Birthday and a Blessing

On my birthday we walked up to Bridal Veil Falls.  (Grandpa stayed in the car and watched Karina who had fallen asleep on the way up.  But don’t feel bad for him.  He had a book he wanted to finish and someone had to stay.  Spencer almost stayed too, but he woke up just as we were leaving the car to start hiking.)Since we didn’t have two strollers we packed both babies into mine and boy were they cute.  The people who passed on the trial thought they were twins and it was just easier to smile and nod than explain.Here’s half way up to the falls.  We were the stragglers of the group.Before we came home Jessie, Mark, Abbie, Becca and Conrad had all climbed up to the falls, half of them up the mountain side and the others straight up the falls.  Conrad thought it was pretty cool.Becca, Mark and Abbie are the little pink dot in this picture right above her name.And here’s Jessie with her extremely small “walking” stick.  She is just too funny.  Conrad was up here with her, but he’s behind the tree tops, so he didn’t make it in this picture.Here’s the snapdragon Conrad brought back from the falls for is mom…what a sweet boy.Spencer loved watching the rocks make big splashes as he threw them in the pond at the bottom of the falls.  He had asked if it was ok to throw rocks and I told him it was fine as long as he was careful and made sure no one was where he was throwing.  I thought he was being very responsible, but some other mom didn’t appreciate him and told him to stop.  Poor guy had to consol himself.Here are a few picture from the walk back down.

Ken totally surprised me with a birthday get-together after the hike.  It was so much fun to be with everyone.  Thank you for coming.  It’s the first surprise party I've ever had.  For my birthday this year I asked for single plates so I could have all mismatch ones.  My cousin gave me the idea and I just love it.  Now at dinner time you never know what you’re going to get to eat off of and it’s just so much fun.  The kids favorite plate is the shell one, and Ken really likes the square ones and I….well, I LOVE all of them!Neil’s blessing was on Sunday.  Thank you to all the family who came.  We love you!I guess red and yellow were the colors of the day.  Isn’t that funny.  Heather helped us take a few pictures of Ken and Neil and me.  Thanks Heather!  (Man, I am so short!)