Well, I won't keep you in suspense for very long. The Birthday Boy is a much better shot than I am. My apologies to all y'all who voted for me for letting you down. Apparently, I underestimated Dan's skill with a handgun, which I suppose is comforting since he is the one who has been practicing. But would-be home invaders should still fear me, because based on my shot pattern on the person-shaped target we used, my strategy is to shoot bad guys in the, umm, guy region. Dan assures me that this will be very effective as a home defense strategy, but since that is not where I was aiming, it doesn't say a lot for my sharpshooting skills.

Here we are shooting. First Dan:

Then me. There was this girl next to me who was putting round after round into the exact middle of all the targets. It was impressive. I think she was laughing at me.

We did lots of other things to celebrate the Weekend of Dan, including the much-anticipated eating of the above-pictured ice cream cake, which unfortunately is still going on, since the smallest ice cream cake you can buy serves six to eight people. If just the two of you eat it, the cake probably helps you gain six to eight pounds, but who is counting?

We also went to the aquarium and botanical gardens to hang out and see the butterfly pavilion, which was fun. Turns out butterflies are really really fast and rarely stay still, so this is the only clear picture I got of one even though there were hundreds of them in that pavilion. Still, isn't it pretty?

We had a picnic after that.

That evening, after our shooting spree, Dan and I went and ate steak, which is a nice manly birthday kind of thing to do. Then we headed over to the home of Mr. and Mrs. J for a little gathering to see our friend Mike, who was back in town for a couple of days. Mrs. J, ever the awesome hostess, even had birthday candles and cake for Dan. Here's a picture of the group:

Sunday was Father's Day and therefore Part II of the Weekend of Dan. Kate gave him a Wii game he's been wanting, and then promptly demanded that they play it together before church. They play Wii like this a lot, with Kate holding a controller and totally convinced that she is playing too.

As you can see from this next picture, it was a very suspenseful game. Dan let Kate think she won.

Later in the day, there was more meat in the form of the grilled shish kabobs that Dan always always asks me to make for his birthday, and of course, some quality Daddy daughter time in the camp chairs that we have never taken camping. This is about as rugged as we get.