How Do You Celebrate A "65th" Birthday?

During my growing up years, 65 was the target date for retirement and when you would start being "old"!  Of course, as I have gotten closer to this milestone, I don't feel any older than 30 years ago so it seems less old than before.  I heard someone say that 60 is the new 40---okay, I will go with that!  From what I can tell, 65 is going to be as unique and exciting with highs and lows like all of the 64 years before it---and a pandemic to add into the mix.

Because my birthday is on the 1st of the month, I actually started on Medicaid on the first of June.  Right away that is a plus because we have been paying for health insurance since I started working part-time last year and our bill got cut in half and no $8000 deductible to deal with!

Let the celebrating begin!

I started off the day with an hour walk around the area with Niki as my guide.  He had said that he wanted to join me and he did a good job keeping up with his scooter and then walking.  He also was very talkative telling me about his school, friends (Cooper is his best friend) , and other things that he felt were important to share.

You will notice through my visit, Niki is in this favorite blue sweatshirt from his school.  First the weather was really that cool as it averaged in the 60s all week when I was there.  Also, he loves that sweatshirt.  It makes me laugh because I remember those days of "favorite clothes."

The base is beautiful and trails weave in and out of trees and green is everywhere.

We headed to the Puget Sound and the Tacoma Chinese Reconciliation Park.  It is located on the Tacoma waterfront along Commencement Bay.  It is a spot dedicated to the improved relationships between the people of the area and the Chinese.  It details a time when Chinese people were "kicked out of Tacoma" in the late 1800's and some terrible things happened to those of Chinese descent.  It was humbling to be standing there and reading this history with my daughter and my grandchildren and the current state of race relationships in the United States.  While I have some understanding of the historical setting of these events and other related horrible incidents of racial intolerance, I can't understand it from an emotional point of view.  We are humans--and even more important,  we are brothers and sisters!  We have to figure this out.  I am glad that there are places like that that share the history and the hope for better in the future.

Someone had used pebbles from the walk way to leave a message on the bench.

Ava fell asleep so Austen stayed in the car while we enjoyed the park (which is why there aren't any pictures of them yet.)

Could they be any cuter!

Cooper didn't want me to miss the airplane flying over ahead.

This pagoda was a gift from a sister city in China for the park.  It can be rented for events, according to the website.  They have celebrations here such as the moon festival and other Chinese celebrations.

And the bay.....not much is better than rocks to throw and water to aim at---

This plant was one of many that I didn't recognize along the path. 

We broke a pod open to see if this was a fruit, but only had seeds in it!

A short drive down the lakefront, we all got out and walked along the river walk.  They had this statue to honer fallen firefights.

The clouds were amazing in the back ground and I loved this family shot we got--even though three kids looking in the same direction was not possible at this time despite about 8 shots taken.

When we got home, it was still my birthday so we pulled out the "Pete the Cat Missing Cupcake Game" and played a round in the bedroom (away from Ava who is not quite a game player yet.) 

She joined us for some playing with the toys when we were done.

Austen and Tosha headed out to run errands and pick up pizza for my birthday dinner (when Grandma is finally there and you have been quarantined with three kids since March, you take every chance to be alone that you can.  And as the grandma, you are happy to do that.)  This is the three of them watching TV after our busy day....I think the only time I got all three of them in a photo at one time.

And after eating pizza, watching a show, bath time, and book reading, kids headed to bed and the three of us played Five Crowns and had a piece of chocolate cream pie.

Seriously, the only things that would have been better was if all of my kids and their families and Gary had been there to share the day!  But that would have made for a completely different type of day for sure with 9 kids 5 and under in age.

65 is feeling pretty good!