Happy Birthday Bubba!

The morning of September 12 dawned bright and beautiful.  It was a special day.  Bubba was celebrating his big 70th birthday.  The birthday celebration was his choice -- he wanted to camp at Lake Seminole with Joe and Judy so that is what we were going to do.  This came as a big disappointment to Amy and me because we wanted to have a big family birthday dinner for him.  It was disappointing to Amelia because she stated that she wanted him to:
     Have a party and have 20 people come.  She said he needed
          20 party hats
               20 "Happy Birthday blowers"
                      Streamers
                            Pictures of Paw-Paw
                                  A Happy Birthday shirt for Paw-Paw.

Oh well, it was HIS birthday after all.  He ordered a new cast net for a birthday present and had already received it.  I had ordered him a coconut cake from a friend at work who has a bakery and that was going to be a surprise.  He loves coconut cake, but the ones I make are really rich so I was trying to get one similar to the ones his mother used to make.

My friend at work was supposed to call me when it arrived and I was going to go pick it up.  The plan was that I would tell Bubba I had to run back to work for just a few minutes to help her with a problem.  The call came and Bubba got so irritated because I was going back to work when we were supposed to be going camping.  He told me that if they could not do without me for just one day that I might as well get my retirement paperwork back and keep on working.  He was so annoyed that finally I just said, "Bubba, I'm going to pick up your birthday cake!"  "Oh," he said.  I came back with the most beautiful cake.  I'm sorry that I almost caused him to have a stroke.

Joe and Judy had arrived at Lake Seminole the night before.  We both had beautiful sites on the water.  After we got set up, we went over to their trailer where we enjoyed sandwiches and birthday cake for lunch.

Finally, he was surprised.  When he and Joe recently went kayaking with their sister, Azalea, at her lakeside home, he tried to get his kayak down to the water with a cart he had created using a handtruck with swim noodles attached to it.  Apparently Azalea thought his creation was pitiful because she called Joe and asked him to pick out a real kayak cart for Bubba and they could split the cost.

Bubba was surprised.  I was even surprised.  What a nice thing to do for their 70 year old brother.

The day included a call from Amy wishing him a happy birthday and then later a call from Amelia who sang "Happy Birthday" to him.  Their presents came in the mail earlier in the week.

We ate dinner that night at Papa Doc's Lakeside Grill.  This is the second time we've eaten there.  Both times have been really good.  We all ordered seafood and had a variety of delicious appetizers before the real food arrived.
We returned to camp and enjoyed visiting while we sat outside in Joe and Judy's screened "gazebo" which kept the bugs away.  Bubba truly enjoyed his birthday.  Thanks Joe and Judy for sharing with us.

In addition to several more really good meals, there was kayaking and fishing.

Some good relaxation.  Saturday was breezy and cool enough to make being outside comfortable.

All too soon, it was time to pack up and head for home.  The birthday cake was down to one last piece which Bubba was looking forward to eating for his breakfast.

Little bitty black ants were crawling on his cake.  I was going to throw it out, but he said he was going to eat it anyway and he did.  He said you couldn't even taste them.  I'm glad he enjoyed his birthday cake down to the very last bite.

It was a good weekend.  We're looking forward to being able to stay longer when I retire in October.  Every time we start home, we wish we could stay one more day.  Good times are ahead!