This one had a birthday Monday.  (36 )

We celebrated by both getting sick because – WOO! Best way to spend a birthday EVER!  Nathan isn’t into birthdays that much, which is kind of too bad for him because *I* AM big into celebrating just about anything, and since we have little kids – HE GETS A PARTY, SO THERE.  The children were distressed that the “party” meant having a day with the family out of the house, because how can you have NO friends come over to your house on your birthday? Is Dad crazy? (Yes, apparently.)

The morning started with me slowly getting out of bed and trying my hardest to suck it up and bake without infusing the food with leftover germs.  I had been really sick the day before. Nathan woke up Monday feeling queasy, pretty gross.  He went back to sleep from 9-12, and when he woke up, this was in the fridge:

a cake I was pretty sure no one in the house would be touching that day.  (EDIT: Cake Recipe HERE and it is EASY, I promise.  It is INSANELY good.  Out of this world.  To Die For. )  As it turned out, Nathan had a teeny slice late that night, and we did sparklers in place of candles, singing and the whole whoo-ha the next day.  Anyway, after Nathan woke up he felt tons better and we went to Boondocks.  To spend the 6 month old gift card the kids bought him from Costco for Christmas.

There was squirt boating, go-karting, kiddy coving and lots of video gaming.

Then, we decided we were feeling decent enough to take a drive, and wound up at the Kennecott Copper Mine.  My mom has been trying to get me to take the boys there since we moved here since “it’s neat!” and “you can see inside the big hole!”  I haven’t gone because “looking inside a big hole” isn’t on the top of my bucket list.  Really? A hole? Whoop.

Well, it was neat-o.  The dump trucks there are 2 1/2 stories tall.  Unbelievable.

The drivers have to climb 2 huge ladders to get into the drivers seat.  We were “lucky” to see one of their explosions, which was really quite underwhelming, most likely because it was so far away.  The pictures I took of the blast turned out pretty fun, though (first one here, then go back for the next 3).  The best thing about this little trip was the timing – my mom is on vacation right now, and when she gets back and hears we went, we’ll be on vacation for almost 2 weeks, which will give her plenty of a cushion to forget to call and gloat with the “I told you so.”

**Look, Mom! We went to the Big Hole!**

After visiting the Big Hole/Copper Mine, we slowly made our way to dinner, where the server was nice but we still had to wait 3 years for food (really, the people who ordered awhile after us were getting their to-go boxes before our food came out). Really, no amount of free fries for the kids make up for waiting that long for dinner to come out at Red Robin, but thanks anyway.

We passed the time by reuniting Ainsley with her mohawk.

Then we came home, the kids threw tantrums (hello, long day with tired kids!) and went to bed and Nathan and I Wii’d for a bit.

Good birthday?

You bet.