surprise. dad got another day older

Oh Hey Monday, 

I'm not ready for you. Then again I'm never ready for you, unless you're a Holiday and we're celebrating by not being at work.  Although this weekend was kind of like a holiday, or at least my father thinks it was, being his birthday weekend and all. My sibs and I all decided we were going to surprise my dad and be home for his birthday, mom was even in on the plan. Friday night, Brad and I left Portland at 10pm and arrived at the parents' house by 1am and my other sibs had gotten in earlier in the evening. Brad HAD to watch the US Men's National game, which is why we had such a late start, but it was definitely worth waking my dad up and confusing him ;) 

The weekend was perfect, food, family, friends, and nice weather. 

My parents purchased a new home a little over 2 years ago now and their pride and joy of the place is the backyard so far.  Last summer they focused on putting in a pond and this spring they just finished putting in a 9 feet tall water feature. It's awesome. 

Mom's pretty pond. Mom recently had 2 very traumatic experiences, one featured birds and the other was caused by a power outage, both killed all her koi fish in the pond. She's still not ready to talk about it.  

Dad's project.

This thing is massive. twss.

The weekend was super relaxing.  The guys golfed a lot. The girls went hiking, and lounged in the pool and we ate a lot of food weird, I know. We did manage to get some circuit workouts in to counteract all the eating though, so there's that!

Look at those grill marks. Perfection.

Putting my old sous-chef skills to work on the grill.

PUPPPPPPPY!

And here is where my brother thought it would be funny to lounge in the water feature even though my parents have an above ground pool.

It didn't work out very well for him.

Sister, sister.

One of the best parts about the weekend was picking up a new lens from my friend Anne.  She is who I bought my camera from and was selling her old lens now that she has a bigger and more bad ass camera! I am in love. 

I took way too many pictures of the backyard testing it out. Sorry, not sorry. 

Mallows. Nom. nom. nom.

My sister, evidently, had a few too many s'mores and broke the hammock. What a fatty.

True story: I only ate one bite of s'mores. Okay, that's a lie, I had two bites, but still! I was impressed with my self control, okay?! Lay off me, I'm starving. May or may not have dabbled in a little carrot birthday cake, but who's keeping track? 

The crew. 

Also, just realized that I forgot to add any photos of my Mom and the birthday Dad and now I am at work and the photos are at home. I suck at blogging. Sorry my favorite parents :) Still love me please?!

Anyways, that was my weekend. how was yours?!

Cheers,

<3 BB