On Eric's 8th birthday, we were still living in the hotel. And just like every year, Eric had the best birthday of the whole family. First off, it was the week that NASCAR was racing at Texas Motor Speedway (about 20 minutes from us). The men who drive the trailers hauling the cars stayed at our hotel. The first day they were there, they opened the trailers, pulled out lawn chairs, and sat in the parking lot looking alot like tail-gaters. Eric and I went over and asked if they'd let us see the cars. They were super nice, and Eric made out like a bandit. He scored three hats and three signed posters. Granted, he knew NONE of the drivers nor has he ever watched a NASCAR race, but it was fun anyway.

The staff at the hotel restaurant knew us quite well after two weeks of daily breakfasts, and they felt bad for Eric spending his birthday in a hotel. So, on the morning of his birthday, they came out with a bag of goodies...check it out. They raided the hotel store!! Eric's favorite was the shaving cream, and my favorite was the single tea bag. ;-)

The chef, 3 waiters, 2 cooks and the restaurant manager all came over to sing for him. It was in three languages, and sounded horrible, but was super anyway. The three languages were English, Spanish, and Finish. ;-) Yup. The cake was a HUGE pound cake, and that was in addition to the birthday pancake.