Birthday Shenanigans in the Mitten

As son as Val, Bill and the gang left we had 2 days to pack and do a little cleaning before heading home. HOME. Wonderful, beautiful, green Michigan filled with tons of family and friends that we miss so dearly. We celebrated Chad's birthday on Saturday along with Jared as well. It' become an amazing tradition that we are all determined to keep alive. In addition to celebrating together matching shirts have also snuck their way in as well. I love it. LOVE it.

I also love that we were able to celebrate not only with my parents, Taylor, Jared (duh), Chad's parents, Nikki, Matt and the gang, Tracy, Lincoln and their whole crew as well. It was so fun to be able to celebrate with so much of our family! Happy Birthday Chad!!! Especially since I was passed out for a while (ok, it was longer than a while) due to some drugas for my whole SI joint issue. Glad to have some birthday support otherwise it wouldn't have been quite so fun with just me!

It was so nice to see everyone, everyone! I slept on the couch (are you sensing a theme) while my mom and the boys made the birthday cake, everyone brought yummy salads and sides while we ate fried chicken. We hung out all afternoon and it was awesome. I couldn't be more thankful for my wonderful family, immediate and extended, they are the absolute best around. And while it is technically "Chared's" birthday, I can't wait to see how we celebrate it all next year :)

In addition to the birthday festivities there was a ridiculous amount of Mexican food consumed, just enough sugar cookies eaten and not enough frozen custard, lol. We were able to stop in at our old ward briefly to basically just say "hi" and harass our old primary class, I stopped by my old work, Chad fit in a little climbing, we managed a double date with Jared and helped pick out a new tv for the parents, and just generally did a lot of hanging out with a lot of the people that we dearly love and miss.  Somehow we were out there for so long but it all went by in a flash.

 

 

(Chad took an actual group photo, and I think some overall better ones in general, imagine that. So as soon as I'm not feeling lazy I'll get some real photos up here to add the amazing amount of selfies that I took all week :) )