Brian's birthday

By some miracle, we weren't sick on Brian's birthday. We had a one day reprieve before everybody had a violent, pernicious stomach flu and Xiana had a long long long fever. But, we were spared on Tuesday which was wonderful. Ekco would throw up later that night, but the day was puke-free.

Brian typically goes hunting on his birthday so I had arranged for a sitter so that we could go bird hunting together, but he didn't want to leave the kids and instead opted to go out for a drive in the hills and shoot guns a bit.  We had lunch and then made it out in the mountains just in time for Kolton to have a blow out.  Unfortunately, he had thrown up on his spare outfit the night before and I had forgotten to replace it so, our trip was cut a little short.

For some reason Ekco has been afraid to drive up hills as of late so Brian had a wonderful solution... the girls walked up the steep hills.

It was an added bonus that they got some exercise.  We got stuck a little later.  Brian is pretty amazing at getting vehicles un-stuck (well, and stuck to begin with).  He got us out after about 30 minutes and we headed home. 

I made seafood pan roast for dinner and then we had cake. 

It's hard to believe another year has passed and Brian is now in his mid-30's.  It feels like a dream, this thing called life.  Like a fleeting moment in time that can scarcely be captured even in photographs.  The end of 2011 (and all years) leads to reflection and consideration of the previous year.  Brian and I talked about our best and worst of 2011.  All in all, I'd say we were pretty blessed.  I saw a lot of people posting about how glad they were to be done with last year.  I'm glad only in the sense that I welcome a new year, but 2011 was a pretty good shot for us.  And our sweet baby boy.  Happy birthday Brian!