Kenley's Blog: Trip to Connecticut

(From guest writer Michael)

The King Clan hopped on board JetBlue for a red-eye flight to Connecticut last Thursday. Wish the circumstances had been better, but we were heading east to put Opa to rest with a memorial service at Grandma Karin and Papa Richard's house. Bright side was that Kenley got to take her first trip east! She was AMAZING on both the journey east, as well as the journey home yesterday. She slept for nearly the entire red eye flight on Thursday night - a bit restless, but releasing her from the car seat on the plane and letting her stretch out did the trick.

After briefly waking up as Mommy and Daddy got settled into the rental car, she went right back to sleep and was easily transferred to the crib Grandma Karin set up for us. She woke up and gazed very confused at Oma (their first meeting!) and Grandma Karin before taking one look at Spike the dog, who is the dopiest looking dog you've ever seen, when she laughed hysterically at his droppy little face.

Kenley had a great time meeting Uncle Ryan, Oma and friend-Uncle Paully and seeing her Grandma Karin and Papa Richard! She's usually more than a little skeptical when seeing folks that either doesn't know or hasn't seen in a while, but she hopped right into play time and story time with everyone! She did pretty well sleeping/napping in the strange environment as well. All-in-all, we think this little monkey can travel with the best of them.

Kenley got to enjoy her first real sandwich (sorry northwesterners, y'all don't know how to make a grinder), east coast style, rampaging through a great christmas shop near Grandma Karin's house (the only person that broke something = daddy) and visiting Stew Leonards, an incredibly wild and crazy grocery store that we all loved as kids. When it came time on Sunday for the "party" (what Kenley decided to call Opa's memorial), she very patiently watched How The Grinch Stole Christmas while the rest of us memorialized Opa. It was a wonderful little event at the house, Papa Richard eulogized Opa and played a great song he wrote for him. After that, Kenley was thrilled because it was EAT EVERYTHING IN THE HOUSE time! She munched down on anything and everything put in front of her.

She was sad to leave! While the reasons for the trip were quite sad, it was wonderful to see her enjoying the other side of the family, who she so seldom sees.

Here are a few pictures, taken with our brand new camera!!! Thanks Mom-Santa-Elf-Turkey. I'm workin out the kinks, so some of the pictures are sideways... :)