Friday, April 15, 2011

Z's birthday and Spring Break

We ended up celebrating Z's birthday on the day before his actual birthday. He asked for a truck cake. Oh dear. That sounds deceptively easy. I knew it would never live up to his expectations because of his attention to detail.

I decided to give it a shot, and sure enough, it was awful. I would say it was worthy of cake wrecks, except that it was SO bad, it would be obvious it was a home cook, and not a professional's cake at all.

We got him a couple of Wii games and clothes for his birthday, and he was really tickled. He also got a Buzz Lightyear sleeping bag, which he has insisted on sleeping in every night, even though it's made him break out in a rash. I've washed it, but so far, no go.

On Z's actual birthday, we spent most of the day driving. J and M were going on the annual MAN ATV TRIP. We had all week off school, and I wanted to do something fun too. I decided to drive to Yakima, WA, to visit my friend Amy, who was one of my very best friends in junior high and high school.

On the way up, we stopped for lunch in Boise, where we had lunch with my friend Shelley. Shelley and I were pregnant with our oldest kids together. We met on a pregnancy expecting board and have been friends ever since. We were even featured in Parenting Magazine back in 1999 when our group had a reunion in Florida. It was great to see her again.

We got to Yakima just after dinner. Amy's kids met us before we even got out of the car. What an amazing welcome!

We had a wonderful week together. Amy and her husband, Tony, own a dance studio, which also offers singing lessons, and also recently opened a theater in the round. It was so neat to see their business, and see them living their dream. I was genuinely thrilled to see their success, and I am so proud of them!

Amy arranged for S to take a dance lesson with her daughter, who is the same age. S was so tickled to wear her dance outfit that Amy gave her, and take the class.
I know this is weird, but I love to go to the grocery store when I'm on vacation. I like to see how the store is different from my local stores. I was tickled with the Yakima grocery store because their wine selection (wait, what? Wine in the grocery store?! We don't have that in Utah!) was bigger in that one grocery store than we have in the entire liquor store. Yakima is surrounded by wineries and hops fields, so it makes sense there would be a large selection of local products.

It was tough to leave. We had such a fun week. It was fun to play house with an old friend, and take care of our kids together. Her kids are amazing and fun, and got along so well with mine. However, we did have to get home, so we got ready to leave a few days later. That last morning, there had been frost danger, so a local orchard had sprayed their trees with water to protect them. It was absolutely stunning.
The drive home seemed to take twice as long as the drive there. Isn't that the way it always goes? We didn't get home til nearly midnight. We had nice weather until the last hour. The last hour we were driving in snow, but the roads were ok.

I can easily say it was the funnest spring break I've ever had.

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