August 6 2010 – Brother’s 40th

My big bro turned 40. Wow. Time is flying. Guess I’ll be there soon enough. So his wife surprised him with an unexpected trip here to Portland, so we got to celebrate with them. Funny thing: when they came into town, he needed a haircut, so I recommended my barber. Right after he left there, I get a call, saying; “dude, that was the most disturbing barber experience of my life.” So I’m thinking: “oh no, what…bad haircut?” Then he tells me that the haircut was great, but the disturbing part came at the end. Just before finishing the barber give him a final look from the front and decides to do some finish work…and starts snipping his eyebrows. He was mortified because they will usually at least ask if he wants them to do this, but this time, right on his 40th celebration trip, the barber sees it needs to be done and just goes for it. We gotta get used to it sometime, I guess.

So they went and enjoyed a few days at the Oregon coast. Upon their return to town, my two sisters from Seattle made the trip down and we had all 4 of us siblings, a couple spouses and our kids to throw him a little fiesta party. Mexican themed because we LOVE Mexican food in our family...he and I have a special affinity for Burritos. Just one of those little joys in life when you down a satisfying, delicious Burrito. It was a fun party.

Next day, we headed over to our favorite day-rafting spot on the Clackamas river. He and I inner-tubed the 40-minute route once just to make sure it wasn’t too bad, then took my little girls down in small rafts the second time. Barlow took Moriah and Brooke in his raft while Clara sat with me. In retro spect, it was a bit sketchy to have Clara in there with me. The water was very cold and I couldn’t seem to keep the water out of the raft (even got out and dumped it a couple times). So, she was cold, but having a great time. At one point it started to rain on us while we were on a smooth section and the drops on the water looked really cool hitting the river surface. Clara looked at that and said: “Look dad, it’s sparkling!” What a cool way to describe it. You never know what’s gonna come out of the mouth of a 2 yr old. It’s so fun to see her wonder at the world around her.

On the way home, we had a big fat bummer. The minivan loaded with 8 people broke down. Turned out to be the water pump, but at the time, all I could see was gushing antifreeze and hear a terrible grinding noise. We tried to get at least somewhat close to civilization. We ended up being able to limp along and park at a pizza joint. The family ate while I did the tow truck dance. Had a cool conversation with the truck driver about religion on the way to Sherwood. He had been rehabbing for over a year from a terrible accident (he was a pedestrian run over by a truck) and we talked about the existence of God, and the conversation steered toward the Book of Mormon and its significance to the human race. It was a really cool conversation. You never know when an opportunity like that is going to arise. We dropped off the vehicle and I raced back to pick them up with my other car. Again, another reason I’m grateful to have the new vehicle with additional seats.

Happy birthday, bro! Sorry about the breakdown on your last night in town, guys! It was a bummer, but at least we got in some tubing/rafting and some good pizza! It wasn’t a total loss. In fact, it worked out pretty well, all things considered. It’s kinda amazing how things work out sometimes.