Alex had to celebrate his birthday without me this year. I headed to TX to celebrate my mom's 70th birthday. The young women put a bunch of heart notes on Alex's door at church. Owen made dinner and Savannah made cake, cookies, and a photo collage. I had bought him a few clothes and chocolate.
Audrey picked me up at the airport and then we headed to my parents' house to surprise them. They didn't know I was coming, so it was fun to just show up at the door. They were getting ready to eat dinner, so I got to join them. We hung out at Audrey's later that evening. She made plaid sugar cookies as Little Debbie treats for Mom's birthday. Audrey did a fun AI Little Debbie label with a picture of Mom as a little girl. That worked perfect to decorate the cookie boxes.
I helped do some party prep on Sunday morning and afternoon. Audrey did all the planning and most of the work of putting the party together. Sam made steak and coconut shrimp for dinner. We had key lime pie, sugar cookies, and 7-Up floats for dessert. Ashley, Daniel, and their kids came over for dinner too, along with Audrey's family, Mom, and Dad. Audrey also planned a "drive-in movie" in their living room on a projected screen, where we watched Robinhood (with Kevin Costner) since it's one of my mom's favorite movies. We also watched a video I put together of Mom's 70 years. It's too long to post as one here, so I divided it in 3 videos.
On Monday (Labor Day), the girls went and did a craft activity, bedazzling pictures of Mom. We added glitter, buttons, and little things to add bling to pictures. We met up with the guys for lunch at a Mexican restaurant.
On Tuesday, those not working (Mom, Dad, Audrey, and me) went to the temple to do sealings. We met up with Ashley for dinner. It was nice to see and hang out with family.
I headed out on Wednesday morning. I had connecting flights through Dallas and Phoenix to get home. When I got to Dallas, I thought it was going to be a tight connection because I only had 45 minutes. It turns out the flight was delayed. About an hour later, we boarded the plane and prepared to head out. I still had an hour for my connection in Phoenix, so I wasn't too worried. However... right before we were taking off, they announced that the airport and all flights had been shut down due to President Trump arriving at the Dallas airport. We sat there on the plane for another hour... I missed my connection in Phoenix. It appeared that no other flights would make it home for me that night. They were able to find one flight on a different airline that went through another city. I did make it home a little after 11:30pm, adding a 4th flight to my day. (I was supposed to arrive home about 4.5 hours earlier, but I was just glad I didn't have to stay in Phoenix overnight).
Alex was out of town for my birthday, so we both missed each other's birthdays this year. Owen made breakfast and dinner (German pancakes, BLT's and sweet potato fries) and Savannah made a lemon cake with vanilla frosting and strawberry sauce. Everything was so good! I went out for a birthday lunch with a few friends a week earlier (when Kirsten could join us before her upcoming surgery). It was nice of them to think of me.
I got some flowers and gifts from friends and family. Savannah made a nice card and made a photo collage for me. Alex had bought a new running hat for me. The funny thing about this birthday was Alex tried to have something delivered to me as well. The main part of the order was flowers and chocolate, and then he added a couple random things to the order (pineapple and tuna fish) to meet some minimum requirement. The only thing they didn't deliver was the flowers! Apparently they didn't have any flowers?? The dude that delivered sent a message to Alex saying, "Bro, they didn't have flowers.'' We laughed about me getting tuna fish for my birthday.
