The boys decided that Daddy needed a Star Wars-themed birthday. They dubbed Chris the "Birthday Jedi Knight."
They went above and beyond with their decorating this year. Black "webbing" streamers designed by Matthew and glow-in-the-dark balloons from Caleb made the perfect place to celebrate Jedi Knight Daddy's b-day. Chris said it was his favorite birthday set-up to date.
The boys gave Daddy some gloves and jogging pants (or "sweating pants" as Matthew called them) so he wouldn't get cold when he jogged over lunch.
And Chris and I took a night off.
We ate fancy food., slept in at the hotel...till 7:30 a.m. *pathetic!*, and did a session at the Salt Lake Temple.
We reminisced over the night we got married, tried to find the couch we sat on in the Celestial room and marveled at how beautiful it is there. We talked about how the restaurant (Christopher's) had changed locations since we'd last visited (almost 10 years ago) and how the ambiance was totally different.
We noticed how the hotel looked just the same-- it even snowed the same way, covering the tree branches and sleepy Avenue streets.
Mostly we remembered how much we enjoyed being US. It feels totally different from being MOM AND DAD.
It's so easy to be nice.
We weren't woken up repeatedly by a screaming baby or someone's bad dreams. I didn't have to get anyone to school on time, or find missing shoes, or pull a child out of the toilet paper display at the supermarket.
No one complained about doing homework or how their brother didn't let them have the blue cereal bowl. We didn't have to stop a wrestling match that was getting out of hand or convince someone to eat food that they didn't want to eat because it wasn't cut it the right way.
And we didn't have to use the phrase "Don't touch that! Look with your eyes." Which is the silliest phrase known to parent-kind, because OF COURSE they ARE going to touch that! AND the thing next to it!
It was our first night away from the kids since....well, since we had kids; almost 5 1/2 years ago. We came home feeling refreshed and relaxed.
And ready to be US and MOM and DAD again.
Happy Birthday, Christopher. You're Everything to us.
How appropriate to always have your birthday on or near Thanksgiving.
1 comment:
Happy Birthday Chris! We all give thanks and celebrate you every November! :-) I loved that you were able to have a getaway. The pictures were beautiful (and fun) of the both of you. You've gotta frame those!
Post a Comment