Atticus Turns 1!

It's hard to believe, but it has been one year since Atticus blessed our family.  Kris and Sterling had a birthday/boating party for him yesterday, and it was great fun!  And even though Atty's regular routine was greatly disrupted, he was a real trooper.  I think everyone had a good time.

An armful of gorgeous kids!

The gal on the left, below, is Atty's birth mom, Kassie.  It was great to share the day with her and some of her family. 

And of course, everyone always loves the boating part!

Happy Birthday, Atty!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Although I am less and less inclined to acknowledge it, I recently celebrated a birthday.  I enjoyed a wonderful Thai dinner with Sarah and her daughter Jennifer (thanks again!), received numerous cards and calls, and many many Facebook birthday messages (you gotta love FB for that ...).  And, best of all, Steph and Kris and families came over for flower-planting (thanks, Steph!) and a barbeque. 

Our two most-gifted colorers.  Kris and Kaiya are very serious about this!

Kaiya, as perhaps you can tell, loves to dress up.  Kris left a treasure trove of dress-up stuff (mostly old dance costumes, some Halloween stuff, a few tiaras), and Kai is certainly getting some use out of them.  Playing in the playhouse is also a lot of fun.  Atticus loves drawing on the chalkboard!

It's so much fun to just hang out!  Thanks, guys, I loved it.  And sorry you couldn't make it, Mickel.

Trax

I've been very excited that Trax is opening a line with a station just around the corner from my house.  Unfortunately, last week there was an accident that claimed the life of a 15 year old girl at the intersection closest to the station.  At first it was believed that she had gone around the warning gate.  But further investigation determined that it was a sad set of circumstances.  The gate was down and operating (although the arm did not extend all the way across the road, so it wasn't actually barricading the girls), but it just so happened that two trains were passing at that point at almost the same time.  The two girls waited for the east-bound train, and then started across.  Because of the sound wall right there (as you can see in the picture), they didn't see the west-bound train until it was too late.  One girl managed to jump back, but the other was hit. 

From what I understand, it is not necessarily safe to proceed even if the gate is up.  It is only after the lights and bells stop that it truly is safe.  So, please, please take this lesson to heart.  This is on my route on my daily walk, and you can be sure that I am much more cautious now.   

Teague's 3rd Birthday

Our handsome little guy, Teague, turned three a little over a week ago.  I decided to start a tradition of having a "Grammie Date" for the special birthday child, so Teague and I headed out to have some fun at This Is The Place park, to be followed by lunch at McDonalds.  However, I severely underestimated the response to TITP park's Free Admission Day.  After sitting in traffic that moved about half a mile in half an hour, I suggested to Teague that maybe we should go to the zoo instead.  He was absolutely happy with that idea, so the zoo it was.  I also suggested that maybe we could have lunch inside the zoo, and he was okay with that too (such an agreeable child!).  We had a grand day at the zoo, followed by ice cream at home with Mom and Kaiya.

Also followed (although not technically part of the Grammie Date) by a tea party hosted by Kaiya.

Dance Recital

Kaiya has been taking tap/ballet lessons, to the absolute delight of her Aunt Kris, who was (and still is) so very passionate about dance.  Recently, Kaiya's dance company had a recital at Kingsbury Hall.  I had no idea that the company was that big, because every time I have taken her to dance, there weren't many students around.  But I forget that the older kids would only be coming in the afternoon, evenings and/or weekends, while the preschool crowd comes during the day.  At any rate, it was a HUGE recital, with something like 50 different numbers.  Here's a picture of Kaiya's group on stage, which isn't a very good shot obviously.

Here's some much better shots of after the show.  Kaiya was pretty delighted to receive flowers from her mom and dad.  And we're all so proud of our newest little ballerina!

Lake Powell

We have been planning a family get together at Lake Powell for some time now, and last week it all came together, thanks mostly to my sister Karen and her husband Mike.  They spent the week there, as did Steph and Mickel and the kids.  I decided to go down the Wednesday after Memorial Day.  Kara and her family also went down then.  We missed Hunter, as he had decided to visit a friend in Flagstaff for the later part of the week.  And Brandon, and Kris & Sterling weren't able to make it down this time (we sure did miss all of you!!).  We had so much fun, we decided to make it an annual tradition (though perhaps a bit later in the year ... the water was COLD!).  I owe a big thank you to Steph and Mickel for letting me bunk with them.  It's always nice to spend as much time as possible with my grandbabies. 

Kaiya and Teague had a lot of fun before I got there, fishing and hiking.  Apparently, their fishing skills put the adults to shame.  

We had some gorgeous weather, although a bit windy at times.  The first day we had a lot of beach time.  Kaiya has always loved playing in the sand.  Teague, not so much.  But this trip, he ended up having a lot of fun in the sand.

We also went on a tour of the Glen Canyon Dam, which was very interesting.  It's weird to be inside and at the bottom of the dam.  It's truly amazing what man can build.  I believe that Kaiya and Teague enjoyed the tour, even if Kaiya did say later that it was boring.

So ... new family tradition: Lake Powell.  Let's get even more people there next year!