Happy Birthday!

So, Ryan and I recently had birthdays (we were born a couple days apart, so we usually just celebrate the entire week.) Anyway, I have to admit, this year was pretty awesome. We had an early cake-and-ice-cream thing while we were up in Utah - thanks Grammy Cloe!

Back home, a few days later, Ryan's birthday was a little slow, but he was able to play his new MarioKart for the Wii and got treats and cards from lots of people. Oh, and his work gave him balloons tied to a little cement paperweight (he pretended that he had gotten the balloons for me). Connor liked the little weight so much he threw it at the living room window - so now we have one more thing to explain to the landlord if we ever move out of here!On Saturday I was given my choice of anything in the world (meaning in L.A.) I wanted to do, so we took our first trip to the Los Angeles Arboretum in Arcadia. I was expecting it to be pleasant, kind of like Descanso Gardens, but this place was totally amazing. We wandered through dark bamboo forests, walked across the Australian outback, fed some very aggressive geese, and even saw a wild bobcat crossing the path ahead of us (probably looking for the geese).After the Arboretum, we stopped at Porto's in Glendale to get lunch and a birthday cake. I love few things in the world more than Porto's baked goods, but I think I've found my absolute favorite. Their strawberry-shortcake-cake is my new true love. Sorry Ryan. We had planned a fancy birthday dinner-date for Friday night, but our babysitter got sick at the last minute, so we ate burgers with the kids at the Americana instead. I was feeling very sorry for myself, I must admit, but it turned out to be pretty fun. Then, Saturday night we had planned to go to Ryan's work party, but, again, no babysitter. We've finally come to terms with the fact that 16 year olds are just too busy, so we've since shifted down to 12-13 year old babysitters with much more success.

Instead of the work party, we went to the Ward party, and Connor got to meet Santa! He was a little confused at first, but when he saw that candy was involved he was all about standing in line for twenty minutes. His understanding of Santa is currently "the guy who gives us candy-canes".

Just to clarify, we are NOT anti-Santa. We just don't enjoy trying to convince the kids of something that isn't true. It seems awkward for us, for some reason. Sooo, we simply told Connor that Santa is a fun game that even grownups like to play - kinda like witches and ghosts on Halloween (but, obviously, a good guy.) I have a bad feeling, though, that this may get us into trouble down the line when Connor goes ruining it for his playmates.

Oh, and I got a new camera! Thanks Ryan! The old one was okay, but it took about thirty seconds to focus and snap anything, so my shots of the kids were based on high-volume and luck. The new one is a much-updated version of my old one, and I'm excited to see if there's any improvement at the blog level (the main reason for taking pictures, of course!)

Here are the remnants from the old camera. Elise helping unload the dryer and Ryan and Elise's "photo-booth" pictures.