happy birthday daddy!

thalia's daddy turned 30 last week...and boy, did we have fun! north carolina got it's worst snow in quite a few years. most people holed up in their houses, but NOT US MICHIGANDERS! chris and i braved the first flakes to go to The Pit, a fantastic upscale barbecue place in downtown raleigh. while driving home, we saw the raleigh salt crew: 3 guys in bright yellow suits, riding ATVs with what looked like fertilizer spreaders bungied to the back. it was so funny!

on saturday, the temperature warmed up enough for the snow to turn to rain. this caused an inch or so of ice over the 3 inches of snow. not to be conquered, we bundled up and headed to the carolina hurricanes game. it was chris and thalia's first hurricanes game - and they actually WON! that is not usually the case around here.
thalia was getting sleepy and was curled up on my lap. but when the hurricanes scored, she perked right up and was giving everyone high-fives! it was great.
the best thing about going to the hurricanes game is that the zambonis are john deeres!! thalia calls them ice tractors and she loves watching them drive around the ice.

on sunday, martin and kristy came over for dinner. chris wanted a trifle instead of a birthday cake:

it tasted as good as it looked!

finally, on monday, chris' birthday present finally came. i was disappointed because i couldn't think of anything unique to get him. i had hoped to get him something in seattle, but had no luck. then, all of a sudden...it dawned on me!

a HUGE belt buckle! chris has been looking for a gigantic buckle for months. this bad boy is over 5 inches wide! that's a normal sized credit card beneath it.

now chris and martin are off on another tour..."its cold up here" i think is the name. they are hitting up chicago, grand rapids, ypsi, and pittsburgh. we'll miss him, but we have some great girl time planned with kristy.

much love and more sleep,

c, c, and t