A Birthday, an Accident, and some Fish

Caden officially turned 5 last week. He has been so excited. He asked, "So ,do I go to Kindergarten tomorrow?" I had to explain that he finishes out joy school this spring then has the summer off and then will finally go to kindergarten. I think he was a little bummed.

The day started off in our traditional way. Breakfast of pancakes with ice cream on top. I kept asking the week before what he would like for dinner on his birthday and he told me pancakes with ice cream. I think he likes it.

Chowing down on some bacon, yummy!

Here is the gang having breakfast.

Immediately following breakfast is presents time. We were waiting for everyone else to finish their breakfasts so I buried Caden in his gifts.

Oh, fish food, I wonder what that could be for.

Caden has seriously been asking for a belt for over a year now. He is in this wonderfully awesome phase right now where he wants to be just like Dad. That is how we finally got him to wear a tie on Sunday. He insisted he needed a belt to finish the ensemble and be JUST LIKE dad.

Lana had a great time playing with the balloons.

Checking out the belt some more.

That was some of the birthday part of the day. Now on to the accident part. I was loading up the kids to take them to Walmart to let Caden pick out and buy his fish. Branson showed up home early so I left Lana with him and took the boys. I saw the car was out of gas and decided to be a nice wife and fill it up. I thought since we were getting gas we may as well get a car wash too. The boys love going through the car wash.

We have this new crazy big intersection in Saratoga Springs where we do all of our shopping. That means I can no longer turn left straight in to the gas station. I had to take a turn past the gas station and up to the next light to flip a U-turn to get back to the gas station.

I waited at the light to flip the U-ee. The light turned red and I waited a second to make sure no one was going to run the light then I turned. In the middle of the turn there was a blur and then I saw our license plate bouncing across the road. It took me a second to realize we were in an accident.

I pulled over and the car that "hit" us pulled over about a block up. It took him that long to stop because he was going so fast, I bet about 60 mph. The guy didn't see the light at all and just blazed through it. So, what happened was I was in the middle of the turn completely perpendicular to the road. The guy was flying straight and just swiped off our front license plate. That was the only damage done. It was a miracle! If we were just two feet further up it would have totalled our car and seriously injured or killed us. What a blessing, we said a little prayer in the car thanking Heavenly Father for keeping us safe that day.

I was just a teensy shook up but we went and go the gas and car wash, then on to Walmart. Caden picked three goldfish, and they had to be gold he didn't want any with white on them, then hurried home to set them up in their new home.

We had cupcakes that night.

We set the fish up in the boys room. They love their fishies. I think they are pretty fun too. A week later we have had a casualty. We were gone out of town all weekend so they didn't get fed. Oopsies. Oh, Caden named them waxen, blaxen and vixen. (his own version of Santa's reindeer's names)

Overall it turned out to be a pretty great day.