Happy 26th Jakey

“Today is your birthday (dun nuh nuh nuh nee nuh) it’s my birthday too, YEAH!” Ok well it’s really not, but that’s the way the song goes. :) So Tuesday, September 28th was Jake’s 26th birthday, but we both work and go to school like all day (i start with a 7:30 french class and we both don’t get off work til 11pm) so we did his birthday on monday instead after family home evening. the candles are two different ones because i couldn’t find 2 of the same type. besides, we’re weird so i figured it would work well.

So his birthday cake had frosting that was really just whipped cream (he doesn’t like frosting anyway so it’s cool.) and the cake was a white cake that we baked and then poked holes in with his chopsticks and then we poured strawberry-banana jell-o in it and let it set. i though he was nuts, but apparently in Idaho (and probably utah) it’s a pretty common thing. well, i’ll give them this one, it was pretty good. :)

 

   Any way, so here jake is blowing out his candles. When i told him I was going to get  26 candles he really thought i meant to buy twenty-six candles. i think not; first of all, i would have needed a blow torch to light the cake and second of all we’d have needed to keep a fire extinguisher near by just in case one of our heads caught fire. :) i’m only teasing of course, i know that when i’m 26, i’ll received the same brutality… hahaha.

                                

Yummy! It turned out pleasantly pink and was rather delicious. we still have about half of it in the fridge and it’s only wednesday…i wonder if that means we eat cake rather quickly or quite slowly. hmmm. :)

 

Well, jake liked my card to say the least. :) i’m always happy to see that i can pick an envelope that encourages such happy and kinda of manic stares in people. it always makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside, it really does.

And here he is singing along with the card, i guess it got him “all shook up mmm hmmm mmm yay-yeah” He has a healthy appreciation for Elvis.

 

Here we have him opening his first present. He told me afterwards that as he was opening it he saw some of the back and thought (in horror) that i’d bought him one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies (i say “in horror” because he already owns all of them) however, he was pleased to discover (once he looked at the front) that it was not a pirate move, but was-in fact-

THE PRINCE OF PERSIA

He was pretty excited as you can tell by his “crazy-person” stare

 

So excited, that he sunk his teeth (literally) into unwrapping his second and final (so he thought) present! once he had successfully removed the piece of string that i had, with painstaking effort, tied on, he choose to display his dominance over the piece of string by wearing it around his forehead as a warning to all other string that he is the master of string and none of it may hold the contents of its package without fear of being ripped to shreds by Jake the String-Slayer. :)

So, although i’m sure you were expecting a fearsome picture, you must remember that the ceremony involving tying the slain string around the forehead is an incredibly sacred ritual only performed by those who wear glasses and have very curly hair. 

 

 

 

And Here he unveiled his last present. and he was satisfied with the result of his labors. the fruit he had reaped was worthy of the effort he had sown. that is to say that…

 

 

 

He got what he asked for; received his just rewards; felt the consequences of his actions take place…

He got a Star Wars Lego Set :)

 

All in all, I’d say he had a pretty Happy Birthday….especially since i surprised him with some Lego people on Tuesday morning. i felt that he had to get at least one birthday present on his actual birthday. :)

Do you Remember where you were?

September 11, 2001

I was eleven.

I was in sixth grade.

I was waiting for my ride; Nikki, do you remember? I came in the living room and my mom was watching the news, crying. I was only eleven, but I understood what was going on.

i don’t know if you’d believe me, but i had dreaded something like 9/11 my entire life. As an army brat, i knew my dad would only be home if things were safe…things like 9/11 change that.

i went to school like any other day; that day was different. That day, my classmates laughed and i cried. i watched people choose a death by impact over a death by fire, and i understood that nothing would be the same.

when i went home, every base, every post, every military facility had gone from a simple Alpha to a red alert Delta. Every person got out of every car so every thing could be checked.

i remember…do you?

Happy Honeymooners :) no we haven’t mooned anyone

We started our journey on Friday, August 27 in Honolulu, Hawaii. We decided since out of all the fabulous gifts we received we didn’t get a single Barbie or Lego set, we needed to reward our good behavior with those selected goodies! so we sat in a park in Waikiki playing with our toys while simultaneously killing time before our flight.

 

We did a bunch of other stuff around Waikiki….like cashing in our free chocolates. (Sign up to be a member at Godiva, it’s free and you get one free chocolate truffle a month!!) Then we went to the airport. This is us sitting down at the airport…waiting for the plane

We flew over to Portland, OR, arriving at 6:15 AM….yeah you read that right, AM as in MORNING. i was so cold. Jake and I were freezing (nearly to death….but as I am still here, able to write to you, you can clearly see we survived). Good thing I stole the blanket from the plane. we rode a shuttle over to where Jake’s dad’s hotel was. We slept for a couple hours and then got on the road to Pendleton, OR, where I walked in to see this upon entering the house. Behold, Cody’s Bear

 

Wo unto those who do not deal justly with the bear, for they will feel the wrath of Craig’s African Animal!

I actually really like the house. :) It was a little “Lions, and Tigers, and Bears. Oh my!” in the beginning, but the longer I was there, the more I loved it. I’m funny that way. Anyway, so we stayed there a couple days. I learned to play a marvelous game called Wizard and I ate some amazing salmon. So we woke up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed (around 8) on Tuesday.   Here’s Jakey driving.

 

Here he is telling me it’s not a good idea to put a camera in front of him while he’s driving…I concur.

And after three and a half (to four) grueling hours (just kidding, we actually had a lot of fun) we arrived in Post Falls, ID. Poor jakey. hahaha. :)

 

Hello Antelope with whom I am very well acquainted. Yes, this is how I knew Grandpa P and Jakey would get along quite nicely.

 

Jake found the old Nintendo, he loves DuckHunt…

He did very well…

He got a picture of me looking outside. Right out our window, you could see the horses; my grandpa lets the horses out into the backyard when ever he feels like mowing the lawn. haha…

 

While we were in Pendleton, we went to this old toy/fudge shop. we bought some peanut butter and some mint chocolate fudge….it’s pretty fantastic stuff, anyway so we were eating some while were doing a Star Wars puzzle. Here we’ve finished the puzzle and Jake is getting some fudge.

The second day with Grandpa Palmer, we drove out to some place. anyway, it was really cool. It was a memorial for all the Native Americans from the area who had given their lives in WWI, and WWII and Vietnam and I think there was one other war or battle, and anyway this was made in memory of them. it says “Warriors and Veterans of the Coeur D’Alene Tribe”

 

Then we got back on the road, we headed to Jake’s Grandma Hibbert’s house. It was a ‘buggy’ drive. :) (that is to say our windshield was pretty nasty after the drive)

 

But it is very beautiful drive.

We had to get some gas on the drive…pretty crazy huh?

 

Here’s our travel necessities, Mediator, Camera, Porkchop, and snacks! (Porkchop is my bear)

Some pretty flowers…

  

Meet Jack the Cat …and

 

…and Jake, the Cat

And this is what happens when you put two cats and my lovely husband who doesn’t want to step on them, in the same room. poor kid

 

We spent some driving time blotting blood.

Big Strong Man. :)

some fun shots