Today is Brad's 30th birthday!!!!! No more 20s for him! We had a big day of celebrating yesterday. After church, we headed downtown to see the Royals beat the Florida Marlins. The Royals don't usually win, so that made the game even more fun!

We've been anxious to get rid of this obnoxious willow tree in our backyard since we moved in and it finally came down yesterday afternoon. It's a nice tree - if it were somewhere else. It looks really ugly in our yard. Plus, willow tree roots are strong and are famous for breaking water and sewer lines in suburban neighborhoods. Shawn and Sean came over and helped bring the tree down. Shawn did the majority of the work - we think he was looking for any excuse to get to use his chainsaw - while Brad and Sean manned ropes to make sure the falling tree didn't crash into the deck, the fence or the power lines. (yikes!) Unfortunately, they did the work so fast, I didn't get a chance to take many pictures. We'll rent a wood chipper to take care of the branches and Shawn cut up the trunk to make a nice wood pile for our fireplace in the winter. Our yard looks so much bigger now without that monstrosity. Once we get the stump removed, we might put in another tree that fits the yard better or we might just leave it as open play space for junior. But anyway, here's the work in progress:

While the men worked, Sean's wife Tracie and I chatted and I made fajitas for dinner - yum! I also made Brad a birthday cake, which turned out to be incredibly tasty. All in all, a good day.