The Big Birthday

Dan turned 13 this year. It doesn't seem possible! The night before his birthday, I was thinking back to February 17, 1996. He was born at 3:15am. We were eating supper and reminiscing about his childhood. What funny stories we had! The weird thing was I awoke at 3:15am the morning of his birthday. I went in to his room, leaned down and said "Happy Birthday, my teenager!". He surfaced from sleep to smile and remembered in the morning.

Dan likes homemade birthday cake so I made one for him this year. However, when I put the candles in, a great big crack opened up! So, as usual, we made lemonade out of a lemon. For Dan's birthday, he had the one and only "birthday quake"!

He had a very memorable birthday. Grammy and Aunt Di came down to celebrate with him since they have their birthdays all in a row. Dan is the 17th, Aunt Di is the 20th, and Grammy is the 24th. We had Dan's favorite dinner which is "Mom's deerhunter breakfast casserole" and Grammy's biscuits and gravy. Mmmmmn, Mmmmmn, good!

(Posthumously, we celebrate Grandma Zelma (Branson) Woodruff's birthday also in February. She died when Denny was 12. Dan, Dana and I did not have the pleasure of meeting her but she will always be in the hearts of the Woodruff 4.)

Denny and I wanted Dan to have a birthday to remember. We got a room at the Marriott in Opryland and Dan invited 1 friend to come with him. Dan, John and I went to the hotel on Friday. The boys had a great time swimming in the indoor pool, sitting in the hot tub, and watching movies. I brought all kinds of snacks and drinks for them to enjoy.

The next morning, Denny met us at the hotel to pick up the boys. From there, they went to the National Turkey Federation Convention that had over 545 booths of hunting stuff. They were in heaven. I did not see my boys until 6:30 pm Saturday night. They had some tales to tell! Dan said it was the best birthday ever.