Tommy's Birthday! The big 3-0!

The other big event that happened while we were in Houston was that Tommy celebrated the END OF HIS TWENTIES. On November 28, 2014, Black Friday (so appropriate, right?), he turned 30 years old. There is no return!

Don't worry, Tommy wasn't really dreading turning 30. He did pull his hamstring playing soccer a few weeks ago, and then tweaked his knee as a result of that, and all those injuries seemed symbolic of aging and getting old. But otherwise, 30's looking pretty good. I mean, look! Never looking better!

My mom sent a package for Tommy with this turkey hat in it. We were disappointed that we didn't open the package until his birthday, so we missed the perfect opportunity to wear it on Thanksgiving. Oh well! It was being passed around and worn all day on Friday still. I also gave Tommy this nice, cozy bathrobe he's modeling for us. 

Dane looooved the bathrobe and kept burying his face on it to rub it. "So soft!"

Life is good when your birthday is the day after Thanksgiving--pie and hot chocolate for breakfast! And wearing the turkey hat!

Dane finished off Tommy's hot chocolate for him. So helpful.

We went to the museum during the day on his birthday, and then later Tommy got a good nap, and after a delicious Thanksgiving leftovers dinner, in the evening we had--MORE PIE! (Remember how we had 17 pies? We weren't about to make a cake.) We put some candles in the pie and sang "Happy Birthday." Tommy wanted to blow out his candles, but he had a lot of helpers who were eager to assist. Look at this series of photos, hahaha:

We wanted to go on a date to celebrate the big event, and the Bodines kindly watched Dane for us while we went out. I had kind of stressed about finding a fun, memorable date for us to do (it seems like it would be anticlimactic to just go out to dinner for a big birthday like this). The only thing that kept coming to mind was one of those indoor skydiving places--which I'm pretty sure you can't do when you're five months pregnant. But after a lot of searching, I did find something! And I managed to keep it a secret, so Tommy never figured out what it was...

And oh boy was he surprised when we pulled up to a full-blown medieval CASTLE in the middle of Nowhereville, Texas. I found this kind of random but awesome murder mystery dinner--at a castle--and thought that if nothing else, this would be a memorable date. This castle is just some guy's pet project that he's been building/working on for years, and every other weekend they host a murder mystery dinner there. There is a moat around it, with a drawbridge, and a catapult outside, and three pretty big towers--it was definitely amazing.

He used this human hamster wheel to shut the gate and raise the drawbridge.

So Tommy was totally confused and shocked to find us at medieval castle after driving an hour AWAY from everything, but we got inside and they began the "performance." I've never been to a murder mystery dinner before, but obviously the idea is that it's interactive, so they first had us all explore around the castle and see the different towers--even the dungeon/prison!

The "jailer" put us in the stocks and prison.

Afterwards, we sat down for dinner. As we were settling in to enjoy ourselves, I got picked to help perform a role in the mystery! Or should I say, they asked me and Tommy volunteered me. The guy in charge brought me outside and I didn't come back in until I was dressed up and speaking some lines (as "Karen Heart," the daughter of the king, or something like that).

This was our dinner--they brought out an enormous roasted pig surrounded by Cornish game hens, with potatoes and carrots and a piece of bread. I think they were trying to go for medieval-style food.

After dinner, I had to get up and do more lines--along with other people; it wasn't just me--and eventually there were a lot of clues dropped by all the characters and we were given some time to discuss who we thought did it. Tommy and I figured out pretty fast that--I was the guilty one! Haha! So funny to be pulled out of the crowd to perform and then to find out that I was the "murderer."

They brought us outside and threatened to throw us (me and my conspirator) into the moat. Luckily they didn't actually go that far.

And, we sang Happy Birthday to all the people who were celebrating there--including Tommy!

Me and the knight in charge, Sir James, after I'd taken off my medieval garb.

The experience was definitely cheesy and silly at some points, but totally hilarious and fun at the same time. Tommy and I were laughing because we were probably some of the youngest people there--most of them were middle-aged or really old. Tommy had a great time laughing at me while I was performing the whole time, too. It was such a fun, out-of-the-ordinary date to do together. I'm glad Tommy's such a good sport and easy to please--although I'm sure he would have liked skydiving too! And so fun to celebrate Tommy's birthday too.

Thanksgiving in Houston

I was up until 2am last night working on stuff for our last night of class today (seriously--can you believe it!?) so I really should be taking a nap. But I started uploading pictures and am getting carried away with this, and I'd love to post these today anyways so that Dallin can see what we did for our Thanksgiving. (We missed you, Dallin!)

We are feeling so lucky to be in Texas with aunts and uncles that live in Dallas and Houston (on my side) and Austin (on Tommy's side) and cousins that live in all those areas as well. After living in driving distance of nobody in North Carolina, that is a definite plus! We were spoiled with several invites for Thanksgiving, and we were so excited to go to Houston to visit the Colemans and Bodines (my aunt and uncle and cousin) down there. And oh my goodness, we had SUCH a great time. It was so awesome to hang out with some family and to get out of our normal routine a little bit. "Aunt Kayween" (as Dane was saying) really spoiled us and Dane could not have been happier with the little Bodine kids running around and Mango the dog there to entertain him. 

(In fact, Dane got sick by the end of the trip because he did NOT get enough sleep because we couldn't bear to put him down at his normal bedtime with so much fun and excitement everywhere. He coughed basically the whole four-hour drive home, but we got him down early and he slept from 6pm to 8am on Sunday night--STRAIGHT. And he's been feeling much better ever since.)

We drove down on Wednesday night (Tommy got off work at 2pm, so we got out of Dallas before there was any traffic, hooray!), and we had a big Thanksgiving feast on Thursday with Colemans, Bodines, Leiningers, and then my aunt's (and mom's) cousin Jackie and her family, and her sister-in-law and family. Phew! It was a PACKED house and there was so, so, so much food. The best part was the dessert--we had seventeen pies plus a pumpkin roll, a chocolate tart, and a cheesecake. Seriously--it was almost a pie per person (and most of those people were children!). We didn't even run out of rolls (which means you definitely had enough food). 

After the huge Thanksgiving feast, Kaylene organized a marshmallow gun war for all the kids, and then we all walked over to the park to blow off some energy. (Can I just say that the weather in Houston was just beautiful? So much warmer than Dallas has been!)

Dane immediately abandoned all idea of shooting marshmallows and just picked them all up off the ground to eat them. Smart boy.

Thomas Coleman and Logan and Reid Bodine--such tough guys!

Dane really liked riding Reid's bike around the park--at least, he thought he was riding it.

Little Lily was in charge of walking Mango. She was super offended if anyone tried to help her with the leash. She had no idea that she was about 1/4 the size of the dog.

Walking home and looking pregnant!

MOST of the pies--but they wouldn't even fit on this island.

Me, Kaylene, Jackie, and Brittney--all of us descended from my Great-Grandma Madsen. It is so great to see and meet extended family members and to find out how many good people there are in the world! (And so many that we're related to!)

The day after Thanksgiving we took it easy and went to a little natural science museum with the Bodines and Colemans. Dane loved the dinosaurs.

Giving Lily ("Wiwy"--so cute!) a hug.

 The best, most exciting part of the museum was hands down the ballpit they had for the little kids. It was hilarious to see them all giggling with glee and throwing themselves to the ground. 

We got some delicious tacos after the museum and all squeezed around this Texas-shaped table (ONLY IN TEXAS). 

 Dane doing peek-a-boo for Lily.

Two little mischief makers!

And on SATURDAY, we got to go to the Houston Zoo with Tommy's old friend, roommate, and mission companion, Chris Hawks, and his family. It was really fun to see Chris and Sarah and catch up and meet all of their kids (pretty sure I'd never met the youngest three!). The zoo was a perfect activity for this crowd, and Dane loved seeing--everything.

They have a little tunnel for the kids to crawl through among the piranhas.

Dane and Elise are just about three weeks apart in age. So cute to see them watching things together.

Hard to believe that there are five kids between these two former mission companions--and sure, most of them belong to Chris, but it's still pretty impressive!

And after the zoo, we went out with them and got even MORE delicious tacos. Houston sure is a great place for food!

We had a BLAST in Houston. Tommy not having many vacation days any more makes us really appreciate the time off when he does get it (yes, we're clearly still in mourning over losing the student schedule). And it was just awesome to be able to see so many people we love and do some fun things together! On Sunday, as we were driving home, Dane said two or three times, "I want to go back to Aunt Kaylene's house!" And he even started crying because we were going back to our own house. Definitely not as exciting with just us at home! So we will definitely be going back, hopefully soon.