Birfday Weekend!

I had such a fun Birthday this year! Usually I wake up and expect birthdays to be like they were when I was growing up... tons of presents, new clothes, get to skip school to go shopping... all that. And obviously they aren't anymore, but this year was pretty dang close. First I gotta say, my last few Birthday's haven't been the best. Just random little things put a huge damper on it. And last year a huge thing put a huge damper on it, but luckily we can all laugh about what happened now. Even Brian. Anyways so this year Brian made up for the past few years- big time.
First, the night before the big 23, my parents ordered the biggest pizza I have ever seen from The Pie. You might not be able to tell in these pics, but it was HUGE. The box was like 2x2feet. Crazy huge. And sooo amazing.


They gave me some good shopping money too!

The next morning I woke up to the kitchen decorated like this:

He even bought party favors, mostly for Avery to play with. Candy necklaces and those birthday blower things. Avery was so excited. Look at her face in that picture.
Bri made cinnamon rolls for breakfast for me since he had work pretty early...

These cute little faces made my birthday so special all on their own:


Then Brian went to work and my family went to the cabin, so I spent the day just kinda hanging out. Brian called me in the afternoon and say he couldn't get me what I wanted for my birthday (an iphone or mytouch3g), because he ran into a problem. So I was so bummed. I seriously acted like a child and sulked for the more part of the afternoon. Then he called and said he was going to grab something for us for dinner and he'd be home in 45 minutes. About 15 minutes later he came around back (he always comes in that door) and gave me a hug and said he was so sorry he couldn't get me a phone. He's so sweet! Then when I was walking away he opened the back porch and had some presents and dinner waiting for me on the steps. (the back steps have always kinda been his place for cute stuff like that. Whenever he surprises me with flowers, or when we were dating or I get mad at him, and he does something sweet to make it up to me- he puts little things there for me. It's really sweet. I think it started Valentine's Day when we were first dating and he might have been embarrassed to have my family see him with gifts/flowers or something so he snuck around back and put them there, then came through the front door with nothing... anyways) He said "sorry, these are kinda lame but I did my best." He got me some gift cards and then last but not least when I opened it up there was an iphone in the last box. I was so confused. I thought he was playing a mean trick and it was empty. But it was an iphone, and I loved it.

(yes my shirt is tucked in. But I have good reason... I was jumping up and down in a picture and didn't want my shirt to lift up. And No I will never post the jumping up and down pictures as long as I live.)
The moral of the story isn't that it was the GIFTS that made me quit sulking, it was the fact that he made it special and memorable, and I just love him for it. It truly is the thought that counts. And Brian is the most considerate person in the world. He just said I better not neglect the kids while playing on my phone.
Thanks Brian, my parents, and Brian's parents for making my birthday so special! Love you guys!

Then....
We went and joined my family at the cabin. Kaitlin killed an elk the morning of the hunt and so we headed up there so Brian could help them bring it down.

Not so funny story-
A family friend came by the cabin to help get the elk down and since my dad, sister, and Brian were already hiking up to it I had to drive him to the spot so he could catch up with them. I couldn't find the keys so I just rode with him and was going to take his truck back... Well as soon as we pull up we could hear the air coming out of one of his tires. So we get out and he starts looking for all the equipment to change the tire, and might I add it was FREEZING outside. I guess all his stuff was in the wrong place because it took him about 30 minutes to find the right tools, then after another 30 min he realized he couldn't get it changed because the spare didn't fit. All the while I'm freezing and wondering what my Mom was thinking back at the cabin with my kids. (I told her I'd be back in 5-10 minutes and it had been at least an hour.) Finally he said he was just going to hike up, so I was basically screwed. I grabbed an orange sweatshirt and started running to the cabin, in the freezing cold. bummmmmer. When I was like 100 yards these two girls picked me up and drove me the rest of the way... kinda ridiculous, I wish I would have just finished myself. Anyways, the next morning I was sore. That's sad when 2 miles makes you sore. Guess I better start running again... Anyways that put a damper on the trip a bit.
Here's Brian getting ready to go get the elk. Can anybody tell he's from the city? New Jersey, needless to say he didn't know what he was in for.

Here's my Dad and sister with her elk! I don't hunt, but I guess it's pretty rare to kill something, especially on the first day. Go Kait.:

Oh wow. This picture will haunt you Brian.

The had to cut the elk into fourths and carry down limbs/meat/head/horns down in pieces. sick.
Here's my cute girls:


And on the way home it was SNOWING. Nooo I LOVE the fall, not the winter. I'm not ready for it yet, not one bit. I'll admit, it was really pretty though.