Paul's 11th Birthday

For Paul's Golden Birthday celebration, he decided to go toU-Dig Fossils Delta, Utah (about 3 hours away).  He got to decide if he wanted the entire family to come or just some of us.  He really didn't want to work around Jane's schedule (and tantrums), so he opted to have Daniel stay home with Jane.  I had him make this decision soon after our family trip to the cabin and I am certain that his decision was heavily influenced by Jane's behavior on our trip! 

 

I made reservations at the finest hotel in Delta, (okay, one of the only hotels in the area!) and we left after the boys got home from school on August 10.  Mark had been invited to a birthday party for the next day and he decided to go to the party instead of U-Dig.  I think that he wasn't all too excited about the adventure, and he wanted to go to the water park with his friends.  (Honestly, we were a bit relieved when he decided not to come because it meant that the road trip would be quieter and there wouldn't be much teasing going on!) 

 

The boys haven't been on a road trip for a long time.  It has been years.  They were amazed at how far away we were from home.  They were bored.  They had access to movies, video games, music and my amazing conversation skills, and they were bored!  I had been considering a road trip to California this fall, but that idea was squashed when I realized how difficult the trip was for them (and my tailbone didn't appreciate all of the sitting either).

 

I missed the exit and didn't realize it until 30 minutes later, but thankfully, there was another route that I was right next to when I realized that I had missed the exit.  Phew! 

 

Rural towns are amazing to me.  Having lived in the city, a town that is an hour away from a grocery store just seems unreal.  Paul noticed that things seem more calm and slow- that is one of my favorite things about small towns. 

 

When we checked into our hotel room, my first thought was "What a dump!", but Paul and Seth were amazed and excited with the room (it was a standard 2 queen room at Days Inn).  I would have preferred a star or two above where we were, but like I said, this was Delta's finest! 

Paul got to sleep in the queen bed a by himself! 

Seth and Paul enjoying the "AWESOME" breakfast!

We went swimming in the outdoor pool after we checked in, played Mad Libs, watched some TV (we don't have TV reception at home, so we only watch Hulu, Netflix or YouTube videos, the boys were getting irritated with all of the commercials because they weren't use to such long breaks!) We went to bed and woke up bright and early.  After breakfast, we drove to U-Dig.  It is about 1 hour from our hotel.

We passed 2 cars on our 1 hour drive to U-Dig.  We were in a no-service zone for my cell phone and it was kind of unsettling.  Our van is spoiled and doesn't like to spend the night outside.  It prefers the garage.  Each time we keep it out for the night, the low tire pressure light comes on.  I'm sure that the temperature change is what makes the light go on because I've tested the tires and they have been fine- the light typically turns off within 10-20 minutes of travel.  Well, this time the light went on, the tires seemed okay, but the light didn't turn off.  I'm traveling with no cell phone service and on a vacated road with the fear that something is wrong with my tires.  I was a little bit panicked.  The low tire pressure light was still on when we left U-Dig several hours later.  We passed about 20 cars on the way back to town, but thankfully, I never needed their help.  I kept thinking, "Why won't this damn light turn off?" until it actually did turn off when I restarted the van after getting gasoline. 

At U-Dig, you get to whack open rocks and look for trilobite fossils (follow the link at the top of the page for more details).  We were surrounded by rocks.  It was fun to use the pick to open the rocks.  After about an hour, I was getting a bit bored, but not 5 seconds after I though that, Paul and Seth came running by me thanking me for taking them to U-Dig because it is the most fun place ever!  I guess that to a little boy, having permission to play around on piles and piles of rocks, beat them open with a hammer and actually find little treasures inside is pretty cool! 

Seth and Paul digging for fossils

Me and Seth

Me and Paul

The U-Dig group

Paul taking a break in the shade

After two hours of digging, we called it a day and started our journey home. We had several buckets of rocks with fossils on them.  The boys were happy and excited to go home until I told them that we wouldn't get home for another 3 1/2 hours!

Paul going crazy on the 'long' road trip.  U-Dig is about 10 miles straight down this road. 

 The next day we had our family over for a party.  The weather was beautiful.  It was overcast and not windy!  We had sloppy joes, chips, fruit salad and soda for dinner.  After the dinner we had some games.  In honor of the Olympics, we had a triathlon- shot put, archery and javelin.  We let those who wanted to compete for a grand prize of $11 be in one group and the non-compete group were able to play at their leisure.

Randy, Hailey, LuJane, Denise, Karly (her birthday is the 11th of August, too!)

 

Jane

Jane and Klayre

 

For the Gigantic Shot Put, the rule was that you couldn't kick the ball with your feet. Some contestants got a little bit creative!  This 48" cage ball is a lot of fun to play with!  Ben won this round by over a yard!

Ben, Alys and Chris

For the Rubber Band Archery, they had three targets to try to hit.  The biggest one was worth 1 point, medium was worth 2 points and the small target was worth 3 points.  Cooper won this round because he went for the big target and hit it several times, but those who went for the small target missed. 

Chris, Paul, Ben, Mieren, Mark, Alys, Cooper

The third round was Paper Airplane Javelin.  Each contestant made their own paper airplane and then tried to get theirs to fly the farthest.  Our back yard was covered with paper airplanes- it was cool to see!  Cooper won this round and it was amazing that he did because his first plane flew into the swimming pool, so he had to make a new one right before the competition started!

 

Ron, Tanner, Wendy, Seth, Daniel

Kaitlyn, Kim, Paul, Kevin, Madeleine, Ed, Mieren, Ben, Alys

WooHoo!  Cooper wins the jackpot!

Paul wanted a dirt cake for his party.  When he blew out the candles, the 'dirt' (crushed up Oreos) flew into the air!  He loved the candy rocks and gummy worms!

Jane liked the cake!  This reminds me of a picture of my neice Natalie when she was about this age with red frosting on her face.

Ewww....It tastes like dirt!

Madeleine and I made some individual pinatas out of paper bags.  I wanted everyone who wanted to, to have a chance to break open a pinata, so we made 15 pinatas.  The older kids were able to break them open in one fell swoop. 

Mark getting ready to swing

Paul taking aim

Jane patiently waiting for her turn

Kaitlyn

Chris

Ron

 

 

The following weekend, we had a friend party for Paul.  He invited a few friends over to go swimming.  He wanted to keep this party low-key.  He would have invited more friends over, but he said that he didn't want too many gifts.  I told him that we could request no gifts, but he said that he did want a few, just not a lot!

 

Seth and Tanner

Mitchel and Taylor

Blowing the candles out on his cinnamon roll cake

Cody, Paul, Taylor, Mitchel

Mitchel, Jane, Seth, Tanner, Cody

Dustin and Mark

 We had a great time partying with Paul.  He is a great kid to be around.  I'm glad that we were able to make some fun memories while celebrating his Golden Birthday.  I think that he is worth all of the work that went into the celebrations!  Happy 11th birthday Paul!