A Day Late Happy 8th Birthday To Spencer Jack

Yesterday was my one and only great nephew, Spencer Jack's, 8th birthday.

This morning when I checked in on my email I found that last night Spencer Jack's dad had emailed me with an account of Spencer Jack's 8th birthday, including some not too subtle humble bragging about Washington's balmy weather.

The subject line of the email: March 7th:  a special date in the Jones family tree

The message in the email in its entirety...

Spencer Jack Jones turned 8 today.

Born  3/7/07 at 3:06 p.m.   Making Jones family history as the first official 'great' nephew.

He woke me up this morning shortly after 6 a.m., despite going to bed very late the night before.

He was very excited to celebrate his arrival anniversary.

Soon Spencer convinced me that sleeping in wasn't an option. We looked out the bedroom window and realized it was another sunny 60 degree warm Washington winter day.

We both quickly showered and dressed and were out the door. I grabbed my camera for a photo of Spencer on his 8th year on earth in the Skagit Valley.

With sunglasses in hand, almost a Skagit Valley necessity these days, we parked the car and watched the sun rise over the Skagit River.

Beautiful sunrise.

Spencer had plans of meeting a few of his classmates for a fun Saturday birthday party event at a newly opened trampoline gymnastic type of kid center in Bellingham.

He was so looking forward to such!

He just had one unpleasant thing to do prior to that. That would have been his Saturday morning indoor soccer game. He fights sports a lot. And prefers other activities. But he knew he had to go.

I was more than amused after dropping him off at such, when I got the news that Spencer had been officially 'kicked out' of his soccer game today by the referring official.

I don't believe he was the first of the Jones family be asked to leave a sporting event. Maybe just the youngest.  

I have personally witnessed his Grandpa being tossed from a game. And have heard stories of his great youngest Aunt being asked to leave as well. And I do believe that there is a few stories of your dad arguing balls and strikes with umpires over the years.

Nonetheless, Spencer doesn't argue with umpires.

His dad just forgot to make him wear his shin guards to the game. Which means he couldn't play today.

He wasn't upset at all. He may forget them next week.

This kid has different priorities. This week, he was selected by the school to spend a day at the Skagit Valley College to participate in their 'young authors' program.

This dad is proud of his 8 year old.

I suppose learning how to write my advance him in the world a little more than kicking a ball.

But just like Spencer, I think a little different than most.

Happy Birthday Spencer Jack!

That is my great nephew, Spencer Jack, looking at you in the photo. Behind Spencer Jack is the Skagit River, currently running high due to a lot of rain falling on Western Washington.

The bridge you see crossing the river is not the bridge over the Skagit that was in the news last year due to a collapsed span.

The Skagit River bridge behind Spencer Jack crosses the river from downtown Mount Vernon to West Mount Vernon.

Spencer Jack and his dad were at this location to check out the current state of Mount Vernon's Skagit River Vision. More on that later.

Spencer Jack's dad, Jason, emailed me the photo you see here, along with others, this morning.

The part of the message in the email which pertained to Spencer Jack is.....

This morning marks Spencer Jack's golden birthday. 
Hope you enjoy the photos.

And if you're in the area, Spencer's formal 7th Birthday Party is tomorrow at 11 a.m. Call if you need more details....

Well, that is plenty of notice so I see no reason why I would not be able to make it to Spencer Jack's Birthday Party tomorrow.

The last time I saw Spencer Jack, in March of 2012, he was 5. The first time I met Spencer Jack he was 2.

I think I can remember going to Spencer Jack's dad's 7th Birthday Party.

For Spencer Jack's dad and his Uncle Joey's Birthday Parties I was known to go to extreme measures to make the present opening part of the festivity a long drawn out affair, often ending in a massive mess designed to consternate Jason's and Joey's mom and dad.

I remember one year where me and my helpers filled multiple balloons with glitter, with a clue in each of the balloons. First a big package had to be unwrapped to reveal the balloons. Then the balloons had to be popped. Then the clues figured out. If I remember right, the balloon popping year the clues told the birthday boy to look in the trunk of my car, where another wrapped present was found and brought back in to the house to the loud groans of the grown-ups and squeals of happy from the non-grown-ups.

When Spencer Jack  was about one, his Uncle Joey called me and during the course of that call Joey told me he would need to consult with me for advice on how to make memorable birthday present openings for Spencer Jack. However, there has never been a follow-up consultation on this important matter.

What is meant by "Golden Birthday"? I have not heard that term before.

A Party Without Me

My oldest nephew's first born son, Spencer Jack, had his 1st birthday yesterday. Spencer Jack had a birthday party. And I was not invited. I can't tell you how badly this hurts my feelings. When Spencer Jack's dad had birthday parties I used to get invited.

Spencer Jack's Uncle Joey mentioned to me some time ago that he would need to consult with me as to how to make the type birthday presents I used to make for his birthday parties. It was a very elaborate process. Involving a lot of unwrapping and varying levels of difficulty and a big mess. One year it was glitter in balloons that had to be popped to find clues as to where the actual present was located. (the trunk of my car). And then when the package was hauled in from the trunk the new package started up a fresh mess of unwrapping with squeals of fun from the kids, groans of will this never end from the stodgy grownups.

Now the actual birthday present was always totally lame. It was the elaborate packaging that was the actual present. Now, one of my, well, sort of humorless and at times slightly clueless, yet self-righteously overbearing siblings felt, I guess, that I needed to be taught a lesson. I believe it was on my birthday, maybe it was Christmas, I don't remember. But she'd gone through a little bother to wrap something sort of remotely like I did for my nephews. When I got to what was inside it was a jar of peaches with a note saying "How does it feel now?" Or something like that. I guess this was supposed to teach me how awful it was to put my nephews through the extreme trauma of opening one of my birthday presents and end up causing them to be upset because I didn't buy them a video game. Trouble was, I like peaches so the lesson was totally lost on me.

Nonetheless, the peach incident was confusing to me. So when the next nephew birthday invite came along I politely declined the invitation, saying that I didn't want to upset my nephew with one of my awful birthday presents. I was then told it would break the boy's heart if I didn't do my usual birthday thing that was the highlight of their birthday parties. That would be the nephew who told me he needed to consult with me as to what to do for Spencer Jack's birthday party. I told him to wait a couple years, that Spencer Jack was too young for that type fun.

I wonder if the reason I didn't get invited to Spencer Jack's birthday party is because maybe his Grandma (it was she who sent me the pic above taken at Spencer Jack's party) told Spencer Jack's mother what a nightmare it was to clean up after one of my birthday presents. I remember the year the package exploded shooting thousands of those little circles you make with a paper punch, apparently she was finding those paper punches for months. I recollect hearing that the glitter from the popped balloons had been a gift that kept on giving too.

I will admit, all these years later, part of the fun was watching my sister-in-law, a certified neat freak, squirm as she saw the mess unfold. Of course when it was all over I'd help the nephews pick it all up. But you can't easily pick up glitter and paper punches.

Anyway, Happy Birthday Spencer Jack. Sorry I couldn't be at your party.