Happy Un-Birthday, Hunter!

Hunter's birthday isn't for a week yet, but daddy has to go train in the field for a few weeks and won't be here to celebrate the actual day with us. Daddy was deployed to Afghanistan last year for Hunter's first birthday, and he will more than likely be in Iraq next year for Hunter's third birthday. We wanted to take advantage of having daddy here this year (even if he won't be here on the actual day) and make it special.
A few weeks ago Husband's company (4 platoons in a company, 4 companies in a battalion) had a big Family Fun day at a local lake. The lake had a great swimming area, a playground, volleyball court, boats to rent and was just fun in general. We decided to go back to the lake yesterday and celebrate Hunter's birthday.
In the morning I was moving very slow. I have some new medication that makes me sleepy and it's difficult to get up and moving in the morning. By the time I got up and took a shower, Husband had fed the kids, made the sandwiches and fruit salad for our picnic, made cupcakes for Hunter, wrapped the presents, and packed the diaper bag. Whew!! I was glad I had him around!
We got to the lake around noon. It's about a 40 minute drive out there. This section of the lake is just for us that live and work here on Fort Polk. There are cabins to rent and you can camp there. We ate our delicious lunch, grabbed our swim gear and hit the water. No, we didn't wait an hour before going swimming! We bought a floatie thing for Hunter where he can sit in it like a little boat. He had so much fun floating around in it. The water was so warm, it felt like a big bathtub. Hunter liked watching all the little fishies. He'd get excited and call, "Fish, fish!"
After awhile we hopped out, cleaned up, changed clothes and gave Hunter his presents. Of course the kids had to help him unwrap them. Daddy picked out the presents and he did a good job. Hunter loved them all.
We got the cupcakes and put two candles in Hunter's and one in Drew's and Louisa's. Hunter blew his candles out right away, and then blew out Drew's and Louisa's! Then he dug in to his cupcake, totally oblivious to the chocolate goatee that he was sporting. The kids played on the playground for quite awhile. Daddy went to find out how to get a boat license so that the next time we come out we can rent a pontoon boat.
It was a very fun day. I wish Hunter would remember it, but I know it will be one of those things that some day he'll look at pictures and have no memory that he was there.