It's a....!!

Today I had a fun project to make--a 'secret' cake! Let me explain...
My sister-in-law, Jessica, has a friend who is expecting her first child. Today that friend had an ultrasound to find out the gender. But she likes surprises so much that she wanted to wait and find out tonight, with the rest of her family, what they're having. So she had the doctor put the results in a sealed envelope and then gave it to Jessica to bring to me.
My part was to make a cake! I would make a large, round layer cake and the icing between the layers would be either pink or blue, depending on the ultrasound results. Then when they cut into the cake, the icing color would show what they were having! Pretty cool idea, right? :)

So Jessica came over this morning with our adorable little nephew to give me the envelope, then she hung out with the boys while I made the cake. Once I had the colored icing in place and hidden from Jessica, she came out and helped me figure out how to decorate the top. we decided to ice it white, put some pink and blue flowers on top, and write the letter E in the center (regardless of the gender, the baby's name will begin with the letter E). Made some little white flowers around the bottom, and it was done! And I was the only person, aside from the doctor, of course, who knew what she was having! I told Jessica that even though I didn't know her friend, it was fun being in on such a big secret! :) I'm excited for them to cut into it later.

I had told Kyle that I was making a cake today and explained what it was for and he thought it was a cool idea. What was funny, though, is that he came home from work today and right away he asked what they were having! He doesn't know them either, but since it was a secret, he had been thinking about it earlier and started wondering what they were having. I told him but swore him to secrecy! :)

It was a fun afternoon! Got to hang out with Jessica and Tristan, and to do something special for a friend!

Oh, I almost forgot to mention what her friend was having! The icing in the middle was......

Yay for boys!! :)

A very long weekend

We don't usually do anything special for Labor Day long weekend, but this year we decided to take a mini vacation. A friend from church has connections to a cabin at Lake Tahoe, so he and another friend invited us along to spend a few days there. Our last vacation ended up being...well, not much of a vacation. We drove to Wyoming in June and when we got home a week later we said we weren't going to travel again for a long time. Having Parker in the car for hours on end, not sleeping through the night once the entire time we were away, and then getting sick made for a very unhappy eight-month old. Which, in turn, made for very tired and unhappy parents!

But that was three months ago--surely he would do better now, right? *sigh...*

Well, our long weekend started out fine... Kyle came home from work early on Friday and we hurried to get packed and load the car so we could get a somewhat early start. We left here around 11:30 and traffic, although slower in some places, was still moving along pretty well. Then, about 30 minutes or so from the cabin, we were stopped--for almost 3 hours! It was down to one narrow lane, so we're guessing there was some kind of accident and they had to clear the road. We finally made it but our four hour drive turned into seven hours! Poor Nathan had arrived early and had to wait outside for a few hours until we got there with the key. After we got the car unloaded we drove to Safeway to stock up on food for the weekend. Brad also took a long time to arrive, getting in after we had already gone to bed.

Saturday was a beautiful day and we all decided that we would go sailing. We drove to the dock and boarded the Woodwind II for our two-hour cruise. So relaxing! They threw out a bunch of huge pillows on the deck, but we were afraid Parker and his fair skin would burn so we spent a lot of the time below, looking out the windows. Our first time sailing! And nobody fell overboard! :)

Later we went back to the cabin, where the guys grilled steak for dinner and we played a few games. Sunday we just hung out at the cabin and played some board games and chatted. There was supposed to be a fireworks show on the lake Sunday evening. We didn't want to drive to where they were being set off and be out too late so we walked down the hill, thinking we'd be able to see them from across the lake. We got there a little early and Parker was getting a little antsy...I'm sure the anticipation was killing him! :) However, once the fireworks started they were so far away that we could barely see it. Just a little round colored light here and there. Not a complete waste, though. At least we got our exercise hiking back up the hill!

I think it was good for us, especially Kyle, to get away and take it easy for a few days. He's been super busy with work lately. And Parker? Well, he didn't sleep so well the first night and he woke up early. The second day he woke up at 5 and didn't go back to sleep so Kyle took him for a drive and they saw a sunrise. :) The last morning he woke up before 6 again and was wide awake, so it was my turn to get up early with him. Guess he just doesn't sleep well in a strange place. Can't blame him, though. Sometimes I don't either!

we left Tahoe around noon on Monday and it was very slow all the way home. Traffic was moving, but it still took about six hours to get back. All in all it was a fun weekend, but the drive was a little longer than we would have liked. And Parker was very happy to be home! It was fun to see his face light up and hear his happy little sounds as he played with his toys again.
Yay for familiarity! :)