Zak's Birthday Weekend

*note*: sorry I have been so bad about posting this--I keep meaning to and then life happens!

Zak's grandpa Terry gave him the gun on the left (9mm..?). So now he has 2 handguns. He's happier than he looks.

Well, I think Zak had a pretty good birthday weekend!  He wanted to go camping, so camping we went!  Bryan & Chad were out of town (in Italy, lucky ducks!), so our number of buddies shrunk, but we managed to have a pretty fun time.

delicious, delicious quiche

Friday night I made Zak a birthday dinner quiche--it was really good!  Caramelized onion, bacon & tomatoes, so yummy!  On his birthday Saturday, I got up & made blueberry pancakes for breakfast.  My favorite part was after we were done eating, Zak said, 'I have syrup in my mustache...that's how I know I had a good breakfast.'  My birthday gift to Zak was an hour-long massage at the newly opened massage therapy place at the U of I (it was easy because Zak came home a few weeks ago w/a flyer about it, said he wanted that, so I made it happen), he said it was very nice and relaxing & that he'll make sure to get me in there sometime soon.

campsite...ours is the smaller tent, haha!

Zak & Gabe with their (very useful) headlamps

After the massage, we packed up and went off to camp with Kandace & Gabe.  The place we went was only about 20 minutes away, past Troy, at a place called Spring Valley.  It was nice, and we had a sweet little campsite that was secluded.  It would've been nice to have one by the water, but the seclusion was nice.  We had a fun evening, complete with s'mores, hot dogs and the greatest invention by Zak: s'mores hot dog: hot dog + bun + toasted marshmallow.  It was seriously better than you'd think!  And we got the huge marshmallows so it was quite messy!  I had a few giant s'mores and at one point just ended up with a huge handful of marshmallow-chocolate mess and laughing.  There were lots of cute little chipmunks running around, threatening to take our food.  One had successfully ripped through the bag with the chocolate-covered raisins in it!  We put out a giant marshmallow for them, and a few minutes later, saw one eating this huge marshmallow, slowly but surely.  It was pretty cute.

about to try the wonders of hot dog + toasted marshmallow!

survey says: not bad!

my giant marshmallow mess

how cute is this?!

We had a really fun night, despite the cold.  The next morning we got up and decided to go to brunch.  We went to the Best Western Sunday brunch, complete with free drinks, omelets, crepes, all kinds of pastries, meat dishes AND a chocolate fountain!  We had a great time and stuffed ourselves appropriately.  Kandace and I then went to get pedicures because despite scrubbing my feet for 10 minutes in the shower, my feet were in bad shape.  We had a lovely, relaxing hour being pampered.  A few hours later we met up again, with the addition of friends Margret & Ian and had birthday cake: yellow cake with peach puree and raspberry frosting.  It was good and we had a fun time.

birthday brunch!

Kandace & Gabe

this picture is cute

my (lack of) decorating skills

birthday!

Oh yeah, so Zak got a hammock with some birthday money. He's in love. He loves it a whole lot and practically lives in it now. One night he even slept outside in it...voluntarily! It is really comfy, now I want one!!
 

so cozy

ah yes, relaxing is wonderful