The Papaaaa... THE PAPA!!

My dad's birthday was April 3rd, and it was big fun. We all went to Smitty's for dinner, and then to Mom and Dad's for cake and ice cream.

Smitty's is soooo good. Just when I thought I knew everything there is to know about my family, while we were eating, Dad asked Nat and I what we got. We both responded, "Eggs Benedict." Dad said, "I knew that's what you both would get!" 1) I didn't know that Eggs Benny was also Nat's favorite breakfast!! And 2) I didn't know that Dad knew that Eggs Benny was both Nat's and my favorite breakfast. Dad always surprises me with the things he observes about us. Here's the birthday boy at Smitty's with Mom:

Did you notice all of the old people in the restaurant in the background? Smitty's has been an Idaho Falls staple for years and years. When Dad's siblings come back to town to visit, they always have to go to Smitty's. Whenever I go there, it's filled with old folks.

Anyways, like I said, after Smitty's, we went to Mom and Dad's for cake and ice cream. My uncle started this tradition a long time ago of having a candle-blowing contest - you have to be a certain number of paces away from the cake, and you have to try to blow the candles out from that far distance. It's pretty hard. Here's Dad:

Um, it didn't really work out this year. Dad used to be a champion at it, but he couldn't do it from far away this time. Neither could Ben:

Or Pete:

Nat, Mom, and I didn't even attempt it. The kids tried, but obviously couldn't do it:

So... maybe that tradition is now dead? We'll see.


My mom is planning a fifties party for her ward this Friday, and the kids spotted her hula hoops in her back room - she's going to have a hula hoop contest, a bubble-blowing contest, etc. for this party. So the kids (and Nat and me) decided to test her new hula hoops out. I've NEVER been able to hula, but I actually did it this time! Here's a video of Nat and Dylan hula-ing:

Dylan told us that he learned to hula-hoop during P.E. days on Thursdays. Weird! He also told us that they do old Mousercize videos, that old exercise show they used to have on the Disney Channel during the eighties. So weird. Whatever happened to playing kickball, or basketball? Mousercize???

And a slide show of Dad's birthday extravaganza, if you are interested:

Dad, I love you tons! You are such a generous, loving person. Thanks for all you have done for me. And thanks for always being a person to whom I can go to for sound advice.

Oh. And some updates as of today: Ben and Micah got the flu yesterday. I'm letting Micah sleep in this morning, but part of me is wondering if I should check on him... Ben had it all day long, but was able to sleep through the night. He felt good enough to go to work today. Dylan is completely better, so he'll be heading out to school today. Sadie went to school for the first time today. Micah had a big blowout in his diaper yesterday, but besides that, and sleeping an awful lot, he seems to be doing okay. I'm worried about him. Gonna check on him as soon as I'm done here.

And another update - this morning, I opened a chocolate Slim Fast, chugged like five gulps, and realized that it tasted like coffee. Well, it tastes how I imagine coffee tastes, because I've honestly never drunk coffee. So I look at the can, and Ben had bought Cappucino-flavored Slim Fast, thinking it was chocolate. Ewwww! It's so gross, you guys! I still have the nasty aftertaste, even after brushing my teeth and downing a bunch of apple juice! We have eight cans of this stuff, which is worth like eight dollars, but I don't think I can bring myself to drink the rest of it. Maybe Ben can gulp it down and not make it a total waste of money. Ben has lost 20 pounds on Slim Fast in about three months, and I've lost 5 in about a week and a half. Not bad! I was hoping my bout with the flu would lose me another few pounds, but alas, no.