A birthday to remember

Over the years I have started to appreciate that having my birthday two weeks after Max's is for my benefit. He always tries to out do me, and always succeeds. I was spoiled all day long. Lucky for us, Charlie slept in until 9 so Max got up early and started slaving away while I got to sleep in a bit. At 9:30 my boys came in with a feast of whole wheat pancakes, eggs, and bacon with a candle. Max handed me my plate of food while singing happy birthday and Charlie handed me two small boxes. We feasted while Charlie crawled around begging for bacon and pancakes. (he got some too, we just didn't want to let him eat in the bed) 

After eating breakfast I opened my two little boxes. One had earrings, and the other had a necklace. They were both beautiful. I don't own much jewelry because It's not something I ever buy for myself but i like it and would like to see my collection grow, Max has always been afraid to get me jewelry, fearing that I wont like it and assuming it would just be best if I picked it out. He has overcome this fear and has started giving me jewelry. Good Man! 

After Breakfast, Max needed to run an errand so he took Charlie with him and I had a quiet morning with lots of time to get ready for the day. When they came back, Max had me open a couple more presents, I was completely spoiled. He had somehow taken note of everything in the past several months I had mentioned I wanted and got it all. 

Charlie then went down for a nap and so that is exactly what Max and I did too. He slept quite a awhile so we enjoyed that. 

After we all woke up Max took us on a little adventure, we got in the car and Max started driving. I had no idea where we were going. I was really surprised when we got to a part of Portland that we haven't driven around much and Max still didn't have the GPS on. He pulled up in front of a nice house that appeared to be in the middle of a big renovation and said "Surprise, I bought us a house!" I called his bluff pretty quick because he would never make a decision like that without me, so then he told me that he just missed the turn off and we had to turn around. 

We ended up at a huge but somewhat hidden garden right on the Willamette river called the Bishop Close garden. We looked up a short history about the garden on Max's phone then got out to explore. There were so many beautiful Fall colors and amazing views of the river. And we pretty much had the whole garden to ourselves. ( I guess not too many people go exploring on Tuesday afternoons.)

We finally decided to take out the camera to document some parts of my birthday.

Here are some Fall pictures    

Exploring the neat smooth trees

First time feeling a fuzzy caterpillar

More fuzzy caterpillars

Why do rocks look so much like food? Charlie wouldn't stop putting them in his mouth. 

The mansion in the garden

Then we found the perfect tree for photographing this handsome little guy!

We've been trying to get a good "flying" picture for awhile. These ones seem to suffice!

Charlie loves playing with his daddy

Under the wisteria. 

Max than took us out to eat in "Portland's only floating restaurant" Newport Bay downtown Portland, floating in the Willamette.

Charlie enjoyed his crayons and it was the first time that the crayons didn't go straight to his mouth. 

We also got to watch the sun set over the Portland Skyline. 

We left stuffed and happy. When we got home we quickly put Charlie in bed and Max continued to pamper and spoil me the rest of the night.
It was so fun to have an all day date with my family. I love those boys more than anything. They went above and beyond in their pursuit to make me feel special. I'm so lucky to be the wife of such a hard working and caring man, and I absolutely love my cheerful son. Life is good.