The birthday boy...

Mom and Dad threw a party in celebration of Paul's birthday! We ate barbequed hotdogs, Mom's famous potato salad, and (Paul's favorite) baked beans. Paul had, in the past, joked about wanting to get a metal detector one day. Well, my mom and dad filed that idea away and got him a fun little "toy" for his 31st birthday. They planned and researched and then sat on their little secret for quite a while (my family isn't very good at keeping secrets...especially ones with which my dad would like to play!). And, at Paul's little party, they surprised him with a new metal detector, headphones, and a book on the art.

He was VERY surprised!

And we made no haste in getting outside, taking advantage of the last few hours of daylight, and searching for buried treasure.

And Dad put him to work looking for the old horse shoe that Papa had nailed to the deodara tree in the front yard. The tree, long ago, claimed the horse shoe!

And Paul proceeded to test the metallic properties of EVERYTHING else!

Happy birthday, Paul!!!