January Birthdays

When your first born turns 17!

It's a tradition to do favorites for breakfast on birthday mornings.  

Ethan's is bacon.  And he likes waffles.

That night we headed to his favorite Texas Roadhouse for dinner.

While there eating his steak, the servers sang to him.  After the song was over the family on the other side of the wall stood up and it was one of his buddies.  His friend Adam has the same birthday as him and they were there celebrating as well.  This was a lucky snapshot of Ethan's happy surprised look.

Chocolate Lasagna has become a favorite for the birthday dessert around here.

Ethan has grown into such an amazing young man.  He's kind, caring, and so incredibly thoughtful of others.  He's the kid who will be your friend when someone else won't.  He's not interested in being the center of attention, but likes to participate in the fun.  He's intelligent, hard working and responsible.  He makes being a parent seem easy and always has.

Although I just want to hold on to him and keep him with me forever, I know he has such a bright future ahead of him and he'll accomplish so much.

Here are the current (several months late) stats on Ethan:

FAVORITE FOOD: steak

FAVORITE BOOK: (shoulder shrug) scriptures with a sly smile, "I don't know"

FAVORITE MOVIES: Tenet, 1917 is good too

FAVORITE TV/SERIES: "there's a lot.  just say Parks-n-Rec"

FAVORITE SONGS: "I don't know.  That changes all of the time."

FAVORITE TOY: "I guess the switch, that's a toy"

FAVORITE ACTIVITIES: "hanging out with friends"

WHAT ARE YOU REALL GOOD AT? "mmm, running"

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP? "medical field or architect"

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE MEMORY FROM THE PAST YEAR? "2020 sucked, the coast  (Oregon) was cool"

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ANIMAL? "mmm, dog.  Not small rat dogs thought"

Ethan was treated with some of his favorite things for his birthday.

Hi-chews

and a bucket of movie theater popcorn with a pass for popcorn all year.  

No Disney birthday celebrations this year, so we headed to another magical place, the Midway Ice Castles.  I'd always wanted to visit this place.  We drove up one day, ate some yummy Mexican food at a restaurant we visited one time when heading to the Polar Express in Heber, then headed over to the lit up Ice Castle.  It was magical and somewhat cold.  It was super cool (pun intended) and a fun experience.

Yes, he is holding her hand down this ice slide.  

Cooper got to tag along for the fun.  He had to wait in the car while we were in the castle, but he got to get out and see some of the pretty lights of the parking area.  He was happy to be with his people.

Grown up birthday party.

Early morning run in the freezing cold.  It was several days after my birthday because I had the first dose of COVID vaccine and had some lousy side effects that had me down a day or so.