HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LADD!!

Sooooo... birthday shout outs are my favorite.
And awesome people are also my favorite.
So.....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LADD!!!!

happy birthday, friend!!!

Good grief.. this guy..

Everyone has different types of friends. I know I do. The best kind, I think, are the ones who you can't picture yourself not having... the ones who would drop everything and be there for you when you need it, and know that you'd do the same for them. They're the ones to whom you might not speak or might not see for months at a time, but can pick up right where you left off when you do see each other. I have a small handful of those, and Ladd's one of them. His name's Matt, but I'm not sure I'll ever call him that. Haha.

[in no particular order until the last 3 or 4.. hah,]Top 10 favorites over the last 6 or so years of Ladd in my life.... lol... GO:

⑩ | Zoolander. Noooo, not the movie. But I'm not sure I've ever known someone who can do a better rendition of Blue Steel than Ladd. Haha. I probably have a hundred pictures of him making this face at different times, but that's part of why we're all friends.. in this crowd, the only way to fit in is to be just as weird as the rest of us. No need to be serious allll the time.

kim's birthday one year... and this guy... and his face. hahah..

⑨ | "Family Dinners" - So, for nearly an entire summer, the clan would gather for dinner just about every week. Honestly, it was more than once a week, but I'm talking IN the kitchen, cooking actual food, and sitting around a dinner table at THE SPOT like one big dysfunctional family. Nalom usually had a sippy cup of some sort, if it survived his climb up and over the balcony, Catie & I were usually responsible for not killing everyone with our cooking, and the rest of it's history. (:

family dinners.. minus nader & kim...
nalom. grueter. drenn. ladd. cegg.

⑧ | Lightning Fights. I have no idea where this picture came from [my best guess.. the spot, by default.. haha], but what I do remember is that the group of us didn't plan these out, but managed to take over 60 shots of random lights in our faces. Yeah, this is kind of a crappy picture, but it benchmarks one of the many random adventures I had with Ladd & co.

lightning fights. typical stuff :p

⑦ | Lending a helping hand... always.. haha. So this one was from a trip we took to the zoo, coincidentally the same day that Nalom ran his first full Pig [Flying Pig Marathon, Cinci OH]. Nalom was practically crippled afterwards, but we insisted he join us at the zoo. Solution? Wheelchair. Benefit to us? I think each of us took our turn at shoving him off at different times down some sort of hill, and placing bets on what he'd hit first. I think Ladd was the only compassionate one that day. Maybe. Probably not, but we'll give him the benefit of the doubt on this one....

they both look thrilled.... good shot, nalom. :p

⑥ | Midweek Luau's. Because everyone deserves a luau on a Tuesday. Or Wednesday. Or whatever day that was that we spent just about the entire afternoon and evening at some restaurant after nobody planned to be there in the first place. Again, one of the many random outings.. great times with these fantastic people...

nalom. nader. burg. cegg. drenn. catie. ladd.

⑤ | The Squish Dance. The signature anti-pickup line from Nader & Ladd. I've lost count of how many times these two fools attacked unsuspecting people with their mad dance skills. I usually did a much better job of avoiding the ambush, but Kim managed to trap me into it one night and captured this incredibly-accurate footage of my reaction. Thanks, fam... haha.

help. me.

④ | The famous foam board family portraits. These were a result of Nalom thwarting his time into the enlargement and foam mounting of a few of our 'family' moments. They sat on the mantle at the spot for almost a full year. Who can really be mad at this...

i spy..... ale.. ladd.. cegg.. nader.. nalom.. kim.. grueter.. anyone else? :p

③ | Duct Tape, Bubble Wrap, & other things he probably caught us doing.... & it is probably exactly how it sounds. Not once in my adult life had I crammed so many child-like things into one summer. First, it was duct tape. Then it was the covering of the spot from top to bottom, inside out pretty much.. with industrial grade bubble wrap straight from the roll. And then... it was the tracing of every person onto the wall with sharpies. Who knows what else... but usually it was Catie and I creating some sort of disturbance and Ladd walking in on it. Go figure.

.... don't ask.

② | 2013. I'm back in Ohio as a permanent fixture now and am proud to say that I still have my friends here, who could've easily quit on me [with good reason, at that] when I left, but they didn't. I owe them more than I could tell them, and hope that maybe one day I'll actually be able to do it.

ladd & drenn. a completely horrible duo.. but effective. hahaha... (:

① | Last but not least, this horrible picture of both of us that I'm only ranking #1 because Ladd wanted to kill me for about a week after this was taken. This started off as a joke, but Ladd almost ended up passing out, not eeeeven because I'm that strong or anything like that, but because somehow, I just caught perfect timing. I have to laugh at this, because we still talk about it and how badly he wanted to murder me for the next five days. Party in the Park has never been the same.

.... still love you friend... sorry about that one .. hahaha...

ANYWAY... HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! Love you friend.. and here's to many many MORE.

I'm out, scouts.. time to do some more DIY junk around the house. I'm sure I'll come up with something to show ya'll tomorrow... hopefully ;)

xo | cmd