Layton's Birthday & Outing

Layton's birthday was the 12th and last Monday we woke him up, per tradition, with 4 balloons in bed, 2 brothers, and lots of Happy Birthdays!

It was a fun, sweet start to the day. He's still at the age where it's a little confusing understanding the difference between your birthday and the day of your birthday party. So we kept talking to him about it and explaining it and we think he finally understood that on Monday he turned 4! 😊

Another bright and early run to the doughnut palace for our 2nd birthday boy of the month! Layton likes "plain" best of all when it comes to food, so a glazed doughnnut is what he chose. And a fresh, plain, glazed doughnut is my fave too!

 I love how animated he is blowing out candles. 

He took a cookie cake to school to share with his class and chose our supper the night of his bday... tacos! For the 2nd Monday (and birthday celebration) in a row! Haha!

On this past Saturday we celebrated with his long-awaited Superhero party, and on Monday we set off for his birthday outing and "gift" from mama and daddy.

We decided on another trip to Snow Mountain and had such a fun day together! We chose Snow Mountain for 2 reasons. One is because Layton absolutely LOVED our trip last year when we took Garrison for his birthday outing. He loved it so much he wanted our trip during Spring Break to Stone Mountain to include snow and our trip during Fall Break to include snow. He's talked about Snow Mountain off and on for a whole year. So that was the main reason we decided to go back. We also knew it was perfect timing given that our season passes expire at the end of this month. So it was one last chance to visit Stone Mountain and get a discount on Snow Mountain tickets. A win-win. 😊

Loaded up and heading out!

We arrived shortly after 10 when the park opened and it was a little cool, super foggy, and extra drizzly. 

These 3 were so excited. Especially our littlest man. 

This was the scene when we first got in the snow and the snow machine was going. It looked like a Winter day in the Pacific Northwest. (As if I know what that looks like. It's at least what I imagine it looks like.)

We started off on the kiddie tubes and once again this year, Layton was content with just one ride down. Haha!

The big boys went down several times and loved it!

There were very few people there and the boys never had to wait in line. The weather wasn't the best but we still had a ton of fun and enjoyed the low crowds!

Layton and I played in the snow for a while before his big brothers joined us. 

This was probably Layton's favorite part.

Garrison's hair was wet by this point thanks to the drizzle. Thankfully it never actually rained or got any heavier and it eventually stopped altogether.

We played here in the snow until our tube time started.

Here we are getting ready to go down for the first time!! It was SO fun! And faster than last year I believe! 

After a few times down in the tube Layton decided he wanted to go back and play in the snow. He wasn't a huge fan of the thrill this year. Haha. So we split up and Terrell continued tubing with the bigs while Layton and I went back to the play area.

He played and played and had such a good time but eventually got tired and actually asked me to take him somewhere to lay down. Bless his heart. He'd been battling an ear infection (and strep!) so I got worried that maybe he wasn't feeling so good but I think he was just worn out. He made other requests we wanted to make happen so we traded off again. 

I rode the tube with the big boys while Terrell took Layton to see the 4-D Ice Age show. Since we had our season passes we were able to do anything Stone Mountain offered while we were there and it worked out perfect for us. The big boys and I had a blast tubing. Every ride was so fast and fun!! And because it wasn't very crowded we had very short waits. YAY.

Layton getting ready to go see the movie with daddy. 😊

Once Garrison and Austin got pretty tired, we met up with Terrell and Layton just as the movie was finishing up and Layton had one last request before we called it a day.... he wanted to do the Sky Ride and ride to the top of the mountain. Since the boys were worn out we just moved our car instead of making the walk and rode the gondola thing up the mountain. We had almost zero visibility, which was a little crazy, but Layton loved it. Once we got outside at the top of the mountain we realized it was colder, wetter, and more foggy. Haha! We could hardly see a thing! We took this selfie and it looks like we're in the clouds because you can't see a single thing around us. It was cool and strange at the same time. 😊

Once we made it down (a ride that Layton loved and I sort of held my breath on because our gondola was LOADED with people), we were ready for snacks and to head home. Three out of five Selphs fell asleep and it was a perfect, peaceful ride. 😊

We had a ball celebrating with our baby boy and he even thanked us while we were there. It was so sweet. We loved this President's Day and the start to our Winter Break! Birthday outings are our favorite!!