Tanner's Big 4-0 Birthday!

Over the past few months, we've had many different plans for Tanner's 40th birthday. We had to postpone the plan to go to Cancun so we arranged a camping trip. We modified again when Tanner's grandpa passed away and we had to travel up to Idaho for the funeral. But, I think his birthday ended up being really nice and I hope he will always remember it as a happy, simple time. We borrowed a motorhome from our friend and headed down to San Clemente. The day that we left, Tanner's work threw him a little surprise lunch party and I was able to take Ella and surprise him, too! I was nervous about going to his work for the first time and meeting everyone but it was super fun and I'm so glad I went. I hope he remembers that and knows how special he is to me!

We weren't able to hit the road to the beach until 8pm but we had stroganoff for dinner and got all ready for bed so when we arrived, we pretty much just went to sleep. The next morning, we made a yummy breakfast, opened presents, and walked down to the beach for a few hours. There were a TON of dolphins out to play and it was a nice, relaxing time. We went to Snooze for lunch and quickly realized Jack was eating way too much sugar. He is so sensitive to it! Snooze was delicious and I'm happy Tanner was able to eat more of his favorite meal: breakfast.  Tanner dropped us off at the Montage so we could celebrate Jessi's 13th birthday with family. He went to the store for firewood... But apparently he was really sad that we "left him". We had a blast with family and Montage was gorgeous. The kids spent a long time sand sledding and it was trippy to realize that they were snow sledding in Idaho just a few days earlier! 

Cousin time is the best time.

We went back to our campsite, apologized to Tanner after peeling back the layers of passive aggressiveness and realizing he was upset, and roasted hot dogs and s'mores. Yum! Then we went inside, cleaned off, and did cake and ice cream. We brought Nothing Bunt Cakes because they are Tanner's favorite and they were soooo good. By this time, Jack was super high on sugar. He was ballistic. We played a few games (this was Tanner's vision: no screens, just good old family time; playing games) To my surprise, everyone did really well playing games and everyone seemed to really enjoy it! Wow! But Jack was too high on sugar to participate appropriately. He needed a lot of time outs. The next morning he was fine, though, and he really enjoyed playing Uno with Rayleigh on the ride home.

So, yes, that night after playing games we all snuggled down for our final night sleeping in the motorhome and I think everyone slept pretty well.

The next morning we made another yummy breakfast and then we took the 3 littles on a hike around the beach. It was a beautiful morning! We listened to ZOOM church and then headed home. We were able to get the motorhome unpacked and get all cleaned up before listening to the Prophet during a historic conference held just for members of the church living in California! We were all so curious to hear what the Prophet had to say to us. He spoke a lot about missionary work and how Californians are very influential: more than any other part of the world and that we have a sacred responsibility to share the goodness of the gospel to those around us. I loved hearing from President and Sister Nelson and the other 2 people who spoke, President and Sister Nielsen. Sister Nielsen talked about tuning our hearts to the spirit. It was a really great meeting!

Tanner, I hope you loved your 40th birthday and will look back on these happy memories and feel the love we have for you! The next 10 years are going to be life changing and extraordinary. I have no doubt that the next decade holds some of the best times we will ever experience. Continue to work hard and play harder and know that we are right here with you happy to be a part of your life's story!

We love you!

Side note: sunsets and sunrises have been glorious lately! Parker took that 3rd photo on the way to MCO while we were on the toll road. So pretty!