Birthday(s) in Tahoe

My mom and Danny's birthdays are a day apart (which would be a funny enough coincidence even if my birthday and Danny's dad's birthday weren't two days apart), and a while ago my mom and I hatched a plan that they would come out to visit for her birthday this year and we would celebrate both birthdays up in Tahoe. I subsequently decided that the trip to Tahoe should be a surprise, and also decided that two of Danny's best friends should accompany us, and that should also be a surprise, and one of them should fly in all the way from New Orleans, and that should ALSO be a surprise. Is that enough surprises? I also bought us a share in the cabin our friends rent for the winter as a kind of outrageous birthday present. Why all the fuss for this particular birthday, #33, which may not seem like anything special? Because Danny was turning 33 on 11-11-11, which seemed to me to be a bigger deal than 30 or 40, and Danny doesn't like big deals to be made out of him in a conventional way anyway. The appropriate way to mark the numerological oddity of this event was clearly to go gambling somewhere and bet on 11, and I thought what better place than State Line, in South Lake Tahoe?

Tahoe is, as was the weekend in general, such a wonderful blend of youthful hedonism and wholesome family fun. Jack and Sadie were excited to celebrate their daddy with cupcakes and singing before the boys went out for the evening.



The facial hair in this photo lasted for only one night, thank God. At least for my husband. I cannot speak for Ev.

While the boys took Danny out for a fancy steak dinner, the kids and I took a nice long jacuzzi tub-time.  Sadie crashed early, Grandma and Grandpa dozed while Jack ran circles around their hotel room, and then listened in on the monitor once I finally got him to sleep, while I joined the party downstairs. We (or I should say they, as I was mostly peripheral) were very popular at the craps table, and Danny bet three times on 11, which I was sure was the magic number. He lost all those bets. But he did win $150 not betting on 11! So much for numerology.

The next morning the boys recovered from their evening of excess while Sadie napped, and those of us with brighter eyes and bushier tails went for a hike.



I was impressed with Jack. At least in the beginning, he had boundless energy and ran much of the way rather than walking. Anything anyone pointed out, he looked at with great intensity, even if it was just a hole in the ground that suggested the faintest possibility that an animal might be near. I felt bad for the poor kid, because it was too cold for very much to be out and about. His spirits remained high, though, and he was as excited about tracks we found in the snow and birds we heard in the trees as I would've imagined him being about animals we might have actually seen. This was my mom's birthday morning, and I think there was probably no other way she would rather have spent it.

The way back did not go quite as smoothly. Jack apparently used up all his energy on the way out, or he doesn't like going uphill, or his shoes were too small, or something. There was a lot of carrying on the return trip. We still successfully tired him out though, because he fell asleep almost the instant we got in the car, and slept through several stops, including one where we picnicked inside the cars overlooking a very cold picnic table overlooking the lake.  We returned to Oakland later that day while my parents stayed up to look at Tahoe real estate and tease me with the possibility of having a place of our own up there someday.

 The next day Jack had a special morning with his Godfather Scott. He got to show Godfather the boats and trains at his favorite place for intermodal transport, the Port of Oakland. I think there was also some bonding over goose poop and an eagle sitting in the bushes that Jack spotted (and that daddy and Godfather would have otherwise walked right by). Danny took several dozen pictures and these were the only ones where Jack doesn't look like a complete goofball.

Only partial goofballery there. Jack and Godfather also had a very important conversation about what "believe" means. I thought this was going to precipitate some pretty weighty subject matter, but Scott kept it pretty straight-forward and secular, and now my son is able to detect sarcasm and will respond with "No way! You're being silly!" (Which is just as important a Godfatherly duty.)

I think this was my favorite birthday that wasn't mine. Thanks go to my mom for sharing her birthday with us, to both my parents for all their help with the kids, to Ev for rocking the craps table and from the sounds of it their car on the way up, to Scott for setting a whole new standard for friendship (and Godfatherhood), and to Danny, for being such a fun person to plan surprises for, even if he never acts surprised.