Getty's 14th and Cam's 8th

We found Bugs a few days later bowing his head and kneeling at our scripture wall, so Getty folded his arms proper like :)

Five days later, Cam turned 8! (more on that later) Our friends since college, the Hughes, stayed with us over the weekend and made Cam's birthday "the best Sunday birthday ever!" Parents vs. Kids was a big part of that—freeze tag with all the lights out in the house. The pantry on the main floor and laundry room on the second floor are "safe," but no "puppy guarding"(?) allowed, and once you leave a safe, you can't return to it until you've gone to the other safe. Lots of screaming going on and yelling tips/warnings about each other's locations. The Kids killed it, so Rob made new rules for next time—Rule #1: once a Kid is frozen 3 times, he/she defects to the Parents' team, and Rule #2: a single Kid can win the whole game if he/she gets to safe 5 times in a row without being frozen.

This pic was taken before the war. They look so harmless. They're unbeatable, I tell you.

Since the three boys all have birthdays within days or weeks of each other, we took them all to Lagoon with friends. 


Now we come to the high adrenaline rides. This is Lagoon's description of the Catapult: Catapult riders experience forces similar to astronauts as they are rocketed from ground level to over 200 feet in the air with 40 tons of force. At the highest point, riders become weightless and rotate freely forward and backward before they are pulled back to earth.

Here's my description: We waited for 30 minutes for Lagoon employees to clean up the previous rider's vomit.

Next, the Sky Coaster: In your flight suit, hanging parallel to the ground, you are pulled aloft by a launch cable 143 feet above the ground. Once you pull the rip cord, you freefall head first toward the ground at speeds reaching up to 80 mph. When you reach just six feet from the ground, you swing upwards and then back and forth.

Just chillin' here in this pic, but hanging by a cord at 143 feet, not so much. I've never been so terrified in my life. For real.

Fourteen reasons I love you, Getty:

1. You're a party
2. You care that no one is left out of the fun
3. You often surprise me with your capacity to absorb information and get things done on the fly
4. Your sense of humor is on target
5. You're grateful and appreciative
6. You're kind, even to the 12-year-old girl that texts you 37 times a day
7. You're humble to a fault
8. Your surfer hair and perfect lips are to die for
9. You're a leader and understand the responsibility that goes with it
10. You're creative and initiate most of the activities you and your friends do
11. You keep your room the cleanest of all the kids and mostly do your chores without reminders
12. You strive to improve and hate to disappoint
13. You have a depth of understanding and faith in the gospel
14. You're good to the core

Thank goodness you're ours!