Celebrating Life!

I woke up extra early to decorate McKenna's house w/ posters, balloons, etc. and then went through McKenna's window so she could emerge from her room to see all of the B-day decorations! This was the wake up picture.

I put balloons and streamers all over, just like her mom did for her when she was a kid. Nostalgia is a great thing on Birthday morning!

The Birthday kiss...for me.

Post-it Notes (a favorite item of McKenna's) full of fun memories.

How many languages can you say Happy Birthday in?

A mid-afternoon Birthday break...NOT! McKenna (and later I was included in this) volunteered at the kids science palooza. I think we both learned a valuable lesson here, and it wasn't that air cannons are cool.

Throughout the day McKenna got a series of different presents. I thought this would be kind of fun. We started out the morning w/ breakfast cereal and a subscription to National Geographic Magazine, and later in the afternoon she got a book on all the best hiking in Utah.

So I told McKenna I'd take her somewhere "fancy." We got dressed up and went to Salt Lake, because that's where you go to do something fancy. We parked downtown and took Trax around--b/c that's what I consider at least to be a highlight of SLC downtown life, and a fancy thing at that.

We ate at The Garden on the 10th floor of the Joseph Smith Building. It was beautiful in there. We had a nice corner seat next to the giant glass window and were surrounded by really cool plant life (note: plants are fancy). Dinner was incredible! And after dinner, for the second time in our history I pulled a pocket trick on McKenna and produced a pearl necklace from my suit coat pocket. FANCY. She liked them.

This day was meant to include a variety of things that McKenna loves, seeing that today is her birthday and we're celebrating the fact that she was born. So... after dinner we went to the Planetarium to see some exhibits, do some experiments, and learn some cool facts.

We also went to Mars.

Aww...

The last present of the day -- A calender full of stars, planets, and other cool space stuff. What a day! Happy 24th McKenna!