A Birthday Party, Retirement Video, Stranger Things 4 V1, and Birthday/Memorial Day Out On Canyon Lake

 Sarah wanted to throw me a birthday party for my 33rd birthday. She asked me who I wanted to invite and what kind of cake I wanted. I, of course, said all our friends (which totaled to about 20 people, but we invited more later on) and that I wanted a chocolate cake.

I made this invitation. So I asked Sarah to make me a pineapple cake that tasted like chocolate. I didn't want fondant on it, although Sarah did tell me that she could make a really good fondant; not like the fondant that you find on commercial cakes. On the day of the party, I was able to help her pick up some stuff from the store for the cake and also help with some of the icing parts of the cake, but Sarah did make the cake, and it turned out great. Not to mention, it had thick whip cream frosting in the center of it.

What was so generous is that in preparing for this party, we were talking to our good friends, the Rutkowski family about it, and they said that instead of having it at the church, that we could have it at their house and that they would make me a barbecue dinner. It was so good. Potato Salad. Coleslaw. Smoked Pork Butt. Watermelon. Etc. All great food for a birthday party. And it was so nice of them to host. We were late, because of the cake, but they got to know our friends that showed up before us. I didn't get many pictures, but we had the Klinglers, Spencer Irvine, the Czubas, Billy, Peter, and the Chapins.

After the party, Sarah and I stayed at the Rutkowski home and chatted with them while the kids watched Encanto. When the kids went to bed, we watched the first episode of Stranger Things 4 with Angie and Josh. It was a fun time, and thus began our watching of the rest of the 7 episodes of Stranger Things. It took us 4ish days to watch them all completely. And we were fascinated. We're excited to see the epic conclusion to the four season masterpiece. It comes out July 1st, so just a month away.

We weren't planning on doing much for my actual birthday day except for me to apply for PTO and watch Stranger Things. But in the evening on Sunday before the 30th/Memorial Day, Sister Mandy Masters in our ward invited us out to go to Canyon Lake. We of course said yes, and so began our fun day at the lake. We went in two separate cars. Sister Masters had McKayla and her boyfriend, Jordan, and a friend named Benjamin. She asked us to go pick up a pop up shade from the bishop's workshop. She also asked us to pick up whatever floatie we could find.

Well, we got this large floatie. A floatie that could be towed by the back of a boat. We blew it up and it was like 10 by 12 feet across. It could definitely hold all 7 of us at once. We took it out onto the lake twice, just drifting. The second time we drifted for too long and had to bring it back with us by swimming it back to shore. Except the second time it would have taken us hours and there were only 4 of us that were helping swim it back. Miraculously, after some prayers, a group of kayakers came and asked if we needed help towing the raft back to shore. We said yes. And so Sarah and Benjamin grabbed the raft and the back of the kayaks and they hefted us back to shore. We were so grateful and Sarah had practiced visualization for us to visualize we would make it back okay.

We also enjoyed time on shore eating sandwiches and Eegees.

Lastly, my dad asked us kids to make a video for my mom's retirement last Tuesday and we watched it on Sunday last. It made mom cry. The kids and I all compiled videos for her and I put it together using Premiere Pro. I took like 5-6 hours doing it on a Friday.

I also finished the book "Atomic Habits" by James Clear, which was really a good thing to read for the beginning of the Summer because it's been helpful to see what habits I can accomplish. I really like this, which I have been incorporating into my life: