Paul's Birthday

Paul had a fun but low-key birthday weekend.  We really did most of the celebrating on Saturday, which was actually the day before his birthday, but he didn't seem to mind.  He got to sleep in on Saturday until Clara just couldn't wait any longer to play with him and I let her get up on the bed to wake him up by chirping "happy birthday daddy" (I got her saying it on Instagram video but that isn't uploading to my computer very well so I might have to try again). 

 

We went to Stacks for breakfast and got our favorite banana pecan waffles (divine), then we headed to Happy Hollow since Paul has never been there with me and Clara.  It was fun seeing all the dads there since normally during the week it is just moms and little kids.

 

I think Clara had fun showing daddy her favorite places to play.  He took her all over the giant play structure and followed her down the slides and across the cargo nets. 

Clara especially liked watching for daddy to come out of the slides at the bottom.

We went to the petting zoo and fed the goats and looked at the sheep and miniature horses, then we went to the regular zoo area to see the capybaras and lemurs and jaguar.

There are stiff bristle brushes for brushing the goats, which is what Clara likes to do.  This tiny black and white goat was just her size.  There are a couple of bigger ones that are more pushy and won't stand still for a little girl.

Then it was home for naps for both Clara and Paul.  We spent Saturday afternoon back at the pool so that Paul could see firsthand how well Clara is swimming.  That was fun except Clara must not have taken a long enough nap because she was throwing quite a little tantrum for a bit because we were apparently helping her too much. 

For dinner, Paul requested Outback so we went and had delicious ribs and salmon.  Clara must have been famished (it has got to be the swimming that is making her so hungry these days) because she ate half a chicken breast (we ordered her a separate meal since her appetite has been much larger lately), a full serving of broccoli, a loaf of the outback brown bread, half of an adult portion of salmon, a bite or two of bbq baby back ribs, about 1/4 of my dinner salad, and part of the brownie sundae that we got for free since our order got lost by the kitchen and we ended up waiting for a really long time to get our meals. 

After Clara went to bed Paul and I watched a really cool movie that his co-worker had recommended called "Searching for Sugar Man".  It is really a documentary, not so much movie, about a guy from Detroit who in 1970 made a record album that totally flopped in the U.S. but somehow a copy made it to South Africa and got bootlegged and basically he became hugely famous there (like more famous than Elvis or the Beatles, at least for South Africans).  But nobody in South Africa knew anything about him and somehow a rumor started that he had committed suicide on stage, etc.  Anyway, in the late 90's some reporter tried to track down the true story of what happened to him and lo and behold eventually found out that he was alive and living in Detroit working construction.  It was a cool movie with good music and we totally recommend it.  You can still find it at Redbox.  

Sunday was more laid back - I made cinnamon rolls for breakfast for Paul, we had stake conference, we went for a walk and played with Clara, he opened birthday cards, and I made grilled chicken for dinner followed by raspberry dessert (Paul's traditional birthday dessert that I make for him every year). 

Clara and I sure love our handsome fella!  Happy birthday, Paul!