My Journey ... in life and in the world: September 2012

Kaiya Turns 6!

Saturday was also Kaiya's sixth birthday. The story I have often told is that six years ago I was sitting at a computer, on a ship in the middle of the Baltic Sea, crying because I had just learned through email that Kaiya had been born. Kaiya changed my life ... she turned me into one of those obnoxious grandparents - you know, the ones who brag about their grandkids every chance they get, and who spoil their grandkids and annoy their own kids? Guilty, guilty and guilty. But - and I am NOT just merely doing the routine bragging - Kaiya truly is an extraordinary child. She brings me joy every single day.

This year Kaiya had a friend birthday party at Planet Play, and I went along to help out. What a crazy group of kids! It was a lot of fun.

Teague got the piece of cake with "Kaiya" on it, so he thought it was pretty funny that he was eating his sister.

So, as I've said before, I've started doing "Grammie Dates" for the grandkids birthday. They get to choose the activity and it's special time with just Grammie. Kaiya wanted to do the same thing we did last year - mani/pedi's, followed by Afternoon Tea at Grand America - but she wanted her mom and Kris to come too. So we high-tailed it out of the party to go to our mani-pedi appointment ...

And then on to tea.

Half Marathon

Stephanie is getting more and more into the various running events (Ragnar, marathons, etc.), and on Saturday she ran her first half-marathon, along with Sterling. It started up in Big Cottonwood Canyon, and ended up in the business area at 6200 South and I-215, where we (Mickel and the kids and I) met them at the finish line. They both did very well, with Steph coming in under two hours and Sterling finishing fourth in his division. They (along with all the other runners) were a little miffed that the course was actually 13.7 miles, rather than 13.1. As Steph put it, the end of the race is not a good place to find out there's another .6 miles to go when you think you're finished.

Then we all went to breakfast at IHOP. :-)

Kris and Sterling's New Front Yard

Kris and Sterling bought a bunch of plants to landscape the front yard of their new house (although it sounds like they want to go back for more ... doesn't it always seem like you buy a TON of plants, and then you get home and it's not nearly enough?). I'll have to get a picture of the finished project, but here's a couple of shots of Atticus helping. He's such a good worker!

Lagoon 2012

We recently went to Lagoon during a special that they were running, and managed to go on a weekday after school had started. It was so nice! It was relatively uncrowded, and we were able to walk right on almost all the rides. Both Kaiya and Teague are going on more and more big rides, so we don't have to spend most of our time in the kiddie section (in fact, Kaiya told me that she doesn't think she'll fit on most of those rides by next year). Alas, Kaiya was just a hair too short for some of the best rides, even though some of the attendants let her on a few of the less scary ones. She'll probably be tall enough by next year!

I really only got photos when they went on the kiddie rides, since otherwise I was going on the ride too and didn't think to take any shots.

Our last ride was the Sky Ride (not sure if that's the right name, but the ski lift kind of thing that goes from one end of the park to the other), where we caught a great sunset.