The Weekend to Rule Them All

For the past couple of years, Mark's birthday has occured during the August long weekend. I wanted to make his birthday extra special so we spent Saturday afternoon at Gull Lake. I have never been there, and strongly recommend it! It's much less busy than Sylvan Lake so it's definitely worth the extra travel time! The sandy beach is great and there are picnic tables and a playground. Because of the campground nearby, it's more family oriented. Beforehand we shopped for fun snacking foods (corn nuts/banana chips/dinosours). We had a great time together as a family playing in the water, playing bocce & reading Harry Potter.

For Mark's birthday on Monday, he wanted to finish drywalling the garage. On Sunday night he was so excited for the next day purely because of the work he was going to get done. I was more excited about the presents I was getting him, but more about that later. We had 6 guys in the garage for several hours working very hard and I hear they were farting up a storm too!

A while ago when I was on a shopping trip with Jenny, I found a wire head massager that looks like a spider on a handle. I was SUPER excited to find it because I've always been looking for one because Mark loves having his head scratched. It was very hard to keep it a secret and not give it to him early.

On Friday I made a secret trip to Calgary all by myself (& Isaac) without Mark knowing. I was buying his birthday present at Bass Pro Shop. He's always wanted a camping knife, and I looked everywhere in Red Deer with no success and then found one online at Bass Pro. I also needed to go to Ikea to return an area rug and spend time there by myself as Mark always rushes me through that store whenever we go. How can you enjoy Ikea that way? At Ikea I bought a shelf that can stand up or lay down on its side to become a bench/shelf. I have looked for something to put in the back room to put toys in, and thought it would be perfect to fit under the windows! It was quite the challege to get the box to my car and in my car by myself. I got to Bass Pro Shop and found the knife and headed back home. I was hoping to get home before Mark so I could hide everything without him being suspicious. So finally Monday came and my mom & I set up the shelving bench thing while Mark was working in the garage. And I could finally give him my gifts!

I also made him a birthday cake - Butter Pecan cake with Pecan Coconut Icing. Mmm. With 25 candles it sure made a lot of smoke when he blew all but one out. He left one candle because he had one "girlfriend".

I love weekends like this because you lay down in your bed at night and sigh with happiness looking back on the memories and joy you experienced with your family and the gratitude you have for the charity of those who love you!