Party in the USA

We had lots of fun last week, what with the Fourth of July and Edison’s birthday all falling on the same weekend and everything. (They tend to do that.) I thought I would miss celebrating Independence Day in Tallahassee, where attending a good fireworks show is easy breezy compared to fighting the monstrous crowds you encounter here in Utah. But I was pleasantly surprised. We followed Melanie’s parents and brother to a nearby park-and-ride lot for the commuter train, which afforded us an overview of much of the Salt Lake Valley. A fireworks show would soon be put on directly in front of us. While we waited, we could scan the horizon and, no joke, see about 20 different fireworks shows going off in the distance. It was a panorama of distant fireworks until the big jubilee erupted directly in front of us. Yes, it took four or five times longer to work our way through the post-festivity traffic, but we planned as much and didn’t get frustrated about it. We had a ton of fun, and it was a great night.

About the crown: it was Edison's birthday crown that he chose while picking out some birthday decorations.  Creegan kept insisting that I wear it at the fireworks show.

On Saturday morning, we went out to Village Inn for Eddie’s birthday breakfast. This has become a tradition with our children. As always, Eddie and Peter got the Vill-Inn Funny Face pancake breakfast. Beegy didn’t want pancakes and got “macaroni of cheese” instead. I designed my own omelette that included cheese, ham, red peppers, and olives. It came with hash browns and some pancakes, and then I did my fatherly duty of finishing off any leftover pancakes from the boys. This was my first knife-and-fork type meal that I’ve eaten since my carpal tunnel has become severe, so I tried to stick to my left hand. I felt absolutely inept. It was much more difficult than I would’ve expected.

After breakfast, we headed to my parents’ home to celebrate Eddie’s birthday with them. On our way out of the Village Inn parking lot, I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket only to discover that I was connected to 911. My phone has a terrible design. I “lock” it, but it comes unlocked so easily while in my pocket, and it has some feature where if you press the right buttons, you can dial 911 without unlocking it. Needless to say, I have butt-dialed 911 a few times in my life. The last time was last year, about half a block from that same Village Inn. Stupid phone. Anyway, we took a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting (Eddie’s choice, of course) to my parents, who presented Eddie with a nice assortment of fun gifts. (I think my sister Krush is primarily responsible for choosing those gifts, so thanks to her.) Eddie received an Angry Birds cup (which he has used a ton since), several t-shirts (Angry Birds, Minecraft, etc.), a cool Angry Birds Go toy, and his own set of fireworks.

That night, Melanie decorated her parents’ house so Edison would wake up to more birthday fun. That next morning (Sunday) is when he opened gifts from Melanie and me, as well as from Melanie’s parents. We gave him a Minecraft book and a toy chainsaw, both of which were urgently requested by Eddie, and then surprised him with a set of Bunnicula books and a laser tag set (which we’ve all had a lot of fun with, though they are rather noisy). Eddie chose all three meals that day. Breakfast consisted of crepes, lunch consisted of these frozen little taco things, and dinner was a pot roast with baby carrots. (Eddie pretty much just loves the carrots, to be honest, but he likes them cooked with the roast.) We also added some rolls, a dinner salad, and some mashed potatoes. For dessert, we had regular made-from-a-boxed-mix brownies, as Eddie insisted. It was fun.

Happy birthday, Eddie!!!