Tanner's 16th Birthday

All I want for my 16th birthday is....a broken toe? This year Tanner's birthday was on Easter Sunday. About three days before that he was racing Karlee upstairs and jammed his toe on the stair and rolled it off as it he was running up. Needless to say he dropped immediately and was groaning in pain.

We figured there is not much to do for a broken toe. So we told him to take some ibuprofen and buck up. The next morning he was still in terrible pain and couldn't move the toe. I called my niece, Ruth, who is a P.A. to ask if there was any reason to take him to the doctor. She said that since it is the big toe, which takes all your weight with every step that if it was broken he may need to wear a boot.

So Saturday morning Layne took him in and sure enough it was fractured pretty badly. They put him in a boot and said if it wasn't healed in four to six weeks he may need to have a pin put in. Are you kidding me?!?!

So just like he got a broken toe early for his birthday, Tanner got most of his other gifts early too. I am the type of person who likes a surprise and likes to get my presents on the actual day. Tanner does not believe in that...at all. Last year he got a new pipe for his bike...early. This year while we were in Arizona he just had to have a new driver for golfing...early. And he has been fixated like a laser on wanting, needing, having to have a bow for hunting. This was way out of our birthday budget. But our neighbor, Ty Klinger, who Tanner works with in his taxidermy business has a connection with a bow dealership. He trades out work with them. So he agreed to trade for the bow and then let Tanner work it off. So we paid some towards it and he will have to work the rest of it off with Ty.

Hopefully this will keep him happy for awhile. But of coarse even though the bow came in a package with everything he needed it didn't come with a target. So he has had to improvise on that.

The night before his birthday we went out to Gringos for our traditional birthday dinner. It is always the birthday boy's choice. But it is usually always Gringos. He warned us not to tell them it was his birthday. Layne usually sneaks off to "use the restroom" and tells the server. So this year I handed the camera to the server and said, "Could you take a picture, we are celebrating Tanner's birthday tonight." Tanner gave me the look of death and I just smiled.

So they came whistling and singing to our table and sang him their birthday sang. But I think the free fried ice cream was worth the humiliation.

Sunday, Layne ordained Tanner to the office of a priest. We had lots of family in attendance and then had everyone over for an Easter dinner of ham and potato casserole with lots of yummy salads and desserts that everyone brought. This isn't the best picture of Tanner. But I love Zak's reaction of having the smoke blown in his face.

Here is the impatient boy with his EARLY presents. I told him he had to act surprised when I pulled them out on his actual birthday.

Of course I couldn't let him go without opening something on his actual birthday. So he got the real exciting gifts of new shirts and shorts to open today.

So now that Tanner is sixteen he can finally legally drive at night. Not that he was already doing that.... I haven't heard any talk of a first day yet. We shall wait and see.

Tanner is an important part of our family. We love him and are excited to see him maturing into a fine young man.