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Graham’s birthday occurred in two steps. First, the day-of celebration. Then the hiking party on Saturday.

Grandma took Graham to Old MacDonald’s Farm in Rapid City. He got to feed the animals and especially liked holding the chicks. There were goats who walked along a catwalk high in the air - he enjoyed using the pulley system to send them food, though he was more interested in the pully than the animals.

Royal had his moment in the spotlight when he went to the last day of his ninja class. We’re so proud of him for finishing - he was one of the littlest in the class and didn’t want to go pretty much every time. Way to persevere buddy!

To our surprise, when we arrived back from ninja class there were fire trucks outside our house! Turns out that the neighbor’s house caught fire in the hour we were gone. The fire chief brought Graham and Royal little wooden trucks - Graham was flaberghasted that the fire department knew it was his birthday.

The night before Graham’s hiking birthday I hiked up part of the Flume trail and buried some treasure I’d marked with a treasure map. I thought we’d go up the trail together and look for it, but Graham and his posse ran straight up the hill before anyone could stop them. They were so excited!

We tried a little scavenger hunt, but they were too good at it. On the way back, Graham and posse discovered the treasure. The shouts (screams?) reverberated from the hills. They flew down the trail as fast as they’d climbed it, and we parents finally caught up to them at the bottom.