Keough Family Birthday Extravaganza!

Last weekend Ellen's brother and his family came up to San Francisco to celebrate with us.  Aaron, Kristen, Max, and Charlie all have their birthdays within a week and a half of each other.  Max had his 5th birthday last Friday and Aaron had his birthday on Saturday, so we got to celebrate both birthdays with them at our house!  I have no idea why we didn't snap any pictures of everyone during birthday celebrations BUT believe us, both birthday boys had a really great time!  Kristen had a great idea for Max's cake - she made a plain chocolate sheet cake, then let Max and Sadie decorate it with candy.  They loved it!  Our personal favorite part of the day was the fact that Max kept including Sadie in his birthday, letting her help decorate, open presents, etc.  It was so cute!  When the fam rolled in Friday midday, we went to McDonald's for lunch (per Max's request).  This was Lyla's second trip to McDonald's, and she appeared to be too excited about actually being there to eat anything!  After lunch, we put the kiddos down for naps and left Kristen to supervise, then Max, Sadie, Aaron, and Ellen went to go see Chimpanzees at the theatre.  It was a great movie - great suggestion on Max's part!  We came back for opening some presents and a birthday dinner of mac and cheese and some great birthday cake!

Saturday morning was Aaron's birthday, and we started off the day with some birthday pancakes (pancakes and funfetti in them and candles on top).  We made a trip up to the Oakland Zoo.  The kids (and adults!) had so much fun, but two hours was about our limit.  Plus, it NINETY DEGREES that day and we were dying of heat!  It doesn't help that Bay Area houses don't have air conditioning, so we were roasting a little bit most of the day. :)  We packed a picnic lunch to eat at the zoo, and the kids were great about sitting down at a picnic table to eat.  Definitely a great idea so we could avoid paying crazy prices for food at the zoo!

The Oakland Zoo has a cute area for younger kids, complete with a petting zoo.  Always a good day when you can get up close and personal with a goat. :)

Since it was so hot, Lyla wasn't interested in walking or (thank goodness) being held.  She only wanted to sit in "my ride", as she called it.  We think she might have just wanted to be close to Sadie!

Aaron's family were all brave enough to take a tour of the zoo sky high!



While we were waiting on Aaron, Max, and Sadie, Charlie and Lyla enjoyed some afternoon snacks and sipping drinks out of their seemingly communal sippy cups.



After the zoo we all came home and had a cookout for Aaron's birthday dinner.  However, after dinner Aaron discovered while running a bath for the kids that we had no hot water.  Thus began a water heater fiasco for about the next 24 hours.  After a trip out from the gas company to check for leaks and two visits from a water heater specialist, the owners of our house ended up having to replace the entire water heater and all the hookups.  Thank goodness we have our hot water again though!

Amid that setback, Aaron requested we order the UFC fight to take in during the evening.  Aaron and Dustin enjoyed that while Kristen tried to wrestle all the kids to bed while listening to Lyla chant crazy phrases in her bed like "jungle boogie" and "I poop" (we went in to get her up the next morning and guess what, she did, in fact, poop).  We were all so zapped from the heat and excitement that we turned in early.

The next day we all went to church before the Keoughs headed back to Fresno.  We snapped this cute pic of the kids before we ran out the door, though.  They're too cute!

Once we got home, the Keoughs hit the road and we said our goodbyes.  We are excited to get together for Aaron's college graduation in July.  Until then, see you soon Keough fam!