Brandon's Birthday

Brandon just had his 36th birthday! (on April 18th) Ginger was so excited that it was Daddy's birthday, she was telling him "Happy Birthday" all weekend!

We had a few people over the night before to celebrate with cake and ice cream (it took two or three of us to light all of those candles!). Ginger could not wait to sing the Birthday song, and blow out the candles--she's old enough to know how this all works. So, Brandon had to blow them out fast, before Ginger could!

(The apron? Maybe he is really nervous about getting cake on his shirt?)

The next night, on his actual birthday, he opened his presents: some socks, more socks (his socks tend to go missing, because when my feet get cold, I usually grab some of his socks because they are more convenient to access... then who knows what happens to them. You know, the usual sock mystery.), a movie or two, and a new game called "Dominion". He's really excited about the game! And the new socks of course.

First set of socks...

Second set of socks...

And, the game. Edison really likes the box that the game came in!

I arranged for my Dad to babysit the kids so that Brandon and I could go out for the evening (he was under the impression that we were going to dinner...that's what we usually do). My brother Brandon, we call him "Uncle Bud", was in town for the birthday and was going to tag along. So Brandon knew that it wasn't going to be a romantic dinner, but he was a little surprised when I drove South on the highway about 20 minutes, and then stopped at a Wendy's and said "We should probably get some food here".
He just laughed because he thought that I was joking, then realized that I wasn't: "Wait, really?"
Uncle Bud thought it was hilarious, because he knew exactly where we were going.  He patted Brandon on the shoulder and said "I don't think that they have food where we are going." Brandon couldn't be more confused! Where were we going?
We drove down behind an industrial park, and pulled into an alley with a few parking spaces. There was a perfect spot, right in front of the sign for where we were going so that Brandon finally realized what his Birthday surprise was: we were going shooting (at a firing range)! He has been trying to get me to go shooting with him for months and months--it was a great surprise! So, we met up with our friend, Tony, who brought some guns for us to use, and showed us how it's done.
Brandon hadn't shot a gun in over 20 years, but he was awesome! We kept one of his targets as a souvenir, and it has a pretty big cluster on the bulls-eye. All these years, I've been married to a hunter and didn't even know it. Brandon thinks that now that I've been shooting, I'll let him get a gun... Nope. Nope, not convinced yet. He needs to really do some inception for that to ever happen. Although, I will admit that it WAS fun to go shooting.
Happy Birthday Brandon! We love you!