; could barely finish it, too depressing) &  Freakonomics (Like).

Explored/took walks and admired the pretty scenery. 

Lazed around next to & swam in the turquoise blue ocean.

We really didn't do much more than that.  Mckay got the worst sunburn of his life on Day 2, so that kind of put a damper on things.  I'll spare you the pictures, just know that a week later he still looked like a ripe tomato, it was so sad.  We also ate too much food (specifically dessert) and stayed up too late watching TV.  It was four days of nothing productive and everything relaxing and leisure and we loved it.

Cap Cana, Dominican Republic

March 16-20, 2013

03.02 happy birthday to me!

This year my birthday was on a Saturday, obviously the very best day of the week on which to have your birthday land.  Mckay gave me the best gift ever, him! All to myself doing everything I love for the entire day. It was the best.  He's been spending most Saturday's at his office studying so it really was such a treat to get to spend the entire weekend together, completely ignoring the books.

He gave me a "card" he'd made that had a sweet birthday note on one side and on the other was our schedule for the day, with pictures for every activity he had planned (all of it was a total surprise to me!).  I believe he made it on PowerPoint, which is so Mckay.  It made me laugh.
 
After making and eating a yummy breakfast together, we got pedicures!  It was awesome.  Once all was said and done, he did not love it. He especially hated them filing his toes (that's what is going on in the above picture).  He also had a lady doing his pedicure, which everyone knows is always second string to a man.  But he wasn't letting a man near his feel, quite the conundrum!  There were a few ladies there, I don't know what they were thinking, but they were staring.  I loved it and thought it was so sweet of him to be a good sport.  Plus, his toes look better than ever and he got to speak a little Korean with the employees.  Later that week he had a dermatology appointment and said, "Do you think if she see's my feet she'll know I got a pedicure?"  :]

After our pedicures we hopped in the car and drove into the city for lunch at one of my favorite places, La Bonne Soupe.  It's this wonderful, cramped, authentic French place that has become pretty popular since we first went in 2010 (when everyone was speaking French & we couldn't read the menu).  They have the best "onion soup" I've ever tasted.  The food is delicious and the service is quick.  We were too full for dessert after the soup, ham & swiss crepe (me) & lamb burger (him) and I was bummed because I wanted the chocolate tart... next time!

Once we were sufficiently stuffed, we saw a play!  I love being able to see a Broadway every now & again.  Chicago has been on my list for some time and after getting the green light from a friend, we went for it!  I thought it was great and had really great music, and the girl who played Roxie was adorable!  Mckay didn't love it like I did, but I didn't really expect him to.

The show ended and we raced back to Connecticut for sweet Tillie Rose's 1st birthday party.  We absolutely adore that little lady & think her parents are pretty great too.  We blew out birthday candles together and got to hang out with some of our favorite people. 

It was a birthday that was practically perfect in every way!