Happy 25th Birthday, Ryan

Ryan just had one of *hopefully* many milestone birthdays to come! His big 2-5 on November 3rd!

The story goes that he came a few weeks early, and was a FAST delivery...so fast, that his mom didn't even have time to get any of the "good stuff" to take the pain away :) She delivered all natural, and he came at a lightening speed pace within 2 hours! They were scrambling to find his mom's doctor, who finally came running into the delivery room in her soccer shoes!

Ryan knew what he wanted for his birthday, so I wasn't able to surprise him with anything. I bought him a nice new backpack for school (he did LOTS of research for finding the PERFECT backpack, and finally decided on the Ogio Politan...after stalking other students backpacks at BYU-I for weeks!). It is such a great backpack, and honestly feels like nothing is in your bag, which helps Ryan's back out a lot! It also has a separate protected pocket for his laptop.

He also requested Beatles Rockband, so his mom and I split the cost on that (we had gotten rid of our drum set when we moved to Idaho and were trying to pack lightly!). It's been fun to play...and fun to be able to play Rockband TOGETHER again (we still had our guitar...but no other instruments).

Since I wasn't able to surprise him with gifts, I decided to just surprise him with the day. So, I decorated the garage with "Happy Birthday" streamers, and bought one of those white pens to write on car windows...writing things like,"I'm the BIG 2-5", "Happy Birthday", and "Hooray for cheaper insurance!" on his windows. I also bought the Seinfeld Scene-It game (he is a huge Seinfeld fan), wrapped it up, and set it on the hood of his car. I bought him a couple fun birthday cards, bought him some "Birthday Booty" (matched one of the cards sayings, with pirate loot) which consisted of Starburst Sour Gummies and a Mr. Goodbar (a few of his favorites). I made a yellow cake with rainbow chip frosting, and put some candles on it for him to blow out. He was definitely surprised by his car being decorated, and I think it made his day to feel like someone was thinking about him :) After school/work, we went out to dinner with his mom at Red Robin for some juicy hamburgers, where his mom "slipped" that it was his birthday to the waitress...so of course he got a birthday song, a sundae, and some balloons...he he he...

During dinner, one story came out about when Ryan was born. He came out with Jaundice, and so he had to stay under the lights, wearing these little goggles over his eyes, almost like he was sunbathing! He couldn't be discharged from the hospital until he had his first, ahem, bowel movement, which was supposedly causing the disruption in his bilirubin levels. His mom said the nurses were all pleasant towards her, until one day, his mom walks in to see Ryan and gets a scowl of a look from the nurse. Marji had no idea what the matter was, and asked if everything was ok. The nurse said Ryan finally had his bowel movement...to which Marji replied that was excellent! Ryan would get to come home now! The nurse shot back,"Yeah, that's great unless you're the one that has to clean it up! He filled up the whole bassinet with it!" HA! Apparently, Ryan was a MUCH happier baby after that day :)

After dinner, we headed over to the mall in Idaho Falls and bought Ryan a new beanie/hat for the winter! He's been wanting one of those beanies with a rim on it, like he had when he was on his mission in Illinois.

We came back home and had the cake, which turned out FABULOUS (I must admit :), and some peppermint ice cream that Ryan requested for his birthday.

It was a fun night, and I'm so happy that my little Ryan is growing up :) Helps me not look like so much of a cougar since I can now say he's in his late 20's...well, at least in his MID 20's :) And it helps that he has some grey hair that is "thinning" on top. His height helps me out too...he doesn't look like the 6 years younger that he is!

I'm proud of Ryan, and all he is accomplishing in his schooling, and what he hopes to accomplish with his life. He is a very honorable man, and is so good to me. I'm so grateful that I get to go on this journey in life with him, and I'm excited to see what is yet to come!

Happy Birthday, Buckwheat!