Birthday Festivities and the Donaldson Family Reunion

I would have loved to give Blake his own birthday post but it overlapped so much with the family reunion that it was too difficult to separate, so everyone please forgive the massive post.

We started the weekend off by heading up to Heber Friday afternoon. We stayed at a really nice camp called Heber Valley Camp. The camp is sponsored by the church and ran by elderly missionary couples. If our Girls Camps were as nice as this one I bet there would've been a lot more happy campers. ha. Each family got their own cabin with 8 bunk beds in them (minus mattress' for the bunks).

Of course within minutes of arriving Blake was already getting attacked with large Nerf guns by all the children.

We learned how to play Ladder Ball, which could be a good addition to our yard games collection.




There were several challenge courses around the camp. This challenge course consisted of climbing a large pole, walking across a plank, and then riding a zip line to the bottom. It didn't seem too scary from the bottom, but seemed a lot higher once you were at the top.

Courtney was the brave one and went first.









Courtney and Blake are the funniest people I know. They both keep me laughing all the time.

That night we had a camp fire at the amphitheater with singing, skits, and stories.







At midnight my Dad and Courtney sang to Blake their famous "Today is your birthday Shout Hooray!" They synchronized special moves and everything for the song.

My parents then gave him his gifts so that he could use them that night. They got him sleeping bags and a tent. We didn't use the tent but we did use the sleeping bags.

Here is Blake in his new sleeping bag (as you can tell we didn't tough it out with our bedding arrangements. The air mattress was a good idea until the middle of the night when Blake woke me up because his side of the mattress was deflated to the cement. Poor Blake had a horrible nights sleep that night).



Happy Birthday Boy!


We had a cake made at Costco so that we could celebrate with everybody at the reunion that afternoon.

My sister mastered hula hooping while on the balance board.

Blake was able to do it a little bit too!

We got to go canoeing on a small lake on the camp grounds. It was a gorgeous day!



Blake's presents. He was a spoiled boy!

Tasha, Brian, Tanner, Brayden, and Chase sent Blake a package in the mail with cards and the movie Blind Side. He talked to them on the phone while he opened the package. He (and me too) LOVE that movie! It is a favorite of ours!

We went to Texas Road House for dinner. SO GOOD!


Texas Road House is so fun because on people's birthdays they make them sit on a saddle while the restaurant yells "YEEEHAWWW!" Blake was a good trooper about it!





Blake's Mom, Dad, and Paige sent him such a nice package! They sure loaded him up good :) Here he is opening the Wii remote control.

Here he is with his new drill and drill bits (from his parents and Paige), which he was sooo excited about! He kept playing with it the next day!

That night Blake even got a birthday visit from his new favorite furry friend :) (That's a joke. This cat keeps coming to our house every night and begging to come in. Blake isn't a cat person and doesn't understand my sympathy for the cat).

I usually love making people's favorite birthday cakes, but since we were gone most of the day I ordered an ice cream cake from Coldstone instead. It was chocolate cake with banana ice cream and Oreos on the outside. So yummy!

I hope you had a great birthday Blake!