Happy Birthday to Caleb

My wonderful husband just had a birthday, and this time I think we celebrated it perfectly. I didn't buy him a gift, and not for lack of effort. I tried to buy him a bullet proof vest to be very safe for his tactical shooting class he is taking soon. Well, I am not allowed to buy that unless he is law enforcement. I tried to argue, but it didn't happen. So he got to open no gifts from me, and he didn't care at all. In fact he asked me if he could take his birthday money and Christmas money he got from his grandparents and buy me a bow. I've recently got a taste of archery and I LOVE IT! I had no idea it was so fun to play Hunger Games all day, but holy cow- it is fun!

We took our kids to my parents house the night before his birthday because my parents were watching my sisters kids for her anniversary trip. Once you already have her five kids, my two just blend in and they hardly notice. Ok that's a lie. My kids are much more demanding but her kids help balance that.

We went out to dinner and shopping in Portland with our good friends the Dery's who we don't see as much as we would like. The dinner was great and we went back to our friends with some delicious cake from Whole Foods. It was Lindsey's and Caleb's birthday celebration together and Josh and I got to sing to them. I'm almost the worst singer in the world, so that was a real treat for everyone. Caleb doesn't like to make small talk, but you ask him about how he feels about our current president and you'll be begging him to stop talking. He gets so fired up that I usually just start to laugh. We got to hear all about how he wants to build a bunker, get food storage for a year, and have me start to take things more serious.

After we got home, which was very late, we hurried and packed for the next day. After about 4 hours of sleep we drove up to Timberline and went snowboarding. I can't remember the last time I hit the mountain and boy did I miss it. I was worried that I would be crazy slow and fall down a lot. But I held my own and had a great time. We went with our friends the Goesch's that we also had not seen in a long time and it was the perfect company.

After a long day at the mountain where Caleb and I both realized we are not as young as we used to be, and we also really like naps- we headed back home. We took a nice HOT shower, and headed to my parents where they had a cake waiting for Caleb. I asked my dad to go get the black & white cake from the Konditeri, a favorite of both of ours. We had it at our wedding and it's expensive and delicious. Caleb's parents came over, and his brother and family, so it was an official party. We sang and ate and he opened presents from his parents that he loved. One of which is a helicopter toy thing that Calvin loves. I am not sure who likes it more actually. Caleb flies it until the battery dies about three times a day and Calvin is obsessed with it. It's very cute.

We brought my sisters kids back to our house for a sleep over and then to church the next day. I felt like an official Mormon walking into church with 7 kids. We had to take two cars, start getting ready two hours before church, and get a huge row of seats. How do large families do it? We were 5 minutes early which was a pretty good accomplishment.

To finish the celebration weekend off, we finished our puzzle that we started at Christmas time. I left it all together for about an hour, and then I took it all apart and was glad to have my table back. It's not really about looking at the finished product for me. It's the great conversations and making time slow down that I love so much.

Happy birthday to a wonderful father who had endless energy to play with his kids. A husband who still likes to surprise me by learning a song he knows I like so he can sing to me. A friend who helps people move and work on their houses or projects whenever he can. A son who still likes to go fishing with his dad and talk about weird science stuff and makes time to help his mother work on her yard or remodel her house. An employee who is so good that his current staff started crying when he told them he was leaving, and they have come back twice with new job offers just to keep him. Love you babe.