Man Alive, He's 35!

I decided to give Nathan a weekend semi-away for his birthday. We're still in the miserable throws of busy season, so we really couldn't go anywhere for more than a day, but we made the most of it. We got up and RUSHED through all our Saturday jobs in record time and made it to lunch at Sweet Tomatoes by 1:30. AMAZING! After lunch we checked into the Residence Inn in Provo.

Natalee thought the room was beautiful, but she was sad they didn't have a bed for her. Then we showed her that the couch pulled out into a bed and she was shocked and delighted. She called it her "magic couch bed."

After we checked in we gave her the list of activites we could go do. She chose Miniature Golf. We've never been as a family, in fact, Nathan and I haven't been at least 10 years. We didn't keep score, but Natalee probably won. However, that's only because she doesn't respect the integrity of the game and just plopped her ball in the hole after 2 or 3 hits. Also, she hit it like a croquet ball despite Nathan's best efforts to teach her correct form. Nathan even got a hole in 1. Way to go birthday boy!

Then we came back to the hotel and swam! This was Natalee's favorite thing since she's such a fish. We discovered that her swimming suit is too small, which is a sad thing since it's one of those with floaties in it so that she doesn't have to get a tube.

After we'd swam for a while, it was time to eat. We got some take out Chinese food (with a side of nuggets for Natalee) and ate in the room. Then Natalee went to bed and Nathan and I watched Emma Smith: My Story, which he's been wanting to see ever since it was in the theater. It was actually very good. I learned some things about Emma that I didn't know before and my realization of her goodness was reconfirmed.

Sunday morning we woke up and went to church in Charleston with Mom and Dad. Then in the evening we had a joint birthday party for Madeline and Bennett. They had a zoo theme and we had soups, rolls and animal cakes. (Those are cakes shaped like animals, not made from animals.)

Didn't MarKey and Nia do an amazing job on those cakes? The giraffe even had these cute little horns made out of tootsie rolls. I don't know if you can see them very good or not, but the cakes were adoreable! MarKey even surprised Nathan with a cake all his very own.

Nia made the kids Birthday videos that were so cute and she also made one for Nathan. It even included the famous "Cane Incident" from conference weekend last year. TOO FUNNY!
The kids had a great time with the mounds and mounds of presents and it was fun to be together to celebrate all these wonderful people. Happy birthday to one and all!