My Birthday

 We were awoken in the middle of the night to a thunderstorm.  Thunderstorms usually don't wake me up, so it was obviously a pretty big one.  My first thought was that the balloon fest would be cancelled and all of our other activities for the day wouldn't pan out because they involved being outside.  Well, when I woke up in the morning, much to my surprise, one would never have known there had been a big storm during the night! We took our chances and drove to Provo for the Balloon Fest.  I was a little worried about it having been a late night for the kids the previous night, and then now an early morning, but I was so glad we went.  What an amazing sight to look out onto a field and see 20+ hot air balloons.  We missed them being inflated in favor of more sleep, but we were able to see most of them launch.  The kids were given a couple of frisbees, so we stayed after a little enjoying the sight in the sky and tossing the frisbees around.  We then went to breakfast at Kneaders with Jamie & Jeff and girls, and Uncle Roland.  We split up for a little bit to come back home and have naps/quiet time.  Cassidy and Gavin napped while Parker and Riley watched a movie and I cleaned.  We then had everyone over for lunch.  After lunch, Cassidy and the kids gave me their present they had been working on.  They had put together a 15 minute video filled with pictures from when Cassidy and I started dating to present, ending with clips of videos from family members saying what they loved about me.  Needless to say, I was crying throughout most of it, and couldn't believe they had done this for me.  Definitely my favorite, most cherished present. Pictures make me so happy! I had really wanted to go to sliding rock on my birthday, but it was getting kind of late, and we had 6 kids with us, including 2 babies, so we thought it might not be the best activity.  I definitely still want to go there before we leave Utah, though!  We decided to go to Trafalga instead and play some Laser Tag. (along with everyone else in Utah County) It was so packed! Luckily, we were able to get 2 games in, but not much else.  We were going to go up the canyon for s'mores, but it started raining when we were leaving Trafalga and we also needed to get Gavin home because he wasn't feeling well.  So, we had cereal for dinner, and ice cream for dessert.  After we put the kids to bed,  we watched "Safe Haven" and then had a visit from our friends, the Gregory's.  A very good birthday!