birthday dinners & cedar creek

After having stared at giant heads and scary vehicles, it was time to wet our whistles. So we met our friends Trish and Carl and their kids at Cedar Creek, one of our favourite watering holes in Houston. This place has some of the best burgers in the state (no lie), everything on tap, and a completely relaxed atmosphere. We don't visit this restaurant nearly enough -- which is truly embarrassing, because it's owned by a friend of ours.

Carl, in particular, likes the Frito Pies.

Carl loves him a Frito Pie. In fact, I can't think of Frito Pies without thinking of Carl.

I'm not sure if this is a good thing.

After dinner, the blistering heat had finally eased up, so we went outside and played with the golden light.

I love this picture, above: Alex smiling so sweetly, and J looking at her like she just fell out of a tree.

Dude, I can't tell you how many times I've made that exact same face.

For example, I made that face about 20 minutes later, when I saw this:

"Um, Alex, what's going on over there?"

"Uncle Carl is BABYSITTING!"

Indeed.

Then Alex and S decided to attack Marcus:

He survived.

I've mentioned before that Trish and Carl are like family to us, so it was especially great to spend the end of my birthday with them. Because whenever we're with them, there's always a whole lotta love.