Monday, August 31, 2015

Kenzie’s 1st Birthday

On Sunday we celebrated Kenzie’s 1st Birthday!  We bought her a special birthday outfit to make up for all the Kaitlyn hand me downs she’s going to be wearing throughout her lifeSmile.  We had lunch and birthday cake at Red Robin with Mammy and our good friends Paul and Michelle. 

We opened all of Kenzie’s awesome presents.  Unlike Kaitlyn at that age, Kenzie really got into the wrapping paper and peeling it off on her own.  I only had to help get it started.  With Kaitlyn I ended up opening the presents pretty much all by myself.

After that, I threw down some newspaper and let Kenzie have at her smash cake.  I knew I wanted something animal themed, since I had an animal cake for my baby shower.  Kenzie loved the cake.  She kind of cautiously put her hands in the cake at first.  Then carefully examined her hands.  She didn’t try to eat any of it until Kevin gave her a bite of it.  Then she started sucking her thumb loudly.  I thought she was going to gnaw that thumb right off!  Eventually she realized she had icing on the other hand and tried to stuff her entire fist in her mouth.  Once she was done and I commented that I needed to get her cleaned off Kaitlyn told me “good luck”.  Kenzie did look like a little green monster!

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Today was Kenzie’s 1 year check up.  She did gain some weight and has FINALLY doubled her birth weight.  She is now 17.5 lbs which puts her in the 16th percentile (up from 11th percentile at 9 months).  She is a whopping 29 inches long which is the 41st percentile.  Her head circumference is 16.8 inches.  This is only the 6th percentile.  Because her head circumference is so small and as her doctor commented we (including Kaitlyn) had larger heads (thanks, I think?), he has referred Kenzie to a pediatric neurologist.  It doesn’t sound like he believes anything is really wrong, but with her smaller head size and slightly slower mobility it’s a safe rather than sorry thing.  We aren’t really worried right now.  We just think she is a small baby who would rather be cuddling than crawling, but your thoughts and prayers would be appreciated.  Of course we will keep everyone in the loop and let you all know when we hear anything.  Her 15 month check up will be in November.

Sunday, August 30, 2015

Vacation- Part 4 (Juneau, Ketchikan, Victoria)

The next day we docked in Juneau.  JuneauMoose - JuneauHusky - Juneau

Once again we had a great tour guide.  On our way to our first stop, he pointed out the McDonalds because it is the only drive thru in the city.  He told us the night before he and his wife counted 18 cars lined up in the drive-thru.  When they had their grand opening in the 1980s,they sold out in 6 hours- selling 17,000 burgers.  That was twice the population of the city at that time.  When they resupplied and re-opened, the city of Skagway called in an order for the entire town!  An ambulance picked up the hot food and drove it to the airport.  They flew the orders up to Skagway where the entire town turned out to receive their food!  Sounds like a Wendy's may be long overdue!

So our first stop was at Glacier Gardens.  They are known for taking the stumps of dead trees, driving them into the ground upside down, then using the root system to plant flowers.  It’s a lot of work because at the end of the summer, the gardeners have to remove the flowers to bring them into the greenhouse, and then replant them every spring.  We had our fist bit of rain that morning as you can see from our lovely raincoats.P8221730P8221731P8221732P8221743100_1804100_1803P8221744P8221745On the way to our next stop, our tour guide told us an amusing story.  It seems he is only a seasonal employee- earning money for college as he is studying to be a dentist.  His wife is also working in Alaska and is actually his boss for the summer, as he put it, at home and at work.  On his very first tour, he realized that he made the mistake of not counting his passengers.  So at the time the passengers were supposed to return, he asked everyone if they had everyone they came with.  No one said they didn’t so he started driving to his next stop.  15 minutes later his wife called asking him if he had all his passengers.  He replied ‘well since you’re asking, I ‘m guessing I don’t’.  He turned around and returned to his previous stop where he discovered an irate elderly lady.  She got on the bus and proceeded to the back where she sat down next to a man.  She then spent the entire ride back to the dock yelling at the man for letting the guide leave without her.  When the bus reached the dock, all the passengers scurried off and the woman left the bus.  The man stayed behind for a moment, but then gave the guide a huge tip and thanked him for the best 30 minutes of his trip! 

Our second stop was Mendenhall Glacier.  In the Visitor’s Center we all got to touch 200 year old ice from the Glacier!P8221746P8221750100_1810100_1812100_1813100_1814P8221754100_1815P8221755P8221756P8221758P8221761P8221763P8221764

Our final stop in Juneau was a salmon hatchery.  Kenzie liked watching all the fish swimming around and was trying to grab them.  We saw the little salmon eggs and the newly hatched babies.  Kaitlyn asked us if we were going to play “Salmon Says”.  I think she was a little disappointed when we informed her the game was actually “Simon Says!”P8221765100_1823P8221767P8221768We did walk around Juneau briefly, but by then it had started to rain again and we had to wait in line to board the ship in a nice little down pour.P8221770P8221772As we sailed away from Juneau we saw several bears in the water fishing.  It was unexpected.  We hadn’t thought we’d see any bears!

The Towel Animal of the NightP8221774

Kenzie is in her pajamas and ready to go to the Epic Rock show on board.  We also learned she is an Aerosmith fan.  She was clapping and kicking her feet to “Dream On”.P8221776We also learned that Kenzie does not get sea sick!  The ship was rocking pretty badly that afternoon into the night.  When we picked Kaitlyn up from Camp Carnival many of the kids were laying down or throwing up, but not Kaitlyn or Kenzie.  In fact, they were both hungrySmile.

 

The next day, we arrived in Ketchikan where we visited Totem Bight State Park.  Totem Bight is a state park created to help preserve the Native American heritage.  As villagers left their communities and went to places where there was work available, they left behind villages and totem poles that were eroded and overtaken by plant life.  Totem Bight was created.  Older natives were hired to teach others the art of carving totem poles and poles that had been left to decay in the woods were repaired or duplicated.

KetchikanBear - Ketchikan100_1830P8231777100_1827100_1829P8231778P8231779P8231782P8231783P8231789After our visit to Totem Bight, we explored downtown.  I tried to get Kevin and Kaitlyn to pretend to run in front of the “Tsunami Evacuation” sign, but I was told “that’s cheesy” Sad smileP8231791This totem pole in downtown Ketchikan is actually the one pictured in U.S. Passports.100_1833P8231797P8231800100_1835P8231802Dinner time!  Kaitlyn got up and danced to Gangnam Style with the waiters!  They loved it!P8231803This night we took Kenzie to Night Owls.  Camp Carnival usually does not take children under 2, but at certain times they will take them for a fee of about $6 an hour.  It was the first time Kenzie has stayed with anyone other than her Mammy.  It was only an hour, but it was nice having some adult time.  We hit up the Red Frog Pub for some drinks, tried some casino games, and got ice cream on Lido!

Our Towel Animal of the Night.P8231806

The next morning was the Seuss at Sea Breakfast.  Everything was Dr. Seuss themed.  We got to meet some of the characters.  They gave out “autographs”- stamps really- and took pictures.  P8241807P8241808P8241809P8241810P8241811P8241812P8241813P8241814P8241815P8241816P8241817P8241818P8241819P8241820P8241821P8241822Kaitlyn went to Camp Carnival that afternoon.  One of the ship’s dancers came up and taught the kids a zombie dance.  Kaitlyn was excited to show off her moves!

The pilot boat dropped off our pilot into Victoria, British Columbia.  P8241827Victoria

We’ve never had a nighttime port of call before.  It was really interesting!  We went to Butchart Gardens.  All of the flowers were so pretty lit up! Kaitlyn liked the stone stepping path through the pond and Kenzie liked the hanging flowers!  P8241832100_1841100_1846100_1849P8241838P8241847P8241848P8241858P8241864Unfortunately, the next day was the end of the cruise and our long trek home.  We didn’t get in to Boston until after 1AM ET.  So we ended up going to a hotel in Boston.  That meant we slept in on Kenzie’s birthday and stopped for lunch at TGI Fridays.  We celebrated her birthday on Sunday instead!  We can’t wait to share those photos with everyone!

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