Birthday Festivities!

As per tradition, we extended Jon's birthday so we could celebrate a bit more than a day.  It began the Sunday before, with the Seahawks winning the Superbowl!!! Happy Birthday dear; I planned it just for you ! :) We had an awesome time watching the game with some friends ( I don't care that it was a blowout, it was still fun to watch), and Julie and I worked on making a pumpkin cheesecake.  It wasn't quite ready by the time the game was over though, so it gave us a nice excuse to wait till his birthday to eat it.













The day of his birthday, Wednesday, began with presents! And food!  I made him creamed eggs on toast and then sent  him on a easter egg style hunt for his presents.  He got a few kindle books, a bunch of the Rob Bell Nooma DVDs, which I had hidden around the house, and several of us went in on a tent-gotta love those mutually beneficial presents :) .  For lunch he and I went out to a tea bar here in town, which I can't believe we've never been to before!  They had awesome tea (we need to go back and buy some in bulk) , and good food as well.  It was a cozy little place, the type where you almost feel like you're invading someone's kitchen.  But in a good way.

After prayer  meeting, the church surprised him with some cake and ice cream (cake #1), followed by some friends of ours meeting back up to finally have at the cheesecake (cake #2).  On our way home, we stopped by Baskin Robbins where we picked up the ice cream cake (cake #3) I'd ordered before I knew about cakes 1 & 2.  Life is hard when it's your birthday :)  It actually worked out well though.  We worked our way through the cheesecake, and then had a fresh cake to cut into with guests on Saturday night.

Meagan and Brandon came up to visit and surprise Jon for the day!  They came right in the middle of communion, which was kinda awkward, haha but still a good surprise.  We had a nice hike up Ebey's Landing Bluff Trail, and then came back and had yummy tortilla soup for dinner followed by the ice cream cake while we played games.

Then Sunday was our big adventure!  We set out to find snow!  We stopped in Bellingham to grab some brunch (the most delicious crepes: savory ones with jalapenos egg and avocado and a sweet apple pie one. SO DELICIOUS).  And then we continued north east near Mt. Baker and rented some snowshoes and hiked played around for a couple hours.  The snow wasn't that deep, it barely justified snowshoes, but it was more for the experience.  We'd definitely want to do it again, and in deeper snow this time, but it was a good start.  Especially considering this was Gromit's first time in snow even that deep, we weren't sure how he would do.  We got him a jacket and snow boots for the day, which we were nervous about after trying them out at home, but he totally forgot about them once we got out there and he had a blast!  We stopped at Jamba Juice for dinner on the way home and called it a day.  Between the snowshoeing and the couple of parks we went to before and after the snow, we might have actually worn him out for a bit that night.  All in all, I think all three of us would agree it was a pretty awesome birthday adventure.  Thanks for being born Jon! :)