It was a weekend of birthday parties, starting with Josh’s nephew. The last time we saw this kid he was screeching at the top of his lungs and turning our first foray into baby-sitting into a pint-sized nightmare. Well, who knew five months could make such a difference? The little guy was all smiles and madly in love with his Uncle Josh. Here he is–SUPER happy about his first birthday:

Switching gears entirely, we celebrated Sam’s twenty-sixth birthday surrounded by friends, marinara sauce, and two kinds of cake (carrot and double chocolate):

Sam, in a fit of nostalgia, invited everyone out to the ancient Oaks Park Amusement Park for roller-skating. Who knew it would be so packed on a boppin’ Saturday night? The place was jammed with angsty teenage lovin’, a real smorgasbord of young people wearing everything from in-line skates to roller skates with light up wheels. I teetered into the bathroom on my skates only to interrupt an ear-piercing party. One girl had an ear piercing gun and was lining her friends’ cartilage up one by one. (Overheard: “Ow! My ear is totally bleeding!” “Don’t WORRY, she pierces ears, like, all the time!”) My dear friend, Lizen, drove down from Olympia to attend the skate party and even brought her own roller skates. Note: In this picture I’m discreetly holding onto the carpeted wall to keep my balance.

A while back I told Gina I would visit her at the video arcade/movie house she worked at and throw down some support. I bailed that night and regretted it once she told me how sad she had been that I didn’t visit her. Determined not to make the same mistake, Josh and I dragged our tired, aching, roller-skating feet to the Avalon. Gina wasn’t able to go to Sam’s roller skating party and she was thrilled when we came through the door. “My family!” She yelled and promptly put a handful of nickels into each of our fists. We plugged the nickels in and played air hockey, Underwater Inferno (where you kill lot’s of sharks, eels, and other underwater predators), Big Rig (drive a semi around the country!), and Dance Dance Revolution (and did surprisingly well, even defeating three rounds at the beginner level). Meanwhile, Gina fulfilled her job duties by cleaning the bathrooms and mopping the movie floor. Here she is in all her costumer service glory: