It Was a Long Trip ...

I'm finally catching up on things, the most recent of which was a combination business/pleasure trip to Phoenix and Tucson, which was both awesome and awful.

The pleasure part: getting to spend some time with my sister Karen.  I stayed with her, and certainly appreciate her patience with such a long visit!  The first weekend we went down to Tucson to spend some time with Tim and Mark.  That, of course, was fun as always.  We went to a production of Sister Act, the movie Gravity, and several meals out.  I always have such a great time with the boys, who truly are first class hosts. 

The business part: I participated in a trade show the next weekend, along with a couple of our top Vessel Stylists.  Jeanette and Carmen are dynamic, awesome women and we are extremely lucky to have them on our team.  In addition, Jeanette's BEAUTIFUL daughter Tatiana also came (how could she not be beautiful with a mom like Jeanette?).

The awesome part: all of the above things.  Plus spending some time with my nephews Brandon and Hunter.  And I was able to get together with a former NSP co-worker. 

The awful part:  for most of the trip I was sicker than a dog with a bad chest cold.  Then I burned my hand badly.  Then I had an expensive boo-boo in my car that was completely my fault. 

But, in the end, everything turned out all right. 

Halloween 2013

It's always fun to spend some time with my favorite Halloween characters - George, Indiana, and Countess Dracula!

Atti

I was just contemplating the joy that Atticus has brought to my life.  And wondering if I could have really understood just how much I would love him when we first found out he would be joining our family.

It's an interesting thing about adoption.  When your biological children have children, of course you don't even think about whether or not you can love them fully.  It's your baby having a baby!  Your DNA continuing on for a new generation!  There's no thought about it because there's no question about it. 

Adoption is different simply because you DO think about it.  It's not different in the sense that it will still be your baby's baby, and of course you could do no less than love that child.  But it's like a conscious thought ... "I will love the baby, no matter what.  Right?"  A little bit of an unknown factor.  A firm decision to love that baby as though he was of your own family, but a decision nonetheless.

Well, here's what I have learned ... no matter the circumstance, Atti is ours, as he was meant to be.  He is a gift for which I am eternally grateful every single day.  Not just for the peace and love he brought to his mom and dad, but for simply existing and being who he is.  He is my family. 

Zoe

I am so tickled to announce that Kristen is expecting a baby girl in mid-January.

My heart is so completely full of gratitude and joy. 

Sterling and Kris have experienced more than their fare share of heartache and loss.  Sometimes I think the only thing that saved them was the arrival of Atticus, who was a gift not only from Heaven, but also from an angel here on earth.  Atti showed them how to see the sunlight again.  Though they still wanted another baby, the joy of having Atti made it all bearable.  It was just a problem to solve, as opposed to a river that they couldn't cross. 

And, as it so often happens, a baby comes when least expected.

On a selfish note, I am also profoundly excited to be fully present for Zoe's development and debut.  Stephanie was in Wisconsin for both Kaiya and Teague, AND they both came in the middle of one of my work events.  In fact, I was in the middle of the Baltic Sea when Kaiya was born.  And when our dear little Kade left us far too early, I was in Prague.  I hurried home as fast as I could, but it was over by the time I got there.  This time I get to be here - for EVERYTHING.  For the first time. 

I still worry.  I still say an extra little prayer every time I think about it.  But mostly I am just ridiculously excited to welcome another little girl to our family. 

A little girl named Zoe.

Kaiya's Birthday

It's really a challenge to come up with a new and interesting idea for Kaiya's Grammie Birthday Date.  We have gone to tea a couple of the years, and I think she has really enjoyed that, but at this point it's getting to be old-hat.  When I ask her if she wants to tell me what she wants to do, or if she wants me to surprise her, she always answers that she wants me to surprise her.  But I can't shake the feeling that there's something she's HOPING I'll come up with.  This year I decided on a Star Gazing Party at Snowbird.  You go to the top on the tram, where they have a bunch of telescopes set up, and - I presume - someone who can tell us what we're looking at. 

Since the Star Gazing Party would involve a fairly late night, and since Steph was out of town, it was decided that it would be a sleep-over as well.  This was the first time (at least in Kaiya's memory) that she would be having a sleep-over at Grammie's without Teague, and she was pretty excited about that. 

We started by taking a trip to the library.  It's hard to keep Kaiya supplied with books to read because she reads so fast, and she's read everything I have several times.  When she asked me how many she could get, I told her however many she could read in 3 hours.  She ended up getting 10 chapter books, and got through most of them.

 

In the meantime, the weather was starting to look not so great.  The thing about going star gazing is that you have to be able to see the stars. 

We went to dinner at one of Kaiya's favorite places (Café Trang), and I knew that if the weather didn't improve by the end of dinner I was going to have to tell her that it's off.

 Sure enough, it was still cold, cloudy and drizzly at the end of dinner.  I asked if she wanted to go to a movie or something instead, but she said she really just wanted to go home.  She had been up late the night before, and I think she just wanted to get cozy and watch a movie at home.  So we stopped for cupcakes and headed home. 





We ended up getting a mani/pedi a few days later as an alternate Grammie Date.  Other than her feet being tickled, she loves getting a mani/pedi!  And the salon is really getting to know her.  The last time I went alone, and everyone wanted to know where Kaiya was. 

Later that weekend Steph had a family birthday party for Kaiya.  It's always fun to get together with everyone, especially when we get to enjoy Steph and Mickel's beautiful back yard and gorgeous views of the valley.

Durango Trip

I have been angling for awhile to do another family trip down to Mesa Verde/Four Corners. 

Shortly after my separation from Mel, the girls and I did a low budget trip for the purpose of seeing Four Corners.  I mean, this was a pack-all-your-food, sleep-in-the-vehicle type of a trip.  I had no money.   The trip was a bit of a bust.  Sleeping in the short bed Ford Bronco was so uncomfortable that I was forced to put a cheap motel room on my credit card the following night, and we were profoundly disappointed with Four Corners.  It was out in the middle of nowhere, had just a small plague (though it was still cool to put each limb in a separate state), and was surrounded by Indian booths and Port-A-Potties.  BUT we happened upon Mesa Verde during that trip, and the beauty and awe of that place ended up making the whole trip worthwhile. 

So I have been trying to get the girls to go back with me.

The effort of lining up a family trip is somewhat ludicrous.  Of course, you have everyone's work schedules to deal with, as well as the very full schedules of the kids.  I think if I offered them a free trip to Fiji they might all find a way to get on the same page, but short of that it's pretty impossible to match it up with everyone.  The way this one worked out in the end was that it was me, Steph, Kaiya and Teague. 

We ended up staying in a condo north of Durango, a place I had not been to before.  It was pretty nice, though a bit of a drive to everywhere we were going.

We stopped by Four Corners "on the way" in to Durango.  I think that the combination of not expecting much, and time, made it a bit more enjoyable this time.  It's still out in the middle of nowhere (after all, that's just where the four states meet, in the middle of nowhere), and interestingly enough they actually shifted it's location a bit.  I guess with the advent of satellite and GPS they were able to pinpoint the exact spot where the states meet a bit better.  And they have made improvements; for example, the Indian shacks are still there but now they're not made of wood - they're made of cement.  And the plaque is much larger, probably to accommodate more people at once.

 

 

The next day we rode the Durango-Silverton train.  The girls and I didn't have the money to do this on that long-ago trip, and I have been wanting to ever since. 

I think the kids enjoyed it, but it was a long day and they were a bit sick of the train by the end.  But I absolutely loved it.  We even saw a bear.

Next up was a trip to Mesa Verde.  This park contains well-preserved cliff dwellings of what used to be called the Anasazi.  I guess now the correct term is "Ancestral Puebloans" since Anasazi apparently means "ancestral enemies."  At any rate, it is awesome to see. 

A Triathalon For the Kids

As I have mentioned before, the Sharps are a very active and healthy family.   But I could hardly believe it when I heard that Kaiya and Teague were going to participate in a triathalon!  I relaxed a bit when I learned that it was a much scaled-down version.  However, it was still pretty tough and Kaiya and Teague both did very well in it.

First they had to get their numbers.



Then on to the first event: swimming one lap.  Since Kaiya had been on a swim team they had her go first so that she wouldn't get held up by slower swimmers.  She rocked it!  I didn't realize just how fast she can swim until I walked beside her as she did so.  Teague did really well too!

Next: biking.  I'm not sure exactly how long the course was, but it wasn't too long.

 And finally, running. 

 We sure were proud of them!  Here they are with their medals, with mom and dad.