Streamers and Presents start Birthdays at the Soulier's house!
Rob has been an omelet lover lately, so he got an extra special Birthday one.
Feeding people is how I say, "I love you."
I love Rob most, so he gets a lot of food made just the way he likes it.
We had fun surprising Rob with, "35 Things We Love About You!!" hanging from the ceiling. It was a good thing there was a Priesthood meeting the night before, it gave us the chance to hang it all up and decorate. He came home after kids were in bed and lights were out, so he really was surprised! :)
The kids and I had fun typing them up.
The kids also made him super, cute cards. I need to get in the habit of taking pictures of things like that.
(Sh...Don't tell, there ended up being more than 35 because we couldn't stop!
There's just too many things to love!)
Some of our fav's were:
Our hardworking hero, fun to play catch with (Trevor), really funny impersonations and pulls great faces, best mac and cheese maker (Ellie), His killer 3 point shot, fun to make memories with, he wrestles me (Sterling), Doing scouts with me (Ryan), knowledge and love of the scriptures, his whistle, his love of nature, best road trip driver, the way he provides, protects and presides in our home as a worthy Priesthood holder, dependable best friend and great conversationalist (Lolly) etc. etc.
Present time!
The best present EVER came just the Saturday before Rob's birthday when he found out that he had PASSED ALL OF HIS BOARD EXAMS!!!
He is so relieved and thrilled!
Now that he won't have to spend as much time outside of work studying, we got him some gifts that will help him enjoy some more hobby time;
piano music, tickets to the BYU game at Cal for the whole family, a coupon for new BYU fan clothes to wear to the game (I didn't want to try to pick them out, but I printed up some pretty sweet pictures of ideas for him on the coupon ;), and two book series, The Work and the Glory and The Children of the Promise to read with the family on Sundays.
Sterling had a wrapped a gift himself in a cardboard tube.
I love it when they give gifts of their own creation.
Gratefully, Rob was able to take the day off work so we had the day to spend together. We decided to head up and hike under Forest Hill Bridge, looking for Lake Clementine (we tried once but didn't find the short hike to it we read about).
It was a beautiful day! We got out before it was too hot.
We planned a day of some of Rob's favorite activities: hiking and rock skipping was first on the list. His champion rock skipping ability was one of the reasons we love him.
We thought Lake Clementine would be a great place for skipping so we set out to find it.
After passing under the Bridge we found such a cool spot!
The water was perfectly clear when we got there, reflecting the scenery, and calling Rob's name for skipping rocks.
It wasn't Lake Clementine, but it was perfect!
Ryan found a bunch of frogs in the water and had fun catching them. We even found some that still had tails, transitioning from tadpoles. Super cool!
The Birthday man. 35 and time to thrive!
Cuties.
We have since named this spot, "Frog Cove."
This is, "Rock skipping point."
This is now on our list of Soulier family secret places. :)
Trevor loves to practice skipping rocks with his Dad. He has such a good arm, it's fun to watch.
Boys+sticks+rocks+sand+water+frogs+mud+wilderness=carefree happiness.
It was such a pleasant hike! We counted down to the minute he turned 35. :)
More love served with lunch. Grilled Focaccia sandwiches and salad.
After lunch we all took some quiet time (a standard post lunch ritual at our house), and then we watched a great movie, "The Ultimate Life" and popped kettle corn.
After dinner and family night we had ice-cream cake by Rob's request.
Happy 35th to my one and only honey babe, Rob!
I hope all your birthday wishes come true ten times over.
