Way back in April when the Utah trip tickets were being purchased, I thought it would be nice to have Clee's Birthday in Utah for the first time since he was 2. We booked our tickets to come home on his Birthday... at 12:50am. Yep... I screwed that one up. He spent the first 50 minutes of his 9th Birthday asleep in Utah on the runway. Lucky guy. On the bright side, he had not just one but two great swim parties before we left with my side of the family and Tice, Sally, Lane, and crew.

With only 3 good hours of sleep, a 4 hour car ride home from Atlanta, and one 3 week vacation freshly under his belt, I knew he wasn't going to be able to handle another big party. We planned a simple dinner with Grammy, Papa, and Rex for that night. We bought him pizza from his favorite Hungry Howies, and a watermelon instead of a Birthday cake, because lets face it. My kids are weird and don't like Birthday cake (I KNOW, RIGHT???). When it was time for our simple "let's celebrate 9 years of Clemon" dinner, Clemon had had enough. He was yelling. He was screaming. He wanted to go swimming, but didn't want to go swimming at the same time. He was a mess. He brought "it's my party and I'll cry if I want too" to a whole other level. He even cried when we sang Happy Birthday. I couldn't tell if it was due to our singing, but he just wasn't having it. ... I doubt it was our singing... do you think it had to do with our singing?

Poor Clemon spent his Birthday night miserable. I felt bad because it's one of my 3 favorite days out of the year and he just wasn't happy.

Even though the night was off to a rough start, it finished with a happy Clemon. He finally ate his watermelon. He let us sing Happy Birthday to him. He let Fiel and I give him 9 kisses on the cheek. And he smiled at me when I asked if he knew he was my new favorite 9 year old.

ps: Utah trip post coming soon, but first. Lets send the kids off to school tomorrow, shall we?