A Three Mile-stone Birthday

Last Thursday was my grandma's 70th birthday. If you don't know my grandma, you're probably picturing someone who actually looks or acts like a 70-year-old; but if you DO know her, you won't be surprised to hear that the only thing she wanted to do on her birthday was to walk up and down the local mountain. (I don't think it is, technically, a mountain, but its name includes the term "Mount" and it is a 3-mile walk up to the top, so "hill" doesn't really sound right, either.) Grandma has been walking this mountain 5 days a week for at least a decade or two now, plus cramming enough activity into her 5 hours a week babysitting the girls to exhaust me just hearing about it. She is, as Bittle said, "a force of nature," and when my uncle suggested we all surprise her on her birthday and walk the mountain together, my only concern was whether we'd all be able to keep up with her!

Luckily, there's a paved path that was very stroller-friendly:


We were about four minutes into our walk when I took this photo, so there is no excuse for how tired these children look!


We walked slowly, took a billion pictures, and stopped constantly so the girls could climb rocks and explore, so it took us a good two hours. Since I resolved to take more photos of the Bears this year, Bear and I paused to take this one. I should have been more specific and resolved to take more photos of the Bears where Bear was not making this face. Silly boy!

I think Keira has a future on the high school track team:

Those specks way up yonder would be Bear, my dad, and Kiwi (sporting a lovely climbing ensemble), who all felt pretty adventurous that day!

My grandpa's brother and sister-in-law were here visiting for the past month, and Aunt Jane made sure to help Ellie check for Grumpy Old Trolls under and around all the bridges:

At the end of the walk, I wanted to take a picture of everyone looking exhausted and ready to keel over, except Grandma grinning and looking triumphant in the middle. We did, but that one didn't come out. This was the next photo, which was supposed to be a normal one, but Keira didn't get the memo--hence, her tongue hanging out. I love that girl so stinking much.

On Saturday, we had Grandma's official birthday party, complete with a cake her friend custom-made to look just like the "mountain" (or whatever) we'd walked. Funny...now that I look at the picture, if I didn't know better, it could be mistaken for some kind of coffin/cemetary cake! It's actually a very accurate model of the mountain--I promise--and was unbelievably delicious.

I haven't been to many...okay, any...70th birthday parties, but I'm guessing most of them do not involve a pinata. This one did! I told Uncle Rich that if we'd traded the plastic bat for that thing he was holding the pinata up with, it would have been much easier to break:

Here's one of the awesome things about grandparents (and aunts and uncles): each of them gives the girls something they don't get enough of from Bear and me. If you asked the girls, they would tell you that candy, cookies, and handfuls of marshmallows fall into this category, but I'm thinking more along the lines of skills or talents we lack, ideas we'd never think of in a million years, and the desire to play cards and board games for longer than about six minutes. It's kind of like when I have to tell myself, "If I can't reach this particular student, maybe another teacher will." Except it's, "If I can't sew this together/imagine how to turn a paper bag into a space helmet/play 16 consecutive hands of Go Fish, I know a family member who can!" Here are the girls, getting some game time in after the party:

Those space helmets I mentioned? This is exactly why the girls are so hard to shop for when birthdays and holidays roll around. They played in this box with these bags for AGES:

Ellie even brought a "flag" with her into space, and I'm sure Trader Joe's will be stoked to know she claimed the moon on their behalf:

Aaaaand the girls had to go back the next day to squeeze in a little more game time before Aunt Jane and Uncle Rich headed back to Connecticut. Ellie had her Game Face on and unpacked her Angry Eyes to tell Uncle Rich, "My house, MY RULES!!!" when he challenged her play. I'm sure someday she'll be less cute and more scary when she busts out that attitude!

After spending three days in San Diego and then most of the next three days running around to play dates and birthday festivities, our laundry pile and messy house rating are both through the roof, but it was all well worth it. Happy birthday, Grandma!