Best Birthday Party Ever!!

Or so they kept sayin'.
 
For more than one reason, I too thought it was.

Here's one: this birthday raft trip down Clackamas River proved to be the easiest birthday to plan for me. Besides getting the food prepped, I didn't have much to do for it. With our friend and expert rafter Trev being mostly 'in charge', the whole party felt like a piece of cake. I got to ride and enjoy myself as much as Isaiah and his little buddies...and I'm pretty sure Andrew and Jason Chupp can say as much for themselves.

Oh, but wait. Before I misrepresent the whole thing, I must say that it was not a piece of cake to get on the river...or a piece of cake for Trev to give up most of a day and lend us most of his gear. For all that and all the other things you did to make it happen, Trev, we are ever so grateful! Thank you!!

So, with that said, I'm all set to share the pictures!

The day before, I made these personal raft zucchini cupcakes for the party.

When we got to the 'take in', the boys helped with inflating the raft.

Even the birthday boy had a turn.

Even the bug man took a break from bug hunting to do his share.

Here they are, ready to roll!

I got this shot using Trev's waterproof camera.



While they paddled back up this little rapid to do something they call 'surfing', I froze my
little toesies to take this poor shot. I don't care though, I am including it here anyway. 



Before stopping for lunch, we did a little bit of jumping off cliffs....

...and they all enjoyed the rush of jumping in the frigid water...

...mosquito-legged Isaiah included...

...and fancy-footed Mas too....

...but no one was game for the sort of thing 'Soaring Wes' was up to!

We got off the river at a halfway mark to have lunch and get rehydrated.
Mas also needed to dry off. The kid was cold!!!

These awesome candles withstood the wind so that the birthday was not absolutely ruined. ;)

They all got intensely involved in their cupcakes once the candles were blown.

Don't worry Cav, I'm not going to take any of your candy away. Promise.

What? You saved the best for last?
 This kid always is so appreciative of any food I make for him!



Isaiah opened presents and the boys "oohed" and "aahed". Really, the best birthday party ever!!



The day could not go by without Cavan finding a cool bug,
and so he made sure to find this thorn bug during our lunch break.
Good job, Cavan. I was counting on you for that.

Trevis ran into one of his buddies during one of the shuttles he and Andrew had to do up and down the river road and he happend to be taking pictures for a couple of groups going down the river. Trev asked him to take these next several shots at one of the major rapids. They sure turned out AWESOME!!

  

We stopped in an eddy shortly after that to jump off another outcropping of rocks. This time, some of the adults joined in.

We came to the end of our line a little past this outcropping, and to the chagrin of us all, it was time to get off the river. While the boys waited by the riverside for the dads to shuttle cars back and forth, they came across a "jackpot" of tadpoles. The tadpoles quickly became part of my party favors. I had hoped for something like that to turn up along the river and had put in little containers in their party bags for such an occasion. I wouldn't have expected anything as cool as tadpoles at this time of the year, but hey, it was the best birthday ever! That's just how best-birthday-party-evers come to be, I guess. The unexpected good that could happen does happen.

So now we, and three other families, have at least one pacific tree frog on our hands--souvenirs from our trip down the Clackamas River! 

Here's Mr. Froggy!!