My Facebook status from nearly 2 weeks ago:
Happy eighth Birthday to my dear Cory! I adore your warm smiles, your joyful laughter, your tender heart, your enthusiastic energy, your fun sense of humor, your desire to learn and your sweet faith! I hope your day and year are beyond wonderful!
Since Cory’s birthday was on a school day and since we were heading out of town the very next day, we decided to do his cake celebration on the night of his birthday eve.
He tried to convince us that he should open presents then, too, but we compromised and said he could open one gift in the morning before school, and the rest later in the evening once everyone was home.
The gift and card that greeted Cory on his birthday morning.
Keri was pretty excited to give Cory a gift just from her.
She gave him a little Lego set.
Next year I think I need to help Eli pick out a gift to give. He kept insisting that he wanted to give Cory some new Pokemon cards. (Eli also really wanted to open all of Cory’s presents. He spent most of the gift opening time perched on Randy’s shoulders.)
Cory thoroughly enjoyed opening his gifts. He is not normally one who likes the spotlight on him, but in this instance he didn’t mind … nor did he mind the festive Christmas wrap 
.
Of course he asked for more Pokemon cards, and his wish was granted. (It’s a good thing I stocked up on these things in a very efficient and inexpensive manner.)
I wonder if he will still be on a Pokemon kick next year when his birthday rolls around or if he will have moved on to something new.
The morning after his birthday, we woke up bright and early to head to the airport. We were going to fly to Southern California for his baptism (and a couple of other family events). We had planned for Cory, and his cousin who turned eight 4 days before he did, to share this special milestone together at a family baptism.
I adore the fascination the kids have of the font filling.
Unfortunately the flight we had scheduled with JetBlue never materialized.
The rest of that story, though, will have to wait for the next post.
But I will say we drove, and drove and drove some more. We couldn’t handle crushing the dreams of our kids – the tears streaming down their faces were truly a sight to behold. We also didn’t want to disappoint our family … or ourselves … by missing all the activities that had been planned while we were supposed to be in town.
Loved that your drove, and drove, and drove, and drove to see us and that reminds me of “the pioneer children sang as they walked and walked and walked and walked.” Thanks for being modern day pioneers. Made some very precious memories while everyone was here.
Sweet post!!!