ZACH'S BIRTHWEEK

To say that Zach had a birthDAY would be incorrect.  It was more of a birth-Hanukah: between the Joshua James concert and the last family birthday dinner there were eight days of celebrations that spanned from the Saturday before to the Sunday after because turning 24 for the fourth time is just that cool.

Due to the fact that Zach was born inconveniently in the middle of midterms some flexibility was required.  The only thing we could squeeze onto THE day was a trip to Texas Roadhouse for some serious chili with a side of serious birthday humiliation.  Apparently in Texas on your birthday they have you sit on a saddle and whoop yeeha until everyone stops pretending to be glad that you interrupted their dinners with your display.  I have never seen Zach blush so much.  What a stud.

My favorite part of the birthday celebrations came later in the form of Laser Assault with the family.  It was like having an eight year-old birthday party with all your friends again, only this time add a very pregnant sister-in-law, a few teenage girls and mothers that screamed everytime they were shot, four extremely competitive brother-in-laws and a hubby on the war path.  Although I usually consider myself at the top of my class when it comes to laser tag, under these circumstances I was proud to claim fourth place and no injuries.

Of course, we can't leave out the delicious food that comes along with birthdays.  Thanks to both moms for hosting and cooking dinners!  Saved me more time and effort than I care to think about.

Some people, like McKenna, were thrilled to be there.



Others, like Gabe, showed the thrill in a different way.



But in the end, it's all about this manly man.  Happy birthday Zach!

WHY START A BLOG NOW?

I recently saw an old highschool friend who jokingly (I hope) asked me what my blog address was so she could stalk us.  This surprised me as I had always assumed that blogs were for parents with the sole purpose of showing off their precious babies or artsy people that need additional outlets.  We have no precious babies and I haven't seen a french flick in ages.  Can we still have a blog?

When I asked Zach if we should consider one, his response was, "A blog?  But we don't have any kids yet."  I argued that we could still be cool and worth blogging about without kids, but apparently I sounded desperate to prove something.  I justified starting one because hey, we'll be away from family this summer and at least family should still want to see us kidless, right?  Besides, if I do a really good job with a blog, I can forgo scrapbooking.  If I do a really, really good job and get in touch with my artsy side, I may even be able to skip the whole journal writing thing.  Thus the blog.

The next dilemna was, now that we have a blog, what do we name it?  "The Judkins" was simply too unoriginal for our completely original personalities, and Zach turned down the cutesy idea of combing our names in "Zarissakins".  I'm still bitter about that one.  Unable to decide, we turned to the source of all knowledge: Google.  We were certainly not alone- there are billions of name generators out there, but we found a real gem:
http://online-generator.com/name-generator/superhero-name-generator.php

Aside from awesome superhero, villain, and secret agent names, this name generator came up with these classics that very nearly became the title of our blog:
- Late Elastic Autopsy
- Gutsy Sunshine
- Helpless Windshield
- Loons of Bazol
- Hobo Mission
- Itchy Raw Butterfly

After all these brilliantly stimulating ideas, Zach simply pulled our current title out of thin air. Blame him.

We hope you enjoy this perspective on our life.

Oh, and Happy Birthday Zach! :D