Chase's Lucky 13!

Teenager.  Yup.  We now have a child who has officially reached the teenage years and official adolescent status!  I, personally, prefer to call him a young man rather than a teenager, merely because it sounds less derogatory and more respectful.  Plus, he's just the most pleasant and adorable teenager...or young man...you could ever hope to meet!  He's tall (less than an inch shorter than me now!), handsome, funny, obnoxious, athletic, intelligent, and talented.  He can put away food like nobody's business in order to fuel his rapid growth and busy lifestyle!  He is a great leader.  He is creative and thoughtful.  His voice is changing!  He has a mouth full of metal braces on his teeth.  He has long legs and big, bony feet.  And he is constantly asking for trouble from his younger brothers and sister because of his teasing and tickling and wrestling and joking.  Yup, sounds like a wonderful, typical, amazing and exceptional 13-year-old boy!

We celebrated Chase's 13th birthday this year by giving him his very first cell phone (recycled from Dad).  It's really great to be able to reach him while he is away at youth activities, out running, etc.  And we can text him for quick updates while he is babysitting.  And, we got him a really cool app for his phone on his birthday--Geocaching!  So, our fun family activity on his special day was to try out some local geocaching spots.  Super fun!  Some of them were really hard, though!

Later, we took him out to dinner and had ice cream and cake at home.  Please enjoy some pictures of Chase and his Lucky 13th Birthday!

The boy knows a good cake!  This is a cherry red velvet 3-layer cake with cream cheese frosting and 13 cherries on top.  YUM!!!

This picture was actually taken the day before Chase's birthday, but I thought it was a good one because it shows how much food he put on his plate for dinner.  I told you this guy can put it away!

The mountain of Chopped Salad on Chase's plate!

Oh, and don't forget we also had this yummy homemade Seeded Oat Bread with the salad.  The boy needs his carbs, too!

Opening presents on his birthday!

It doesn't take long for the "helpers" to show up when gifts are being opened!  This one was a new shirt from Nana.

Super cool Lego kit

A case for his new phone!

Oops...caught a blink in this photo!  But here he is showing us his first cell phone.  So grown up, dang it!

Geocaching with the crew!

Super hard to get a decent picture of everyone because the sun was making them squint.  Oops!

Chase is entering information into the Geocaching app after we found a cache under this tree.

Avery was the first to spot this one!

And here's helpful Trey searching for a cache...or just hiding under the tree!