WHAT WE DO IN LIFE, ECHOS IN ETERNITY.: A Very Happy Hippo Birthday.

The trip to Mexize was good.
But it was so exciting to come home to America.
Even though I knew I wasn't coming home.

Charlotte and her mom picked me up at the Salt Lake Airport and took me to their lovely home.
Charlotte fed me ice cream for dinner while we caught up. Perfection.

The next day, May 18th, was my birthday but we woke up to a stormy day.
So we made Eiffel Tower cookies and hung out around the house, waiting for the storm to pass.

At 3 or so, we ventured out on our birthday hike & picnic.

We hiked Bell's Canyon which was lovely.
A pretty easy hike although it was all straight up or straight down.

Our fearless leader.

We got to the lake, found the little bench and had our picnic.

Bench of perfection.

Birthday Picnic.

As you can see from the above picture, our picnic included lots of goods. Poprocks Chocolate, Happy Hippos, peach rings and sparkling cider. Just like Jerusalem? Of course. :)

It was actually pretty funny & freaky because once we sat down on our bench, and started getting out all our treats, these geese made a B-line for us. Obviously humans normally feed them treats and they expected the same from us. They congregated around us the entire time we were there.

Birthday Toast. Of course.

We then decided that we wanted pictures of both of us. And since there was no one else there (except for some sketch teenage boys) we decided to take the picture taking into our own hands.

We propped my 'clicky' camera on the backpack and set it on 10-continuous self timer mode. It would just fire ten in a row which was hilarious. This is the first and last one of our first attempt. I love the second one because we're both laughing at how ridiculous we are.

Cute & Smiling.

Laughter.

We then decided to get a little crazier. i.e. take jumping pictures and the like, while using self timer.

Oh, and I have mentioned how adorbs we are because we're wearing matching shirts?

(I'm 98% sure that was the first time we've worn them on the same day even though we've had them for 9 months.)

Somewhat successful jumping picture.

Close up with our drinks.

Our secret lake getaway.

I think Lottie looks supes cute in this picture.

Driving home. Obviously this was safe.

View of the Valley.

During this little jaunt, I realized how beautiful Utah is.

After our hike and treats, we went home and it was dinner time. Unfortunately, Bro Searle was at work, Matthew and Peter were fishing & hiking so dinner was just Sis Searle, James, Charlotte and I. Since it was already a 'reminisce about Jru' birthday, we added to that.

With falafel and hummus.

And while it was no Damascus Gate falafel or hummus from Lina's, it was still pretty good.

The sauce with the falafel tasted like the normal shwarma sauce and the falafel wasn't as crispy as I would've liked. But it was still delicious and filled us up.