Birthday

Rebekah wanted to make me a cake with sprinkles. It's hard to explain to my little girl that I don't like cake, so I just let them go and have fun. Mom said she would help make it so I didn't have to make my own birthday cake. Nice! I hear Don helped mix. Very impressive.

The decorating of the pre-birthday cupcakes

The licking of the arm that got in the way of the decorating

The eating of the pre-birthday cupcakes

Yum

The next day there was the decorating of the actual cake

The eating of the sprinkles

Then the next day there was the birthday mommy / daughter photo shoot

followed by the birthday song

Then there was church. 

After church was the birthday skyping with my little brother Spencer and his fam

Then the eating of the birthday pizza

Gourmet veggie pizza from Papa Murphy. 

(Don picked it up the day before. Don't worry, the church is still true.) 

No one else ate it. Just me. Ah well.

Then there was the birthday family shot

Followed by mom catching each of my cards / gifts

My mother's card and 39 dollars she gave me - one for each day I've been alive. 

Can't wait 'till I'm 100! :D

Then there was the eating of the cake

But Don, knowing the only cake I really like is carrot cake, got me my own personal little wedge. 

What a nice man I married.

Oh yeah, and there was Blue Bell ice cream.

YUM!

I received many phone calls from my family and a few dear friends. It was a wonderful birthday. Thanks to all!

Delphi

As part of my post birthday celebration, Don decided a short road trip was in order. There are so many destinations in Indiana I would like to see. Don chose to start with Delphi. One of his favorite things is to watch Jim Neighbors sing "Back Home in Indiana" which mentions the banks of the Wabash river. We needed to see it in person.

Our pre-trip family picture:

We were almost in the car when Don ran back into the garage to fix his shoe. I've been on the man to get new shoes since we met.

Right now the length of our road trips are completely related to the amount of Dora both Don and I can handle. However, this trip we got to listen to Winnie the Pooh too. Yay!

After a few minutes of Pooh, followed by several hours of D-d-d-d-d-Dora, we made it. Rebekah's first stop: the canal boat.

Steering the ship

Trying the monkey bars

(Wonder if the boat had monkey bars when it was running)

Then we went for a walk

And found the river

Don and Rebe admiring

We found a bridge which Rebekah ran over as fast as she could

More of the river 

More walking

Then Reka found a park

There was much exploring to do

My little monkey

Don't know how she does that one. Makes me dizzy just watching.

I am Rebekah. Hear me ROAR!

More walking

After volunteering to take another family's picture, we got a nice family shot in return:

More walking

(It was right about here I remembered we had the stroller in the trunk.)

The view

What it looked like "back then"

A nice rotating bridge

Reka wanted a leaf

She was triumphant!

(She told me she wanted to give this leaf to her grandma. And yes, it made it all the way home to grandma's hands.)

The pioneer village

A school 

An outhouse 

Love that they had to put this sign on there

(it says: REPLICA NOT FOR PUBLIC USE)

Chicken coop

Don made the rookie mistake of engaging the guide in conversation

Then we made it back to the boat

For a quick selfie - to prove that I was there

Think she wanted the fire pole but couldn't quite get up the courage

After a quick walk through the museum and gazing at the canal murals, there was a quick trip to a fast food restaurant. Then there was another 2 hours of Dora. After we made a quick stop to a missionary farewell party.

My daddy once told me if you watch too much TV your eyes will fall out. 

You can kind of see that effect in Reka's eyes... 

It was a fun trip. We need to make things like this a biweekly tradition.

Overalls

Recently Rebekah got a cute pair of overalls from her grandma. She had them on an wished that her mommy had some overalls too. Thanks to Sister Trockel (my missionary companion in Liberty, Mississippi) I did (she had some and talked me into a pair). So I got them out of my keep sake box and put them on to play with my little ReBe. Don had to have a picture. Glad he did! Now the cuteness is captured FOREVER! :D

Rebekah's Song

We were all together talking and Rebekah was snuggling with her daddy when she sang this song. Love that she made up her own words about her daddy. And he does love her. And we love you too. Very Very Much.