A Phone View of My Birthday

My last birthday in my 20's (oh, man) was a perfect compilation of family, food, and activity. These are a few extracts from my phone of that great summer day. I came home from a morning run to a tasty breakfast and decorations courtesy of all my boys. 

 A trip to the farmers' market for a picnic lunch to take to the water park 

A Costco trip and nap for Charlie


 Buying a shirt with mom

Sushi at Yellowtail with husband, dad and brother:

 Why have birthday cake when you can go to Gourmandise for "better than sex" chocolate cake and many other delights? 

 We ended the night with avocado masks and a movie in bed. 

One Day You Turn 30

 If you went running, walking, or cycling on the Jordan River Trail on one particular day in July you were entertained by colorful ribbons, balloons, and numbers in the trees for about a half mile stretch of the way. To celebrate JR's 30th year I collected 30 notes and well wishes from friends and family members to string along the trail before heading to a fish dinner with family.

 If you really want to learn about one's character and what they've done with 30 years, ask the personal witnesses that stood by. The diverse stories and notes painted a man of loyalty surrounded by many friends with a youth of mischief, yet well grounded due to a firmly founded upbringing. 

I enjoyed reading old stories of him attempting to stop his car from sliding into a tree by holding his hand out the window for his arm to take the impact; or loading up his Honda Prelude with 10+ teenage boys all with heads covered in tinfoil for processing highlights, when they were all the rage, to race down a country road; or crying as a child to get Kay Malone to bring him to the front of the line to meet her husband Karl; or as a scoutmaster chasing his boy scouts down at camp.     

There were also experiences with words of gratitude and admiration that you would never learn from his own mouth. 

I mentioned a couple of posts ago about how I get JR's family to help make my ridiculous plans possible. That's JR's younger sister's face on his shoulder in the above picture who helped me with this project. I was grateful for all the note contributers and help from R. Bex Madelyn (JR's nickname for her. He has a nickname for everyone). 

The dino finale

Caaalirado

June took us to the Rocky Mountains for a visit to Vail and  Snowmass (near Aspen), Colorado, or "Caalirado" if you talk to Emerson. See evidence of beauty and activity experienced below. 

He was more fascinated about the different skat, or poop, than anything else in the nature center. 

Birthday Party in a Galaxy Far Far Away . . .

There was a storm trooper,

lightsaber battling, 

some photos,

some family and primary friends,

more photos, 

grandparents,

the world's best homemade pizza (more on this below), 

and stain-your-face-blue cupcakes.

The combined Star Wars birthday party had been talked about for a few months in our house and after several push-backs it finally came to pass. The surprise Storm Trooper stole the show and after watching him take hit after hit from the kids I completely forgot to bring out the Darth Vader head pinata that I spent more time on than I should have, got in a fight with my husband over how to hang the thing, then watched the same husband spend more time than he should have on the suspension. Dang it. 

The guests topped their own personal thin crust pizzas, fired them up via stone on my father-in-law's magic grill, then finished them off with a good scorch under the broiler. This process makes the best pizzas possible without having your own 900 degree, 16th century wood-fire oven shipped over from ol' Napoli. 

The high volume of pizzas we ended up cranking out wouldn't have been possible if I didn't have an exceptional father-in-law that said, "What exact time do you want the grill hot," and then energetically positioned himself with his homemade (yep, made himself) wooden pizza peel cooking every single pizza while running back and forth from the kitchen to the back deck. Nor would we have eaten on time if I didn't have a mother-in-law who is extraordinarily helpful and talented in the kitchen,  and said, "How about I stay in the kitchen and roll every last lump of dough out for every single guest until my arms are burning on fire and miss half the party?" She left out that last part but that is what happened and that might have been what she was thinking. It's a good thing that a girl with crazy, untested, and sometimes unrealistic ideas married into a family that can make crazy, untested, and sometimes unrealistic ideas happen. 

Happy birthday to my two little Jedi Knights who now know more about Star Wars than their mother.