Celebrating Zachary's Birthday

Zachary turned 2 last Friday. We celebrated by leaving him with a babysitter. After Cassidy got out of school on Friday, we drove to Switzerland. It was a beautiful drive. We drove on the Autobahn through Germany. Stewart found out our Suburban's engine is governed. That means that when the car hits 100 mph the engine loses some of its power. OK, I was fine with it, but Stewart is trying to figure out how to disable it. The GPS took us on the back roads through Switzerland. It was a beautiful drive. Stewart saw a deer. Our friends were going to have pizza ready for us and we were going to have Zachary's cake, but we got there too late in the evening. Our friends, Kent and Emily Cook, are in a band (a garage band as Emily put it), and they were having their first performance that evening. This is why we went to Switzerland. The Cook's arranged a babysitter for our kids and theirs. So we gave the sitters last minute instructions and were off to hear the band. With passports in hand we were off to Austria. The band was performing at a Mexican restaurant of all places. One of the band's friends had reserved a table for 12 guests and somehow it got canceled. So we had to figure out where we were going to sit. The waitress started talking to us in German, I was catching a bit, then Stewart started speaking in Spanish and that worked much better. Stewart was in charge of communications for the night. He was quite happy he understood all she said. He hadn't spoken Spanish in quite a while. We finally got seated at a corner table, and ordered dinner. The menu was in German, except the names of the dishes were in Spanish. We ordered nachos for an appetizer. It came out with 3 half slices of jalapenos. And their sour cream was more like cottage cheese. But it was still good, just not like home. I had Fajitas for dinner and loved the pictures on the menu showing you how to eat Fajitas. You lay the tortilla flat, fill it with the meat and peppers, then fold it and eat. It is just second nature to us I guess. The Fajitas were good, though a little bland.

So after dinner the band started playing. We hadn't asked what kind of music they would be performing, so we didn't know if it was going to be German, American, or Spanish. It turned out to be all American music and it was a lot of fun. Stewart and I sat back and listened. We sang along to some songs and clapped along with some of the fun songs. They really sounded good. Much better than I was expecting. Stewart and I figured out it had been 9 months since we had been out to dinner without the kids. (We went to The Melting Pot last May for our 13th anniversary.) So here we were in Austria, in a Mexican restaurant, listening to an American band and watching the snow fall outside. I never saw this coming last February. We stayed out until 1am or 0100 as the locals say. We got back to their house and were locked out. They had forgotten the house key, so we rang the door bell, the babysitters were asleep. We tried the telephone, that didn't work either. So Emily and Kent went hiking around to the back of their house to knock on a window. It worked. The girls woke up and were rightly startled. Kent went up to check on the kids, who were all in one room, except the babies (Zachary is still a baby). He said Cassidy wanted mom. So I went up there and she lifted the covers and pointed to Zachary who was snuggled up close to her. She said he wouldn't stop crying when they put him to sleep, so they watched Little Einsteins and she put him in bed next to her. What a great big sister she is.

So even with a big night, Zachary seemed to manage to get up on time 0600. And with all the kids sleeping in the same room he managed to get most everyone else up too. Emily was gracious and trying to keep Zachary happy with a movie, but he wanted his mom, so of course I got up to watch cartoons with the kids. We had a nice morning with pancakes and kids playing. Then we opened Zachary's presents and sang him Happy Birthday. Zachary tried blowing out the candles and failed so Thomas was the good big brother and figured he should help. Well, we relit the candles and Zachary blew them out this time. One breath for each candle. (Your wish still comes true for a two year old, who doesn't get it on the first try.) So the kids played with toys some more, had lunch then we drove home Saturday afternoon. Everyone fell asleep (except Stewart of course!)