What a great weekend! We went to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk on Saturday. The weather was beautiful and thanks to the recount on Makena's height she was able to go on some rides all by herself! She LOVED it!
Mark took her on her very first rollercoaster ride ever!! You can't exactly tell by her expression, but she loved it. Mark did too, except his knees were aching the rest of the day!
This photo was of Makena on a mini version of "The Drop Zone". It basically drops several feet and leaves you feeling like you're free falling. She went with Mark first and he said she giggled the whole time. She wanted to go again, so I took her the second time. I was shocked at how scary it actually was.
Here are some more photos from Santa Cruz.
BIRTHDAY Sunday
At 6:45 this morning Mark went to the garage to get Makena's presents so I could wrap them. He had to open the garage door which is just under her room. She was already awake (but would have definitely fallen back to sleep), but the opening of the door was her queue to get up. As luck would have it, she came out of her room just as Mark was coming upstairs with her unwrapped presents. Mark managed to scurry to our bedroom as I diverted her back to her room. Close call!
Unfortunately, she wanted nothing to do with going back to bed, so we wished her a happy birthday and tried to get her excited about it. She practiced telling us that she's 3!! Not 2, not almost 3 (as she had been for the last 2 weeks), but 3!!!
We had to have the festivities early because Mark had to fly to LA later. We ended up making a last minute logistical change and had cake and opened presents at the park across the street. I set things up while Mark distracted Makena and Kessler at the play structure. When I was ready he brought them over. Here's the conversation.. (for some reason it didn't occur to me to video tape this..)
Mark: Let's go over here Makena.
Mark: Oh, look, who's that?
Makena: It's Merlie Dog. (I had Merlin with me.)
Mark: Yeah, who else? (They're about 75 feet away.)
Makena: Mommy.
Mark: What else?
Makena: (A bit of a pause) IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!! (and she takes off running in my direction.. bypassing all the presents--heading for the cake! :) Is she a Pellas or a Knight?)
We convinced her to open 2 presents before we had to have cake.
While I didn't get video of the "It's My Birthday" realization, I did take pictures. Apply the transcript from above to the photos below and it'll seem like you were right there with us today!
We had such a fun weekend!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAKENA!! We love you very much!!!
