Birthweek

Birthdays were a big deal in our family-- such a big deal that celebrations usually lasted a few days with treats at school, "friend" parties, "family" parties, singing in Primary on Sunday, etc. And all this caused my dad to mockingly refer to the festivities as "birthweek."

So guess whose birthweek it was last week? BOWMAN! Like a true member of the family his celebrations lasted much longer than a day.

On his actual birthday we started with a specially requested breakfast: smoothie, toast, and farina a.k.a. Cream of Wheat a.k.a. the stuff I have never voluntarily eaten in my life, haha. But he was the birthday boy, so I obliged and it turns out it's actually pretty good with enough sugar and salt. Rayna loved it too! He got great presents from his lovely wife, including new pants, new slippers, and a scripture case. Rayna gave him a package of dried squid jerky. Delish! She is so sweet.

That night Rayna got to play with my grandpa while we went to a mystery dinner show. It was fun, plus we solved the mystery, plus Bowman won the prize drawing! So all in all, a great birthday. I'm sad that we didn't take pictures!

But hope for pictures wasn't lost because that was only the first day! The next day we went fishing up at Deer Creek Reservoir with Hyrum and Meagan. No luck with the whole catching fish thing, but we had a good time and Rayna loved being in the great outdoors getting carried around in her little backpack! Sadly... no pictures of this either. :(

But we made it back in time for Hyrum's surprise birthday party in the park (his birthday is the day after Bowman's) where Bowman's name got thrown into the birthday song, for good measure. :)



Hyrum blowing out the candles



Leslie

Morgan and more friends

Dan the man

On Monday we finally accomplished one of our long-standing goals: we hiked the Y! I'm not sure why we went for 4 years of being students without doing this. We put Ray in the pack again (she was in heaven) and went to the top! Up close the mountain doesn't look very impressive or steep, but once you start on the hike you take those words back. I was huffing and puffing but it's pretty short, so not a bad hike.

She was soo happy to be in the great outdoors, snacking on tuna sandwiches with us

I thought Provo looked so beautiful from up there. And Utah Lake is impressive!

Happily riding along until....

...she was overcome by sleep. Haha!

See what I mean about not being so impressive up close?

We came home to have family home evening and finally.... the birthday cake!!! A delicious cake with matches for candles. Bowman always asks for this same cake for his birthday. I'm not complaining, it's delicious.

Mandarin Orange Jello Cake (also called Trifle Cake)

1 white cake (9x13)

3 small boxes of jello (we used orange)

1 to 1 1/2 containers of cool whip

2 small cans of mandarin oranges

1 small box of instant vanilla pudding

Bake the cake and let it cool. Mix the jello with water according to the box directions (I use slightly less water than it says). Poke all over the top of the cake with a fork and pour the jello over the whole thing. Refrigerate for a few hours. Mix the cool whip, oranges, and dry pudding powder together (add more or less pudding to your taste). Spread over the top of the cake and refrigerate for a few more hours until it's completely set up. Store it in the fridge. Yum! This is so cool and refreshing to eat, and around our house it isn't surprising if pieces mysteriously go missing sometime between the hours of 11 pm and 8 am.



All in all a good birthday I think!