Sweet Sixteen

Today was Jordan's 16th birthday. He spent most of the day working with our youth pastor, Aaron Knapp, on renovating his house. (When we say "renovating," picture "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," except without the crew of hundreds, the trip to Disneyworld, the gigantic budget. This is more like rebuilding a house than it is remodeling one.) We're very proud of how Jordan is both developing a strong work ethic and learning a lot about construction. He has worked some long days with Aaron and others, and still has kept up on his training for cross country.

His birthday gifts this year included a cordless drill and hammer (also cordless), which was very exciting to Jordan. He was also excited to get his first Leatherman, from Aunt Laura and Uncle Jamey.

We felt bad that we hadn't really planned anything big for this big birthday. No party or anything. But Jeannette bought some tri-tip steak from Dick Howard's and barbequed it up, and served it with some awesome corn-on-the-cob and pasta. It was one of the best dinners I've had in a long time, including some pretty good eatin' while I was in Denver.

Dark chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, and vanilla ice cream, finished off the meal. It will come as no surprise to anyone who regularly reads this blog, but MelodyJoy stole the show at this point. When we celebrated her first birthday in April, MJ really wasn't eating solid foods yet. Now she'll eat anything and, needless to say, chocolate cake meets with her approval. It took Jeannette and me a good half hour to get everything cleaned up afterwards.