HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JESSICA!
Friday was Jessica's birthday and for the past few weeks, we have been watching the guidelines in our state and anticipating a "possible" gathering for her birthday. We had decided that doing it outside at Jensen Pond and limited contact--between the adults--between kids and their grandparents and aunt and uncle--that isn't doable! All together there was only 10 of us, below the guideline of 20 in force on that day (It has now moved to 50 people gatherings.)
I woke up on Friday and began making a cheesecake for her birthday. I couldn't believe how much it made me remember when she and my other kids were all little and I would be getting ready for their birthday. It has been a bit of time since I made cheesecake for Jessica's birthday. It was fun to make it and to remember.
I was so excited to see them all since it has been since they came to dinner on March 1 that I have seen them in person. Thank heavens for Facetime, but it isn't exactly the same. I expected the boys to be so excited and come running from the car for hugs. That would have been the "Hollywood version" of the event. In real life, Alex and Carter were a bit nervous. At 19 months they are leary of strangers and despite the fact that they loved to facetime with us, in person was a different story. I understood that. But as they got out of the car, Liam fell to the ground because of some reason I can't remember while Zander was unhappy because he couldn't ride his bike immediately. They didn't even talk to us for the first 5-10 minutes while we set up for our pizza picnic lunch. Real Life!! It was fine. We got it. They were hungry, they just had a long car ride, and they were at a park. Soon everyone settled in and we had a great afternoon at the park. It was so great to see them and Jessica and Elessia and share a fun afternoon together.
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| Zander |
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| Liam |
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| Alex |
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| Carter |
We ate pizza and cheesecake and sang happy birthday to Jessica, then headed off for a walk around Jensen Pond. It turns out that Liam likes crossing bridges as much as I do. He would look ahead and spy a bridge and head it that direction--just to ride his bike across it.
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| A photo that Jessica took of me walking with Liam and Zander on their bikes. I think I was pointing out the pelicans who live around here during this time of year. |
Along one side of the man-made pond, there is a row of birdhouses of all different kinds. Would a bird really settled into the top of a panda's head???
Liam developed a game where they had to be on the tables because the rest was "hot lava". However, Uncle Ben (and later grandma) were special and they could walk safely in the lava and carry you from table to table. I bet Ben was tired from flying four kids from table to table.
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| These are California Gulls which live near the pond and around the many lakes in Utah. There is technically no bird call a "sea gull". They are all part of the gull family of birds of which there are many. They live near all types of bodies of water. Some flew in near the end of our stay and grabbed one of the girl's bit of pizza left. It had sat there for over an hour or so. |
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| Trying to get a posed picture on the rock. Carter was not having it at the moment. |
And throwing rock--another age-old past time of children everywhere.
Her siblings had all stood on these rocks, so I think Carter decided that she wanted to try it, but she then decided that maybe crawling on them was a safer move.
Happy Birthday, Jessica. It was a great time, a happy memory, and a perfect way to celebrate our first "easing of restrictions" gathering. We will be having more outdoor activities, I am sure in the upcoming weeks.
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