Birthday Week Re-Cap

The week before Garrett's birthday (June 1st) Brian had off from work. We enjoyed just being home and trying to get a lot of stuff around the house done.

 (In this picture Garrett is thinking: 'Finally, only 1 link left on my birthday chain- the day we leave to go to the hotel and then the next day is my birthday!')

Then on Memorial Day we headed to Lancaster, Pa on a family vacation\ birthday celebration. We had the honor of "borrowing" our 5 yr old nephew (and Garrett's best bud), Chris Jr for the trip. On Monday we checked into a hotel in down town Lancaster which was way too fancy for our crowd of 2 bouncing-off- the walls-youngsters and 1 baby who likes to scream for a good hour every night we are traveling (but the hotel was the cheapest rate we were able to get!) We were on the 17th floor (and yes, one of the kids pushed the emergency call button in the elevator and the operator was asking "is there an emergency?") That evening it stormed badly, which was interesting to watch being so high up. But the rain didn't stop our fun- it was swimming time in the fancy swimming pool.   (It was also Tristan's first time ever swimming, but I don't have pictures because Brian is anxious around swimming pools and never joins the fun-so I had no one to take pictures for me.)

On Tuesday we woke up and Garrett opened presents.

Then breakfast at Friendly's and off to Dutch Wonderland

We were very blessed in that the weather was nice. Thunderstorms were being called for but they never came. And because of the supposed weather the park was rather empty and the lines really short. We never really had to wait in line and by the evening the lines were so none existent we went on the large roller coaster several times with out stopping (and much to my dismay, the same with the small roller-coaster. The lady kept saying "one more time?" and the kids were so excited to go again with out hardly stopped. I groaned each time but I faked enthusiasm. I don't like those small roller-coasters because they are so jerky!)  It was a good day at the park. The only thing that I was sad about is that for some reason I wasn't feeling too great for most of the day and didn't have my normal amusement park energy.

One intersting thing to note which will be fun to remember in a few years because it perfectly depicts Garrett at this point in his life. When we were leaving D.W for the day Brian told the boys they could buy something from the gift shop- anything that was $10 or less. Chris Jr picked out a toy gun. What did Garrett pick out? A big bag of Twizzlers. All he wanted was candy.

That night, more eating out and then night swimming (I didn't get in this time and the baby fell asleep pool side.)

Next morning, we checked out of the hotel, ate at Olive Garden (yummy food but the kids were a bit too rowdy- I had to take them outside to run around quit a bit. We should have known better!) Then the boys played miniature golf. This was Chris Jr's first time ever playing!!

(bonus points for hitting the ducks!)

Then we hoped into the van. A few Amish horse and buggies later, we were home. (And boy were we adults tired! And Brian was ready to have some alone time!)  Aunt Heather came and stayed for a while and then took Chris Jr home (he lives in southern NJ.)

A few short days later, on Friday the 4th, we had a Backyard Birthday Bash. Except it rained for the first 20 minutes. So we ended up starting inside my house (which I was totally bummed about because my whole plan was to have no one in the house except for the bathroom and stuff like that. My house just gets too small so fast and my downstairs was not clean! It also threw some of my pre-planning off) But oh well. The storm was nasty everywhere else but here and we were just lucky it stopped so quickly.

We eventually made it outside and did some fun things.

Painting on the fence:

Horse shoes and Frisbee horse shoes:

(if you happened to see a big, nasty bruise on my arm lately, its from the Frisbee hore shoes!)

Generally outside silliness:

 (some boys were climbing up on this rope and getting pretty far! My neighbor has a better picture.)

Followed by some silly outside races: A sack race and "ice and spoon" race. (I don't have many great pictures because I was using the video camera most of the time)

All this followed by this very awesome and yummy cake made by our very own Megan B.

In this picture Garrett was asking me to help him blow out his candles. He was being a bit shy and was a bit upset that we sang him happy birthday but I'm not sure the other guests picked up on it.

(The cutting and serving the cake and ice cream was the most stressful for me and Brian because we were all crammed into my dinning room because of the dripping trees and general wetness outside.)

After cake and ice cream there was presents. And eventually everyone left. And Garrett was happy and I was *tired* and thinking "I'm not doing this next year!" (but as Brian pointed out- you know I will.)  

The End