God Bless The Broken Road (Jonathan Toews)

The Big 2-5

Jonathan

The morning of my birthday we have a practice then dinner with my parents. We have a lunch for eight set and a week ago it would have been five. That's a big jump in a short amount of time. I take a shower and change before meeting my parents at the players entrance of Johnnys. My dad helps me get my bags in the car and we drive over.

"Happy birthday sweetie" my mom smiles as I get into the back.

"Thanks mom" I reply and my dad hops in the passenger seat.

"You feel old yet" my dad teases and I roll my eyes.

"With all these kids I do" I laugh.

"Ohhh I can't wait to meet everyone. Is Sam going to be there" my mom asks.

"Yup. He's already there with the rest of the family" I assure her. We pull up and find our people in the back of the restaurant. I find my family with party hats and party blowers. They all yell "happy birthday" and Jackson and Sam throw confetti everywhere. I laugh as Everly once again found herself with a party blower and was showing us her musical talents. I can see her having a vocal and put out there profession, she loves the attention. I sit down and introduce my parents to everyone.

"Hello Mr. and Mrs. Toews, nice to meet you" Sam says with a killer smile. He's probably going to be the president some day. He's already looking better than when he first joined the family. We got his teeth checked out, a fresh hair cut, a check up with the doctors, and some nice clothes. He looked happier too and that's the feeling of making a difference Maisie was talking about.

"You too son. Glad to have you part of the family" my dad says.

"Glad to be here" he responds. We all order our food and start some small talk. My parents will be staying down for the rest of the playoffs, however long that may be, and so I would be seeing them a lot. They offered to help around the house, but I admit we've been doing pretty good ourselves. Sam has been more of a help than a nuisance and Maisie and I have been pretty good getting everyone where they need to be.

"So Maisie. How has taking pictures been" my mom asks.

"Good, hopefully I'll be taking them for a little while longer" she says sending me a wink. Me too girl... me too. My parents give me a watch and a new pair of dress shoes. Two things I have a abundance of but for some reason I always need more. Everly hands me a very colorful and abstract drawing of our family. She doesn't understand what my job is or why she's always dressed up for home games. She knew Nicole was the girl who takes care of her if we're gone for a long time. But that's about it. The picture was still beautiful though.

"Thank you baby girl, this is lovely" I say giving her a kiss on her head. She babbles something back but as to what she was trying to say... your guess is as good as mine. Jackson and Sam got me some new swim trunks because mine are... sad. There was a pair of white ones with the red maple leaf and a pair of all black ones. Mason got me some baseball caps but I'm pretty sure it's because Maisie keeps saying the ones I wear for interviews smell really bad. She's not wrong. The last gift was from Maisie and it was a nice little black box. I open it to find a iPod in there with headphones.

"There's a thousand songs on there, from Pearl Jam to jock jams, it's all there" she says.

"Seriously" I ask and she nods. I turn it on and the first song that comes up is Bless the Broken Road. Of course.

"This is so sweet, thank you" I say kissing her head. We finish up lunch and we all go to the house to chill for the rest of the day. We had a game tomorrow but nothing today. We decide to jump in the pool and I put on my Canadian swim trunks I just got. Maisie sits on the side of the pool talking to my mom as the boys splash around with my dad. Everly was in her floater trying to join the boys and my mom was holding Mason. All my favorite people ever in one spot, best birthday ever. I walk into the pool and swim over to Maisie, I rest my head in her lap as she runs her fingers through my hair. Man does that feel good. She continues to talk to my mom about who knows what and I close my eyes. I listen to the boys splash around and my life just keep going on behind me.

"How ya doin birthday boy" Maisie asks and I look up. The sun is shining off her black hair forming a halo around her head. Her bright blue eyes shining in the warm late April air. Her lips form into a smile and I feel the hairs stand up on the back of my neck.

"I'm great. Couldn't be happier" I admit. I slowly grab her wrist and she lowers her eyes.

"Jonathan Bryan Toews, what do you think you're doing" she asks.

"I'm going to take a swim with my wife" I reply easily.

"What makes you think I want to swim" she asks.

"This" I smirk before pulling her in. She knew it was coming so she easily falls into the pool. She resurfaces and her normally curly hair falls into waves and I smile to myself.

"You think that was funny" she asks and I nod.

"You're lucky it's your birthday" she claims.

"Or what" I tease. She swims over and wraps her arms around me pulling herself close. She presses her lips to mine and quickly deepens the kiss. She breaks apart quickly because we were in a pool surrounded by our family, but no one seemed to notice.

"I don't think I heard you. You're gonna have to tell me again" I smirk. I go in for another kiss but the only thing I felt in my lips was cold air. I open my eyes and see her resurface on the other side of the pool. I shake my head as she falls into a fit of laughter. I make my way over and join her and the boys in a game of pool volleyball. Everly is the ref and she was calling such bull shit. The water and sun tires us out so we go inside for the night. I order pizza and we all chill in the living room and watch whatever is on tv.

Maisie brings out a cake that was probably the coolest thing I had ever seen. It was four layers and personalized just for me. The bottom layer was Hawks themed and had the feathers all around it. There was tomahawks at each side and it looked real sharp. The second tier was Canadian themed. It was the Canadian flag with a A and the number 16 on it. The third tier was music themed. It had a guitar on it along with notes and other musical themed stuff. The top tier was the coolest. Each member of our family was made out of fondant and standing on top of the cake in front of a big 25. We all stood there in shock as this was the biggest and coolest cake any of us has seen.

"Holy wow... that's crazy" Sam whispers and I pull him into my side.

"You got that right" I agree.

"Mae, did you make that" my dad asks walking around it slowly.

"Umm yeah. It took all night and even let of the morning while he was at practice. But it's a small price to pay considering how decent it turned out. I have some ideas to make it better but I think it's pretty good for my first time" she shrugs.

"Baby this is amazing. This is by far the coolest thing anyone has ever done for me" I say wrapping my arms around her and kissing the top of her head.

"Anything for you" she smirks. She lights the candles and everyone sings to me. I close my eyes and blow out the candles before digging in. I didn't want to eat it because it looked so nice, but it was red velvet and that is my favorite. It gets late and my parents had to go back to the hotel for some shit eye.

"Happy birthday Jon, we love you" my mom says kissing my cheek.

"Thanks, love you guys too" I say kissing my mom back and giving my dad a hug. I send them on their way and close the door. As far as birthdays go, this was by far my favorite.