The Birthday/Memorial Day Weekend

This weekend was a mighty good weekend.  Three day weekends are so rare, so we treasure them like, I don't know, something special that we treasure.  They are a big deal, since John's time off of work is so limited.  However, this weekend was double special because it was John's birthday!  I've taught him the art of spreading his birthday out onto multiple days.

First off, I went out on Friday night after the kids went to bed.  A friend of a friend moved to town to open a dental practice, so she threw a party for him to welcome him to town.  It was a Mad Men dress up party with dancing.  The friends were originally from Montana, and I got to meet people from Oregon, California, and Montana.  I also met someone who was in management at Amazon and another person who is a supervisor at a chicken processing plant.  I'm somewhat fascinated by logistics, food, and general large operations, so those were two gold-mind conversations. 

 

Saturday morning, I woke up and pumped coffee right into my system.  After a new weed-eater purchase, Burl and John got right to work on the yard.  Fern and I joined them once she woke up and got some breakfast.

Fern, as sweet and girly as she is, has mastered the shooting-gun noise.  Thankyouburl.  Here she is with a piece of wood aiming straight at me.  Psst.psst.

Later that night we had our dear friends over for dinner and laughter.  Great times.

Sunday morning we asked Burl if he would like to go hiking by a waterfall and he got all excited.  He asked, "How 'bout we go a waterfall, come home, take wittle nap, den have Daddy's burfday? Ok? Dat sound like a good idea?"  That's exactly what we did.

Who needs a TV to stare at when you have a nice little fire?  While it makes us nervous to have them around an open fire, we try to stay calm and remind ourselves that this is good practice for camping.  They won't learn unless we show them.  

A little post birthday dinner watering is always a nice way to end the evening...

...especially when the boys get to wake up and hit the garden again at 7 the next morning.

  Monday was pretty chill for us.  We joined John's parents for lunch downtown, then came home, put the kids down for naps and had a babysitter come over.  John and I went on a little birthday date to two bookstores.  Oh, the romance!  We had a lot of fun.  The date got cut short, because we had to pick my brother and his friend up at the shuttle.  They arrived from Greece, where they had been climbing for two and a half weeks.

They met Dylan Wyer who offered to take some pictures for them.  Well done, Dylan.  The pictures are almost as great as the stories that they told us.  

 We ended the night and the weekend with pizza and ice cream.  Cause that's how we roll.  The weekend was great, and I've now come down with a virus that I'm almost over.  This is my third time being sick in 2013, which is crazy.  I think it has something to do with having kids.  And I say that with love.  

It's a great time to be alive!  Happy Birthday, John!  I'm looking forward to this weekend as well!