Day 25 – July 13, 2019

Happy 11th Birthday, Ashley!

This is a Big Trip first. One of the kids celebrating their birthday in the middle of our voyage. Ashley has expressed some sadness because we aren’t at home celebrating with family and friends.

She likes sleeping in and hanging out in the hotel. The pace of the trip does not allow for much relaxation. But for Ashley’s birthday we did just that.

After a morning of lounging around, we were off to the movies. But first we made a stop at the store to purchase a lot of candy.

The theater nearest our hotel featured huge leather seats that fully reclined and had a tray to place our mounds of candy.

The movie was Toy Story 4. We all enjoyed it. I have to admit, with such a comfortable seat and a tummy full of candy, I may have rested my eyes just a little.

After the movie, Ashley wanted to retreat to the hotel. She had a little headache from eating so much candy.

Back at the room, Ashley received some e-mails that made her day.

She received a birthday video from Kaelyn, Anthony, and Philip.

And a birthday card from Maximus.

These fond birthday wishes from her buddies brought a huge smile to the birthday girl’s face.

She also got a phone call from her favorite big sister, Cassandra.

We played some games on our Nintendo DSs until it was time for mass.

After mass, we found a nice pizza shop. We have talked about having pizza for weeks, but we never have. Now was the perfect time.

In the end, ate way too much pizza and salad. We didn’t save room for cake, but we ate it anyways.

After blowing out the candles, Ashley has this unusual tradition of placing the candles in her mouth. We have no idea where or why this started.

I just hope I’m around when she turns 100.

We waddled back to the hotel for a couple more hours of relaxing before going to sleep.

Ashley received one final gift, a stunning video created by Maximus using Minecraft. The scene showed “Happy Birthday”. He then panned to the sky where fireworks exploded like the Fourth or July. Then Max wished Ashley happy birthday. It was an awesome end to the day.

The days of laying around resting are now over. Starting tomorrow, we will be back to hitting it hard again.