June 23-26, 2005

I went to Los Angeles to celebrate Hunter's 3rd birthday. The weekend (Thursday-Sunday) was much too short but I have so many glorious memories captured in photos.

The first ones are of Kayla trying to teach Hunter how to make his bed.

Then, later we went to Debbie's house for a pool party. The kids had so much fun.

Deb's son and his friend played with the kids for a while, so I gave them the camera to capture what they were doing. Mostly they kept the kids busy by having them water everything under the sun.

On Saturday Hunter opened his presents.

While we were enjoying our after-dinner coffee at Starbucks, the kids played as usual. Then Kayla wanted to learn how to take pictures with my digital camera. I taught her once. Then she took off and really made some great shots. I think she's got a good eye. All of the following photos are hers--and her ideas. That's the amazing part to me--a five-year-old with this creativity. My favorites are the ones of the beetle Hunter squashed, the ones she took of herself--both in the mirror and just by holding the camera out as far as she could, and the one of her doll with the Starbuck sleeve on its head like a crown.

The one of the bug with Hunter's finger in it--his finger is black because of the icing from the Spiderman birthday cake. The bouquet is from Debbie's house for Kayla and Hunter to give to their Mom. Kayla wrote their names (and parents' names) on the note.

Yeah, I guess you could say I'm proud of her.