Wednesday, August 12, 2009

hello, goodbye, hello, goodbye

August 11, 2009 - Quinn turned 3.

For Quinn's birthday we ran the full gamut of emotions. We started the day with a funeral for our friend Rory Bumgardner, one of Zach's seminary students. Lots and lots of tears. We knew that someday there would be seminary students that would die, but it hit us pretty hard when it turned out to be one that we had such a strong connection and a close relationship with. Rory hung out at our house a lot playing silly games with us or having deep conversations with Zach about the gospel. He really was one of our closest friends. We miss him fiercely already and we ache for his friends and family. But it brings a smile to our faces knowing that he'll be on the other side to meet us when we get there.


Here's Rory (the happy one) and friends learning how to moonwalk at our house late one night.

Later that day our emotions took an intense jump in the other direction. When Zach came home from work we started the real birthday celebrations. I sewed Quinn a birthday crown that, while sewing I was cursing myself for thinking he would be willing to wear it for even a moment, but then he ended up going nuts over it and wearing it for two hours straight. Success. I don't think I can put into words my happiness over this. I nearly cried. Then we drove to Richfield to take Quinn to McDonalds for his birthday dinner. Jealous? I know. He had a great time. I think he ate maybe three fries and a nugget and a half and then was off to play. His excitement was totally contagious and Zach and I couldn't stop grinning while watching him.



This was his exact face as he shot out of the bottom of the slide.


Wee!


FYI: The inside of the playplace is an awesome place to take pictures. The kids are always smiling and the colors are fantastic!

Max even got in on the action - with a little help of course.

In fact, we had the whole place to ourselves, so we all got in. How stinking fun is that??

I love Papa...

He loves me...


We are a happy family.

Max had so much fun he could hardly stand it. It must have been a total overload for his little senses. Can you imagine what a playplace might be like for a baby who's never seen one before?? We loved watching him explore.

Peek!


That smile didn't budge the whole time we were there. Totally worth the nasty food and crawling through those even nastier tubes. I bet they never clean them. Quinn's feet were black. GROSS!

After all of our fun at McDonald's we headed over to Wal-Mart to let Quinn pick out whatever he wanted. (I don't know how to explain the knotted up feeling I get in my stomach admitting that we went to McDonald's AND Wal-Mart to celebrate our first child's birth. What's that called? Lack of better options? I can hope, right?)
When we pulled into Wal-Mart there was an awesome peace sign painted bus parked in the corner of the lot...
(much like this one) (my camera was outta juice at this point. I will regret that the rest of my life.)
...and a handful of hippies were sitting on the ground in front of it singing songs. If you know me well, then you probably know this is like, my dream come true. We just stood and stared at them for a while. They had a sign that read "Lovin' life! Outta Cash!" LOVE IT. After a minute we decided to trek across the lot and chat with them. At this point I'm thinking how lucky I am to be married to someone who loves to meet interesting people at any cost. And I was seriously hoping they would recognize us as kindred spirits by me and Zach's Chaco's, Quinn's Keens and Quinn and Max's tie dye shirts and cut-offs. They were super friendly and told us that they were living on the road, travelling from place to place and having a great time. They were headed to Salt Lake because they said they'd never been there before and tended to, "get a lot of great energy from big cities." Awesome. Anyways, so we chatted a while and had a great time and before leaving we told them it was Quinn's birthday. They got so excited and said, "We should sing him a song!" No wait, THAT was my dream come true. After a pretty hilarious shot at Happy Birthday I said, "Well, Ring Of Fire is his favorite song. Do you know that?" And the one with the guitar said he'd give it a shot. After a few practice chords he went right into it. He knew the words and everything! And when he got to the chorus everyone sang along. It was like something out of a movie. I wish I had it all on camera. Quinn couldn't stop smiling and clapping and dancing. He was in heaven. You know how I said we ran the full gamut of emotions? Again, I nearly cried tears of joy. It was such an awesome moment. To have all these hippies sing Quinn's favorite song to him on his birthday?? Again, I can't describe it. It was wonderful and hilarious and beautiful.... I love hippies. They made his birthday something we'll never forget.
And then we gave them five bucks.
Then we went into Wal-Mart and after he walked up and down the toy aisles without being too interested in much he finally found a matchbox car garage with ramps and all kinds of fun. He grabbed it and said, "Take home Papa? Take home pwease?" It was perfect. Unfortunately the time got away from us and he ended up falling asleep in the car on the way home and he didn't get to play with it till the next day. That just shows what a fun day it had been. It really was the perfect birthday.

He got his cake the day after his birthday. Thank goodness for the Sigg tradition of The Birthday Week! More celerations to come! And there really are 3 candles on the cake. One of them is hiding. :)

Happy birthday to our Mighty Quinn.

4 comments:

Jill said...

Happy birthday Quinn! I am glad it was so awesome! I love the crown! We miss you guys!

Anonymous said...

Awesome!! It sounds like a Cowan sort of adventure. Wish I could have tagged along. Happy Birthday, Birthday Buddy!

I love when my kids have a birthday. You guys made Quinn's pretty magical. And I LOOOOVE the playplace shots! So cool!

Kristin, Scott, Emily and Eric said...

Only you would truly appreciate hippies sitting in front of a bus and have been brave enough to go and talk to them. :)

Happy Birthday to Quinn! :) Emily's right behind ya!

aswigfromthesiggs said...

What a bitter sweet day.

Happy Birthday Quinn!