Monday, January 7, 2008

Happy Birthday Chris!!!

HAPPY BIIRTHDAY TO CHRIS!!! Today Chris has reached the ripe old age of 35. Kaylee has been pointing out how close to 35 Chris was for about the last eight months, mostly to get a reaction out of him. I think it’s kind of funny so maybe I’ll have her mention how close he is to being 40 when she sees him tonight.

As part of Chris’s birthday celebration he wanted to go up to Mt. Charleston to play in the snow. This meant a week of trying to find any sort of snow gear for our family without spending too much. This is not an easy task in a place where there is barely a winter at all. My boys didn’t even have coats, they’ve been wearing fleece jackets all winter, and that has kept them plenty warm. After scouring the Goodwill and the second hand stores in our area, I had to finally surrender and buy some things at Burlington Coat Factory. It wasn’t too bad, and I bought bigger sizes so the kids can wear all of their snow gear for a couple of more seasons. The night before we were supposed to go there was a huge winter storm, and cars weren’t going to be allowed to come up to the mountain without snow chains or tires. As we are used to desert life, we had neither one of these things. I was ready to give up the trip, and I almost had Chris convinced that we couldn’t go. Then he and my brother teamed up on me, and the two of them ended up convincing me to go. After a mad scramble to find the right kind of snow chains and getting everything else packed up, we were finally on our way, and only an hour after our original plan time. When we got there the road we went up on was fine, and we didn’t even need to use the chains. We do feel prepared if there is ever a sudden blizzard in Las Vegas. We sorely underestimated the amount of time it would take to get eight kids (mine and my brothers four) all geared up to even play in the snow. After about a half hour every one was finally bundled and ready to go. I know there are those of you who get to see their kids in snow clothes all the time, but it doesn’t happen for me very often, and they all looked so dang cute. By the time we finally started playing there was only about an hour and a half be fore it started getting dark. It did seem like a lot of effort for so little time, but I think all of the kids were pretty done when we left. It was fun, and now that we are prepared, we will probably go a few more times before the snow melts.

Tonight we are going to dinner at the Claim Jumper. Chris has decided that is our tradition for his birthday, even though he doesn’t particularly care for it. I told him that it is his birthday and we can go somewhere else, but he wants to stick to tradition. I can’t explain his logic; I can only love him in spite of it.

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