The Young and the Restless

Birthday Boy, Belmont and Boats

There are pros and cons of always having your birthday during Fall break. Cons are you don't get to be at your own home and wake up to breakfast in bed and all the other traditional birthday things we do at home. Pros are you get to celebrate someplace cool! It was a bummer this year because Maddox's actual birthday would be spent in the car driving home, so it was a double whamie. But we tried to make the most of it by celebrating a few days early at Belmont Park. It worked because he thought it was the best birthday ever! We were planning to only spend a few hours at this small amusement park but ended up being there all day until the sun went down. It wasn't too crowded so they got to ride all the rides as much as they wanted, and they did just that. 

Jason and I took advantage of all the kids doing the ropes course and snuck in Dole Whip. We inhaled it as fast as we could then disposed of the evidence before they were finished. Ryder was like, "that was weird, I thought I saw you eating ice cream when I was up there". We got them burgers instead.

 The first time Ryder went on this ride I thought he was going to cry. He looked so scared, it took everything in me to not yell at the ride operator to stop the ride. But as soon as it was done he was grinning ear to ear and begging to go again. He was hilarious, he was running from ride to ride I could barely keep up with him!

Jayden got a hole in one on the final hole of the mini golf course and won a $5 game card, it was pretty impressive!

We finally were able to drag them away as the evening crowds started coming. I'm glad they had a blast, it was definitely a fun way to celebrate Maddox's birthday! The only bummer of the day was when we went to get jackets out of the car and noticed that someone had hit the back side of our car and left without leaving a note. Not cool. We met up with Jessica and John for dinner where we spent $80 on food court noodles at an Asian grocery store. Welcome to California. It was fun to see them and catch up for a little bit before heading to Temecula to stay with Shawn and Melinda.

We stayed a night at Shawn and Melinda's house where we kept an eye out on the forecast for the next day. We went to brunch in the rain but it cleared up just enough that we decided to go spend the night at their condo on the lake. We were able to cruise around listening to nostalgic 90's grunge bands for a little bit before it got dark, then we settled the kids in with pizza and Hotel Transylvania 2 while the adults went out for Thai food.

The next day was Maddox's birthday, and also happened to be the day we picked up our new boat. We arrived at the lake early that morning and were greeted with the most beautiful glassy water. Forget that the water itself was green and semi-toxic, but the mood was so serene and peaceful. We cruised around for a little bit to test out the boat then loaded up and headed home. We stopped for birthday donuts, birthday Subway and even birthday Dutch Bros when we got back to the Valley.  All in all, I would say it was a pretty great birthday. I mean, not many people can say they got a new boat on their birthday! We are in love with the new boat and can't wait to spend many more summer days making memories on the lake!

That night Jason took Maddox out for his traditional birthday dinner at Joe's then we celebrated with cake and ice cream. We sure love this birthday boy!