Happy Birthday Kristjan!

A few weeks ago we celebrated Kristjan's 9th birthday. His birthday this year fell on a Saturday, so we did both his friend and family celebration all on the same day. Peter's parents, along with 2 cousins, drove up to spend the day with us. The morning started off with Clifford's basketball game, immediately followed by Kristjan's friend party at the Everett Skate Deck, and then ending with the family dinner birthday celebration and sleepover with his buddy Cameron. Kristjan scored big in the Lego department, receiving lots of cool sets to build, as well as lots of gift money and gift cards to the Lego store (he's been saving up since Xmas to buy the new Elves sets). Looking back at the end of it all, even though it felt a little hectic, the day turned out great and Kristjan had a lot of fun!

Kristjan holding his birthday cupcake (I made him a "safe" one to go along with his class treats)

The birthday boy all dressed up for his party!

The birthday cake

Pics from the roller skating party (I didn't get any pics of actual roller skating. I woke up that morning with a head cold and actually had to leave for home half way through the party, leaving Pete all alone to supervise. He's such a trooper!)

Pics from the family dinner party

The next morning, this is how he spent his entire day :)

Lake Serene

For our February backpacking trip, we headed to Gold Bar to hike Lake Serene. Since we were still into the basketball season, we had to leave as soon as Peter got off work on Friday in order to be back on Saturday. That also meant hiking in the dark. We made it pretty far before needing to use headlamps. It was Kristjan taking a minor tumble on some rocks that made us decide it was time to dig those out of our packs. The surrounding area on the hike was pretty. The major issue with this particular lake is you can't really camp there overnight. Peter did some online searching prior to us going, and nothing that he found told us that you can't camp there. Even at the trailhead, the only thing posted was a sign saying you couldn't camp 1/4 mile from the lake (this led us to assume that you could camp there, just not close to the lake). Nope. No camping anywhere. Unfortunately, because we arrived when it was dark, we had to make due with whatever spot we could find, which happened to be within that prohibited 1/4 mile of the lake. We set up our camp, ate some dinner, and actually watched a movie on Netflix with Peter's phone (because we got amazing service at that lake!). All was well until about midnight, when the rain started in. Wouldn't have been much of an issue, except on this trip we were trying out a new tent/gear idea that Peter had been wanting to try. Though the boys stayed dry and warm inside their sleeping bags, the outside of their bag and pads got wet. I myself couldn't get comfortable and didn't sleep well. Before bed, we had decided to set our alarm for 7 am, figuring that would give us plenty of time to fix a quick breakfast and pack up before anyone were to hike it. So the next morning, our alarm hadn't gone off yet when Sheeba started barking ferociously and startled us all awake. Turned out there was a small group of day hikers...BEFORE 7 am (!!). After Peter and I gave a few grumbles about this, we got up, packed up, ate a quick breakfast, and headed out. Not sure if I'd classify this as a fun trip for us, but it was definitely an experience. Hopefully we'll be better prepared for our March hike.