When we were kids, bikes were freedom and we rode them everywhere: far and wide, high and low, at night, without helmets over wobbly home made ramps which launched us over the neighborhood kids who weren't riding bikes at that particular moment.
Suffice to say bikes were a big deal, and there was a lot of pressure from lots of angles to get on the road ASAP.
Not so Anya's generation. We live in the city where cars are everywhere and drug addicts and kidnappers lurk behind every bush...or so we believe. Bikes to these kids are like a Ferrari you can only drive around your circular driveway. So the pressure isn't quite so high to get pedaling.
But bikes are still important to us, damn it, so like good yuppies we pay total strangers to teach our kids to ride bikes. Ridiculous right?! I thought so too...except...that it worked.
Amy signed up Anya for Pedal Heads, which was a one week long bike camp. Yep it's a thing. Look it up.
With in the first 20 minutes they had pulled the training wheels off the bikes our little girl was scooting along unaided. We were very proud. And Amy earned the right to say she told me so, though she was far too gracious to cash in on that right.
Below are two videos I took chasing Anya around the Roosevelt High school track on day two of bike camp.
A few weeks ago (June 19th), Anya wrapped up her first/last year at Wedgwood with a Kindergarten graduation celebration. She has blossomed so much this year, made lots of friends, and adored her teacher, so it's somewhat bittersweet moving on to another school. We will have fond memories of Wedgwood.
after receiving her diploma
The back of the diploma. What a sweet idea. And of course, this shows Anya being Anya.
Grandma and Grandpa B showed up in Seattle for a much-anticipated visit. Mostly, we all hung around the neighborhood (with some side adventures taken by the grandparents), ate good food, and visited. Bruce helped Chris polish off the fence project, and ensured that our deck finally got a much-needed sanding and a coat of paint. (Thanks Bruce!)
Matt and Heidi gifted Anya with some sea-life cookie cutters and frosting. Grandma B. and Anya made some delicious cookies.
The crown jewel of their visit was our trip to Victoria BC. We took the Clipper up early Wednesday morning, and arrived a few hours later.
We wish our kid showed some excitement about the world. Her ho-hum attitude worries us sometimes.
On the way into the inner harbor, Anya somehow got it in her mind that there were snakes to be caught nearby. So after checking into our hotel, we took off walking and visited Beacon Hill Park - a fantastic park only a few blocks from downtown. Anya and Dad tromped off through the rocks and tall grass in search of reptiles, while mom and the grandparents leisurely strolled along the thoroughfare.
Anya trying to make friends with a decidedly disinterested duck
Whenever the ducks would exit this log, it would roll and all the turtles had to scramble to keep on. It's hard to see the humor in this shot, but it kept us entertained for some time. Guess you had to be there.
On the foot bridge.
While Anya had to wait for parents and grandparents to catch up, she climbed this tree. There was a boy a bit older than her just out of frame to the left who watched slack-jawed at her monkey-like abilities. She knew it and was very proud of herself.
We went to a petting zoo full of cool animals including a large herd of tiny goats. This particular beast (whom Anya was delighted to learn was named Olaf after the Snowman in Frozen) liked to chew on Dad's shirt and shoe laces.
This goat, more than any other, explains why we say that Laika is a "goat" dog. She even has the same collar as Laika and was about as good-natured.
Peacocks and peahens were roaming free in the park.
One of the main reason we have always wanted to return to Victoria is so that Anya, our little naturalist, could visit the Royal BC Museum of Natural History. Probably one of the coolest museums outside of the Smithsonian. Sadly, Anya had learned a few days earlier that she couldn't accompany her cousins, Mia and Cole, on their trip to Northwest Trek (one of Anya's favorite places) because we were headed up to Victoria. This distressed her greatly, and she began to associate going to the museum with NOT getting to go to NW Trek with her beloved cousins. So when it came time to go, she pretty much lost it, and couldn't calm down. We explained that not going to the museum wouldn't magically put her back in Seattle a full day earlier so she could go to Northwest Trek. She understood this on one level, but still had trouble coming to terms with it, and would actually say things like, "I understand, but I just can't calm down!"
Eventually Mom calmed her down. Crisis averted. We all had a blast at the museum. Mom loved the languages, Grandpa loved the totem poles, Anya loved the fish, Dad the Vikings, Grandma, the kids screaming in the café.
Here we see some Viking jewelry. Who knew Vikings made this sort of stuff!? Very intricate!
Anya wasn't particularly interested in Viking fare especially since there were dioramas of elk and tidal pools to behold. Though she was interested in the Viking burial ship pen. A note she wrote in her kids' guide to the museum: "Vikkings, put ded peepl in ships and lit them on fir to sho rispekt"
Later in the day we all went to the Lemur IMAX which was pretty cool.
Our hotel was two blocks from the harbor, and had a great view, and a swimming pool which didn't melt your eyes out with chemical fumes. Anya made friends with a girl her age named Kiera and they busied themselves moving foam from the hot tub to the pool, and racing.
Grand folks B. and Anya overlooking the inner harbor
Them again!
Anya with bench sans Grandparents
A very cool bit of orca topiary. There are even little flowers on their heads to show their spouts.
Of course Anya had to go to the Bug Zoo, where she geeked out on bugs, and did her very best to spend all of her money on stuff in the gift shop. Settling (after about 10 minutes of annoying angst) on a leather purse with a butterfly on it, and some lollipops with meal worms and scorpions in them. (See below)
Anya enjoying the company of a stick bug.
Cockroach (which dad can't stand)
Praying mantis or leaf bug
After the bug zoo, we wandered to Chinatown for dim sum, which was great. I did notice there was an entire back room full of Asians which they were keeping conspicuously separated from the American tourists. I can only assume the food carts were different in that room.
After dim sum, we all separated: Dad with Anya, Mom getting some time to wander alone, Ellen and Bruce doing their thing. Dad followed Anya wherever her whim took her and let her get them lost, in back alleys which was a lot of fun. Lots of neat little stores. We eventually wound up in an Asian toy store where Anya dropped the last of her cash on an egg which hatched a toy iguana. (These are the things the kid likes to spend her money on)
Here she is eating her afore mentioned meal worm lollipop. Note that she ate the worm, but threw away half the lollipop.
Every fountain she saw had to be inspected for the presence of fish. This one, like all the others, was certified fish-free.
Ah the enigmatic Miniature world. Seems I thought Brian and I loved this place when we were kids. I didn't remember it, but trusted Brian's account because he remembers everything. So we sought it out, and went. The weird part was that I misheard Brian. We never went as kids. That being said, it was pretty cool as far as tourist traps are concerned so Brian's non-recommendation was good advice.
Anya met some Australian girls at Miniature world, and the three of them loved it. They ran around screaming and having a ball pushing the buttons and lighting things up or making little cars drive in circles. She believes the girls played with were the same as the girl the day before in the hotel pool, but she's wrong, the girl from the night before were from St. Lawrence Canada not Australia. I write this only so that when she recounts the story 15 years from now, I can show her this and totally make her question the foundations of her reality. It's what good parents do.
All in all, a nice jaunt up to Victoria. The rest of the visit with Grandma and Grandpa B. was spent hyper-locally with some trips to parks, St. Catherine's, and topped off with a yummy meal at Mojito (one of our favorite neighborhood restaurants). It was a nice, long visit. The perfect amount of time, although Anya requested today that they stay 9 weeks next time. Perhaps they should just move out here. :-)
