Birthday Celebration!

This year for my birthday, my family surprised me with many fun activities and events. Steve had made arrangements to pick me up from work early on Thursday and to have the day off on Friday. When he picked me up he took me to the Portland Oregon Temple and then out to dinner. When we got to the Temple we ran into one of my cousins, Teresa Fisher and her husband Gordon. It was a nice surprise. We were able to sit by each other during the session and then to have a good visit afterward. After dinner, Steve took me to Andrea and Chris' house to see Cooper. We spent the night and in the morning Steve and Chris went golfing and we met Heather and Janae and Kiera at the mall for a fun shopping trip. Later that afternoon/evening the rest of the family joined us and they surprised me by taking me to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants in Portland, the Rhinelander. The food is great and as you can see in the picture behind me they have an accordion player that wanders around the restaurant serenading the guests. We like to sing along and we always make a request for them to play "The Chicken Dance". All of our kids and their families were there along with Tami, Dan, Evan and Siena. It was a lot of fun to be with them all. After dinner we went to Heather and Jeff's house to open presents and spend the night. On Saturday all of the girls went to a holiday craft fair in Vancouver. Sunday morning Cooper was blessed by his father, Chris, and Steve, Kevin, Dan, Chris' father Ernie and his grandfather all stood in the circle. Jeff was not feeling well and Chris B was in Washington attending a class so they were not able to be there. It was so wonderful to share this special time with family and hear the blessing. After church we went to Chris and Andrea's house for brunch and spent some time together with Chris' family. It was a great birthday weekend and I very much appreciate all my family did for me. I love them all!