An Afternoon at the Indian Festival

Canton held an Indian Festival which also honored Vietnam veterans.  I thought it was a strange combination, but the day was fun.  We were surrounded by people dressed in feathers, leather and Harley Davidson patches.  :)

The kids spent their own money and bought rides on the bungee machine.  Chloe felt so grown up spending her money to do something that she wanted to do and had an absolute blast!

Owen made it his mission to start doing flips right from the start.  He had wanted to do that the last time he went on one of these bungee rides, but he was too scared.  I was happy to see him conquer his fear on this day!

He had a perma-grin the whole time!

And his hair was all spikey :)

Chloe tried once or twice to do a flip, but was mostly just thrilled to bounce as high as she could go.

After their time was up jumping, we walked to the center of the festival where there were a couple dozen men, women and children dressed up like Indians in tons of feathers.

Their costumes were just amazing!

It was fun to see the children dressed up like their ancestors, too!

 

There was a tent that had birds of prey.  I loved their feathers.

They watched us very intently.  I was thankful they were leashed to their perches!

Such sharp talons!

These guys must have been the toughest of the crowd, since they weren't allowed to even look at anyone around them when they were tied to their perches!

The next tent over was run by a man who makes his own bows and arrows.  Owen thought this was major FUN and wanted to try over and over to hit the target.  The grandmas ended up buying a bow and arrow for each kid, which thrilled them to no end!

Chloe spent her money on face painting to become an Indian Princess.

And then Owen did the same and was transformed into a Warrior.

 As we neared the end of our circle around the festival, Chloe decided to spend the rest of her money to pay for a try at rock climbing.  She had fun, but was frustrated at not being able to climb up to the top on any of the sides.  It is harder than it looks from the ground, that's for sure!  Owen pouted and complained that he wanted to go rock climbing too, but he didn't have any money left because he spent it all.  Sigh.  Hard running out of money.

 

 

And then it started raining, so we left a little sooner than planned.  Which surprisingly did not put an end to the whining and complaining that life was not fair because someone still wanted to go rock climbing.  It's hard being a kid and penniless.

Visit with the Moss-Mozdirs

Monday morning I was getting ready to head over to Sara's for the next two and a half days.  She was scheduled for a c-section the next day and couldn't wait because this baby was measuring 42 weeks when she was only 36 weeks along.  But David called and said the party was starting early...Sara went into labor over night and they were already at the hospital.  So I took a cab ride to the hospital and spent a little time with Sara and David before she was taken back to the operating room.

David and Sara let me come back to the recovery room before Andy was even an hour old.

Andy was getting his first bath and was pretty laid back about it.  I suppose when you come into this world weighing over 10 pounds, not much will phase you.

Andy was very quiet and chilled out as he was passed from one family member to a next.  Her brother Sara wore these purple gloves to make sure the tail end of his cold wouldn't be passed along.  Charley made a 3+ hour drive to come down and meet Andy on his birthday and stayed for little more than an hour before he turned around and drove back home.

Grandma Sher was so gracious and gave me loads of time to hold this sweet new boy, but I know she was just bursting with happiness and excitement to hold him once up in the New Momma room.

I spent the night at the house with Jack so David could stay at the hospital with Sara and Andy.  I woke up to find this sweet little boy playing with his lizards (Jack called them his Wizards).

He was such a good, good boy!

On Tuesday afternoon, Sara's mom Sheri drove Jack and me over to Coronado.  She lives on one of those boats with her boyfriend.  Look close, it's the second line from the left and the second boat from farthest away.  Sheri said it's a tiny space and she relishes taking showers at the homes of family and friends.

We went out to lunch at one of their favorite Mexican restaurants.  Sara waited tables there throughout high school and part of college.  The food was delicious, but the company was better!

 

 After lunch, we walked a few blocks over to the Pacific Ocean and dug our bare feet into the sand.  It was heaven!

We had fun chasing this little guy around the beach, searching for seashells and digging holes in the sand.

Sheri found a sand dollar and gave it to me for good luck.  I think I was adopted as an honorary daughter on this day and the feeling was mutual.  We had such a wonderful day together talking about life, marriage, children, grandchildren, parenting, school and about the people we hold closest to our hearts.

Wednesday morning found us all back at the hospital and I got a few family portraits.  Jack was a proud big brother, flopping all over the bed with his parents and his new baby brother.

It was hard saying goodbye.  Sara lives too far away and too much time passes between our visits.  She apologized for being stuck in the hospital and not being a great hostess to show me around town, but I think bringing a baby into the world was a little more important.  Like on the way out to California, I had a short pit stop in Phoenix before I was back up in the sky on my way home.  This sunset carried us for a good hour.

Day 2 in San Diego

Day two started with a 5K walk for breast cancer.  I walked on this team :)

Even dogs were decorated in a show of support and pink.

There were thousands of people who showed up.

We walked around gorgeous architecture.

 

Even though the walk was only 5K, we Mellisa and I ended up walking closer to 5 miles because we couldn't park very close to the start of the walk.  And afterwards we walked through the artists' Spanish Village and into their shops.  So many talented glass, photography, painting and ceramic artists work in this village and it was fun to walk through and talk to them all!

Kelley's Trip to San Diego

Our good friend Sara was scheduled to have a c-section on November 11th and invited me to come visit for the birth.  I decided to fly out a couple of days early to bum around San Diego with a beading friend.  This dry riverbed was somewhere in Texas.

As were these fun crop circles.  I loved all the different colors in the fields below!

It was a gorgeous day for flying.  There was a one hour layover in the Phoenix airport and not enough to allow even a short visit with Uncle Mike or Aunt Gail.

Mellisa picked me up at the airport and had a hug to give as a special delivery from my good friend Lori who called ahead to make sure I was properly welcomed to the West coast.  :)  We stopped at my hotel in the bay area to drop off my suitcase and then headed off to La Jolla to walk the beaches and see the sea lions.  It was low tide when we arrived and the kelp covering all the rocks was beautiful!  There were also many small tide pools filled with little fish, coral and one even held an octopus.

Here is Mellisa.  She is tougher than me and walked barefoot on the beach and around the tide pools.  It was too cold for my pigs to do that, so my shoes stayed on my feet.

Good to know.  Wonder how people sleep well at night who have built homes on these cliffs?

Sea lions!  They were so fun to listen to with their barking at each other :)

Mellisa's husband Bruce joined us for dinner at a deliciously tasty (and authentic!) Mexican restaurant and that was the end of Day 1.  I could barely keep my eyes open and they dropped me back off at my hotel before 8pm Pacific Time.  :)

We Have a Tree Climber

But it's not one of the kids this time.  See anyone you know?

Jezzie will hang out in the Butterfly bush/tree three feet off the ground for 15-20 minutes at a time.  She LOVES it!

Of course as soon as I walked outside, she had to come down out of her perch to see what I wanted.  Silly girl!