My family decided to celebrate my birthday today! They won't be seeing me again before I turn nineteen, so this worked out. They picked up this cake for me, and my Mom managed to scrounge up some candles we had around the cabin:
My sister got me some Mini Chewy SweetTarts, and my family got me a great printer too:
That will definitely be nice to have on hand.
Additionally, I worked on some homework and my Dad and I taught my friends how to play Pillage and Plunder. I went from riches to being absolutely broke to destroying a Level 2 merchant loaded up with gems and rolling a six in prize money, and won the game shortly after when we cleaned up in favor of listening to the Women's broadcast of General Conference. Uchtdorf had a nice talk about the missionaries who introduced his wife to the Church. She was the very last door they knocked on after working their way through the entirety of a four-story building, and things in the world would have been very different if they had given up before making it that far.
When that was over, Mom and I each drove a four-wheeler up to Steve and Sharon's cabin, and my friends picked out some movies. We took more than we figured we could watch, just in case we chose something that had been damaged or in case we had time to watch tomorrow.
As Dad, Preston, and even Stockton played Pillage and Plunder (For Stockton, this was his second time ever, even though Dad created the game), Demetria, Alison, and I watched the first "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie. Even Anne watched some with us. She can't resist a "bad guy movie"!
I had never seen "Pirates" before and I thought the movie was interesting and clever. Demetria headed off for bed after it was over, but Alison and I watched "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid". I figured it was a classic that ought to be watched while we had access to it, and I knew there was a scene that authors of "How to write strong scenes or good characters"-type books or Internet posts often cite where Sundance refuses to jump off a high cliff into a river, so I wanted to see that. Indeed, it was nicely done.
It was a relaxing day consisting mainly of staying inside, but my friends seemed to enjoy playing games, watching movies, and just having time to relax from college life, so it was great!
