Birthday Weekend

It was lovely having my birthday fall on a Saturday this year. In years past, I have almost always been in school or working or both, so it was really nice to not have obligations like that.

After a somewhat leisurely morning of sort of sleeping in and eating made-from-scratch cocoa oatmeal muffins, we loaded up and headed to Delta to visit my parents. I had told Terral that's what I wanted to do for my birthday when I found out about my dad's fall.

We had a really nice weekend. We were hoping to help my parents out more than we did, but they couldn't seem to think up many jobs for us. My mom recently purged and reorganized their office, and she had me help her hang some pictures on the newly painted wall. And dad had a little job or two for Terral, but one of them was actually for our garage. My parents are so helpful to us that they help us even when we're helping them. ;)

I tried to take a picture of my belly, but it didn't quite work out. 

More belly, less head.

For some reason, dad's newly poured concrete by the garage has tilted up and is causing problems, so he had Terral dig out some gravel from underneath. Ethan was excited to get in on the digging action.

 Dad supervising. 

 My mom was really sweet and made me a pumpkin coconut cake for my birthday. She and my dad sang "Happy Birthday" to me and had me blow out a candle. Terral was absent because Ethan was crying his head off and wouldn't go to bed. He hadn't gotten a nap because he'd been too excited to play at Grandma and Grandpa's house, and he has a few teeth coming in. That's all we can figure could have caused his unusual behavior. 

 Here's a look at my dad's damaged foot. When I talked to him today, he said his ribs are not bothering him quite as much, but his foot still has him a little worried.

 It was really good to see improvement in him just while we were there. He is in a lot of pain, and he had a coughing episode at dinner that just looked excruciating, but his healing seems to be on track, and we are very grateful for that.

Sunday afternoon we had a nice surprise when the Keck family showed up. Ethan had so much fun playing with his cousins!

 Grandpa even got in on the action. :)

 We were planning on coming home Sunday, but we ended up staying that night and leaving in the morning. I

Ethan is very into letters right now, and my mom sent us home with this magnet set for him to play with. It was a very good thing to have in the car!

It was really a very nice weekend. We played games and we visited. It was good to just spend time with my parents.

Birthday

They say it's my birthday.


Is it your birthday too?
nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh


My years now number twenty-eight. I figured out that if we had a child every two years, I would end up with the same number as my mom and finish at about the same age too. But who knows what will happen. It's in God's hands. And that's a very good thing.

What do you think about on your birthdays?



PS You did get the song reference, right?

Fun Busy

Today was a very full day for Terral. It started a little after five in the morning for him, since he had to get ready for his race. He and some friends ran the Cedar Express Relay as Team Unshoes. I was originally going to run with them, but with the way I've been feeling lately, we thought it best to find a replacement. Luckily we found one easily enough! Besides Terral, the team members were Laura, her husband Shad, his sister Wendy (my replacement), and Zach. Zach and Laura both work for Terral. Zach was one of Jaymon's best friends, and Terral's been trying hard to get him "addicted" to running. And it looks like it's working! Everyone had a really good time at the race. They didn't finish at the top, but they did have quite a few people ask about the sandals. ;) I'm just glad they enjoyed themselves. Ethan and I enjoyed ourselves too. We slept in. :D (I really needed it because for some reason I just couldn't sleep at all the previous night. I just laid there all night until I finally fell asleep at about seven. Weird.)

When Terral got home from the relay, we packed up and headed to Sand Hollow to celebrate McKade's birthday. We spent a really fun afternoon there at the lake. McKade got to ride on the tube quite a bit, which is good since that was his favorite part. We had a great time playing in the sand (which was perfect!), throwing rocks, splashing in the water, and goofing around. We also did a little tubing. I had a short, very mild ride with Ethan that was very relaxing.

I didn't get very many pictures since I didn't want to get my phone wet, but I did at least get everyone who was there.

Terral's Big Three-Oh

I can hardly believe it, but Terral is officially thirty years old now. His birthday kind of snuck up on us. I wish I had prepared more, but I guess it wasn't too shabby. We are also planning on spending a little time in the mountains soon in honor of his birthday.

I tried to make it a special day by doing little things. I made a special breakfast, and fulfilled the requested enchilada dinner.

Even though I only called them today *ahem*, Terral's parents and all his siblings were able to come spend some time with us at the park this evening and partake in some dessert. I tried a new raw brownie dessert, and it would have been good, only I put a tad too much salt in it. Woops.

Terral was able to run around some and climb trees, and then we played some frisbee. Ethan wanted to get in on the action too.

 We did all the regular park playing. Ethan particularly loved the slide. Terral just loved being outside and playing around.

There was barely room for Ethan on Heather's lap. Her baby bump is sure growing!

At the end of it all, Terral finally got to open his present.

(Um, I sewed it today while he was at work. . .but at least I had it planned, right?)

 It's a wallet! I used this tutorial.

 Terral told me that just last week he saw a camo wallet and thought that would be cool to have. Good thing that the material I picked out! He's very excited about it because his current wallet is very old and falling apart. I just love when gifts turn out!

I feel so blessed to have this wonderful man as my husband and father to our children. He keeps calling himself middle aged, but I think he will always be young at heart. Not immature, mind you, but he knows how to play and have fun without inhibition, and he can still see the wonder in everyday things.

Люблю тебя, мой лучше друг!

Den' Rozhdenia

As many of you know, Terral turned 27 on the 9th. That was also the day we left for our reunion at Pine Lake. Before we left, I surprised him with a gift. He opened it and was pleased to find a pair of flip-flops since he's been wanting some sandals besides his chacos.

We then went down to the basement to get what we needed to finish packing. Terral knew something was up because I wanted both of us to go. Lo and behold, a mysterious box had appeared! He opened it and found a rear wheel for his bicycle. (Last year someone stole the back wheel from his bike when it was chained to our front porch.) He is so happy to be back on the saddle. . . I mean seat. . . again! He put it together right away.

We finished strapping everything together and headed off for the lake. Terral made good use of his wheels while we were there. Chayse had fun riding around on the bike, and my family got to see Terral on his unicycle for the first time. Somehow I didn't get any pictures of Terral on his bike in the mountains.

Terral said his birthday was the longest he'd ever had. We had a nice dinner with some of his family before we left, we camped for 3 days, we had a big dinner with his whole family when we got back, we saw Harry Potter, and I made him a pie. It was all really spread out, so we ended up celebrating for about two weeks. We sure had a good time!

С Днем Рождения дорогой мой! (Хотя и поздно) Я тебя очень люблю!