Mark’s 28th Birthday

This past Saturday (June 19th) we celebrated Mark’s 28th birthday! To my shame- I did not take any pictures at the blessed event and I really am sad that I did not. I put a lot of effort into the party and tried my best to make it a memorable day for Mark. I started planning it a couple weeks beforehand. I decided that since the magical weather predictors were saying that the weather would be in the low 80’s and sunny that we just HAD to have an outdoor event. Happily, the magical weather predictors were right and the weather was perfect.

I decided to plan a cook-out for Mark’s birthday. That boy just LOVES to grill so I figured it would be perfect for his birthday party. I invited a few of his friends and his family to the event. We ended up having hamburgers, hotdogs, bratwursts (Mark’s favorite) and a variety of side dishes and drinks- all to be topped off by a large chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. At the party we had a football, ladderball, and a PING PONG table to help entertain all of the guests.

Now, planning a party is a lot of work! But let me tell you something- finding and getting that ping pong table was a difficult feat that should give me brownie points until the day I die in Mark’s book. LoL Mark LOVES ping pong. He loves it and often times complains about the fact that literally no where in Provo or Orem is there a place where you can go and play ping pong. I asked a co-worker a few weeks ago if he knew of any ping-pong places and to my great happiness, he knew a young man who was planning to get rid of his table at a very very low price. Now, it isn’t a brand new table and it isn’t in the best shape ever- but it works! So after getting a hold of the guy I had to arrange a time to go see it. I was satisfied and we agreed upon a price (it really was a steal). So then I had to figure out how I was going to get the table and better yet- how I was going to get it to the park on the day of the party. After exhausting all of my resources- I finally had my friend Eden ask her friends if anyone had a truck we could borrow. This WONDERFULLY KIND guy named Rob offered to help us out. This poor guy drove from Salem, UT to Highland, UT to get the truck- then he drove it down to Orem and picked us up and drove to Provo to get the table (which he completely took apart and loaded himself) and then brought the table back to Orem (where I live) to store it until the day of the party. Then on the day of the party I was a bit panicked because I had yet to found a way to get it to the park- when suddenly a truck became available for me to borrow (Happy day!!!). So my cousin helped me to drive it to the park where me and Eden spend 40 minutes setting the thing up to the best of our abilities.

A friend of Mark’s was available to distract him on the day of his birthday and finally bring him to the park after everything was all set up. We had all of the activities set up, the grill going, and food all set up on the tables and read for the eating. Mark really seemed to enjoy himself! He later told me that it was one of the nicest things anyone had ever done for him on his birthday! :-) Oh, and did I mention that the grill was part of his birthday present from me too? I found an awesome deal on just a little charcoal one at Wal-Mart! Yay for WalMart- the American dream. ;-)

In case there is any doubt- yes, Mark is worth all of the trouble of planning a party and transporting a huge ping pong table. He is very sweet to me and very much so deserved to have a wonderful birthday!