A Heavenly Happy Birthday

I turned thirty last month.

The big 3-0. Weird. Oh well, I figure with five kids, it's probably about time, right? :)

For my birthday this year, I just really wanted to keep things low-key. That's really how I like things best. Too much hype, feels like too much work, ya know? I didn't even care about a cake. Nels asked if I wanted him to make me one, but I told him no. If we had time, we'd do it. And if we didn't, there were going to be a lot of other days that I'd still be thirty and we could have cake then. (We ended up making one later that week.)

April 22nd fell on a Sunday. A beautiful, warm, perfect spring Sunday. I had been watching the weather all week because all I really wanted to do was go for a drive. An adventure. I wanted to explore Priest Lake, which is about 55 miles NW of Sandpoint. Sunday came and it was the prettiest day we'd had all year.

It was like a birthday present from Lord.

After Stake Conference, we came home and made Cafe Rio style pork salads (YUM) and then headed out mid-afternoon.

One tired little Chickita Bonita.

As we neared Priest Lake I was reminded of how different from Southern Idaho and Utah the terrain is here in Northern Idaho. Everywhere else I've lived, once you get pretty close to something, you can see it and find your way to where you want to go --- which in this case was a beach where we could dip our toes in the lake. However, around these part, the trees and the underbrush are so thick, if you don't know where you're going . . . well . . .

I knew we were close to the lake and I'd looked at maps before, so I had a rough idea of where I wanted to go. I followed a sign off the highway, directing toward a marina. We wound our way through the woods for mile after mile. I knew the lake HAD to be close, but we couldn't even glimpse it. After a few kookoo dirt roads, we finally found it - in a strange little steep-sided and shady cove that definitely was not a place to play in the water. Weird. And really frustrating after taking about a 20 minute detour to get there.

It was getting later in the afternoon by then and so I finally asked Nels to pull out his phone and see if he could navigate us toward somewhere to play.

Well, he directed us down a long series of dirt roads, guaranteeing that it had "to be just around the corner." :) However, every time we could actually see a strip of beach, it was private property (much like the lake shore here in Sandpoint). I was getting frustrated. REALLY frustrated and the kids were getting really restless and antsy. I just felt like I'd wasted my whole birthday afternoon.

As we came upon another dead end and were getting ready to turn around, a man in his driveway called out to Nels, wondering if we needed some help. I told him we really had no idea where we were going and were just trying to get out of here. :) He gave us some directions, like "turn left at the purple mailbox, go on past the grey house, then take about seven rights." LOL!  (Yeah. We would have been wandering for quite a while on our own.) Then he asked us what it was that we were looking for anyway. I explained that we were really just looking for a place that we could let our kids play in the water.

He paused for a moment, looking us over, and then asked if we'd like to play at their beach.

REALLY?

He was so nice. He showed us where we could park and then introduced himself to us and our kiddos. As we visited for a moment, with me gushing about how grateful I was for his offer, his wife walked over and introduced herself as well. Kevin and Judy. She then pointed to our license plate and asked if we were from Idaho Falls. I told her, "We recently moved from Idaho Falls to this area, but obviously you are, if you know which county is 8B." :)

Over the next couple of minutes we found that Judy grew up in Idaho Falls and Kevin was raised in Bountiful. They are members of the Church and had been to Stake Conference right down the street from our house that weekend.

Seriously. What are the odds of THAT happening? Down a dusty, dirt road - with about twenty wrong turns - the only person who was even outside, let alone nice enough to ask us if we needed help, offers to let us play at their house and just happens to be a member of the Church. Probably one of the only members of the Church in the whole Priest Lake area.

We were introduced to Judy's parents and had a wonderful time visiting with them before going with the kids to play at their absolutely GORGEOUS beach. I swear, they've got to have one of the prettiest locations on the whole lake.

We all had such a wonderful afternoon. Kevin and Judy not only were SO generous - giving the girls juice and letting them track sand into their home for potty breaks :) - but they were so fun to get to know and invited us back to visit any time we want -- making sure that we had their phone number before we left.

What wonderful people.

I know that they may think it was a small thing that they did for us that day, but to me, it was one of those tender mercies from the Lord. As we left their home, I was overwhelmed with a feeling of love from my Heavenly Father - as if he was telling me Happy 30th Birthday -- from the beautiful Spring sunshine to the beauty of the mountain lake to the kind generosity and love from true disciples of Jesus Christ.

Nels asked me, as we were leaving, "So if you could do anything you wanted for your birthday, if money wasn't really an object, what would you want to do?"

I told him, without even really having to think about it, "Exactly what we did today. It was perfect."