You've had a birthday, shout hooray!

Darik celebrated his 9th birthday on January 13th. On the 12th we went out to eat at Texas Roadhouse. The food was great but the service kind of stunk unfortunately. We had told our server it was Darik's birthday but he never showed up with the saddle and by the time he finally brought the check we were more than ready to leave so we have no pictures of that event. It was a good dinner but wasn't the same with Rachel and Nathan missing. (Here is a picture of a car we were behind as we left the restaurant.)

Look at those hubcaps! We've never seen anything like it before. But we've seen it a few more times since. Not sure what the purpose is but they are rather intriguing.

On Sunday the 13th we celebrated after church with cupcakes, singing to Darik a very happy birthday. I remembered to buy candles, forgot to buy matches. Fortunately(?) several of the hotel employees smoke and when I asked for a lighter they were happy to oblige. He had been sung to at church also and got a little treat from the primary presidency.

Darik got birthday cards and money from his grandparents and a new DS game from us. It was good birthday for him. (In a very low-key way.)

Now, I forgot to add these pictures for the previous post so I'll add them here. On the day we went to pick up Rachel and Nathan we took a few pictures.

See, no worse for the wear.

On the Monday of Martin Luther King, Jr. day I took the kids to see Galveston Island. Jason had to work and it was about 70 degrees out so I took them to see the beach!
They had a blast! They were so sandy and happy. We went back to the hotel and took showers and cleaned up and then celebrated Darik's birthday again, as a whole family.

This is an ice cream cake.

No presents this time but the whole family was together, yeah!!!