Happy Birthday to Greg!

Greg celebrated his birthday yesterday and we had lots of fun. The kids are always up for a party and were especially excited because this one was for their dad.


We are so happy to have Brian, Cathy, and their darling girls visiting for a few days and we're extra-glad they were here to celebrate with us!

Sweet Cathy insisted I be included in the party picture. You may notice my awesome shirt...I decided to give BYU another chance this week and I'm sure glad they delivered!

The kids all loved the cupcakes! Sorry they were pink--that's all the bakery had. (I will be making Greg his favorite carrot cake on Sunday when we celebrate with the rest of our families, but ran out of time yesterday and had to settle for pink cupcakes instead.) It's okay--Greg is totally tough enough for pink, right?

That's a pretty delicious candle Abby is chewing on there...she actually just liked to dip the candle in the frosting and then lick it off.

The kids were really excited to pick out some treats and balloons for their dad. You can't see it very well in the picture, but I let them each choose a balloon at the store. Awesome for Greg, because Abby picked out a very nice Elmo/Sesame Street balloon and Garrett opted for Thomas the Tank Engine. Lucky Greg!

This is awesome. Seriously awesome. Garrett and I built Greg a tower out of Diet Coke cans and put a label on each one with a reason why we love him. We used 34 cans, because that is how old Greg is...or isn't. Greg told a friend the other day he was turning 34 on his birthday and I didn't really think much about it, but just went with it. His friend called him up yesterday and asked Greg if he was sure he was turning 34. Greg thought about it for a minute and did the math and sure enough, he's only 33! Needless to say we've gotten some good laughs about the whole thing and I told Greg it was the best birthday present he could have asked for because he got a whole year of his life back that he didn't even have to live.

Brian and Cathy gave us a gift certificate for the Anniversary Inn and offered to watch our kids a night so we could use it. (They are awesome, I know!) It's pathetic, but the only nights we've ever spent away from our kids was when Greg was in the hospital, so we were definitely past-due. Now obviously it's a little bit tacky/corny/weird/plain-old-disgusting to take and share pictures of your themed-hotel room, but I couldn't resist this one because it was just so Greg, if you know what I mean.

Our room was set up like a drive-in movie theater, complete with this old Ford truck. Those of you who know Greg well probably already know that he happens to dearly love his old Ford truck, so he was quite interested in this old relic. We walked in our room and the first thing he did was pop the hood so he could check out the engine. Let's just say I took second place to the truck and he spent a good amount of time tinkering with it and checking it all out before announcing that he really thought the truck still ran and he was pretty sure he could start it up if he had the right tools. Awesome, honey. Just awesome. (He was pretty excited when I took out the camera and told him to say, "Cheese!")

I decided I might as well help myself to the movie pack since Greg was clearly more interested in the old Ford than me...

All things considered, I think it's safe to say Greg had a fantastic birthday. We can only imagine how great next year will be when he REALLY turns 34!