Mike's 40th Birthday

Mike celebrated his 40th birthday on Saturday. God's special gift to Mike was very cool. Okay, you may be asking, "What cool gift does God give someone for their 40th birthday?" Well, it was a gift in terms of weather: 49 below zero temperatures!

Mike had wanted to go downhill skiing or snow machining for his big day. However, since the thought of putting Mike on a snow machine that can reach 80 miles per hour was not appealing to me, I decided I would give him the gift of downhill skiing. Not that the thought of Mike zipping down mountains on freshly waxed skis weaving between big trees and massive boulders was any more comforting, it did seem like the lesser of the two evils.

I don't think that I've ever said, "Thank you, Jesus, for the cold weather!" At least not until today! With that said, the two ski "resorts" in the area close when it is colder than 20 below zero. So....Mike decided that he would like to go bowling, instead.

After a short drive to Nugget Lanes (on Ft. Wainwright), Mike plugged in the car and we went inside to bowl a few games with the other 724 families that had the same idea. I never knew that Mike shared his birthday with so many kids under the age of 10. There were pink balloons. There were race car balloons. There were princess themed parties and Star Wars themed parties. There were more parties than you could shake a stick at (I'm not exactly sure where that particular phrase originates, but I have heard at least three people over the age of 81 say it at lease ten times). Okay, I've digressed, now back to the story.

Mike and I were assigned one of the few lanes left open. We carefully picked our bowling balls and proceeded to hurl the balls down the lanes toward the carefully placed pins at the end. When all was said and done, Mike won two games and I won the last one. Personally, I think the ONLY reason I won the last one was because Mike's arm was tired and starting to swell from the holding and throwing 12 pounds of spherical mass.

Leaving the bowling alley was one of the best ideas, as it was swarming with screaming kids who had had entirely too much sugar. After warming up the frozen car, we headed home to cook ribs for Mike's special dinner!

Oh, I forgot to mention that not only was it 49 below, it was EXTREMELY foggy!

I wonder how much vitamin d we will get on this sunny day!

Mike plugs in the car to keep it from freezing.

Mike looks for just the right ball.

Mike is exciting to be bowling and not skiing down

a hill in 49 below temps!

He aims......

He throws.....

He gets.....

Nothing!

Okay, it wasn't Mike who got nothing, it was me!