Shoshone Point

 

Trail of Blue Ice

 Chugach National Forest, Alaska

August 2019

Open Pond Trail

 

Kellisa- The Dancer

 Kellisa became a dancer 14 years ago this month. To be honest, we knew Kellisa loved music and swinging her arms and shaking her head around, but we never thought Kellisa would take dance lessons. That all changed when she came home from school early in her 3rd Grade Year with a dance flyer given to her by long time friend, Lindsay. Switzerland Dance School, a local business, was starting a special needs class. We didn't hesitate, Kellisa was signed up the same day and she spent years dancing with her peers and able body girls of all ages. The pinnacle of her dance career would be the annual dance recitals held at the Lazzara Performance Hall on the campus of the University of North Florida. 

Sadly, Kellisa's friend Lindsay who opened the door to Kellisa's dance career gained her angel wings far too early. We will never forget Lindsay and the friendship she shared with Kellisa. 

First day of dance (August 2007) 

2011 Dance Recital

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Rugged Access for All

Click to purchase your copy. Thanks!

High School

So many years...memories...friendships...

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Airports Visited - 2020 Update

All-time list of airports visited:

Chris- 122
Kellisa- 60
Lisa- 45
Laurel- 41
Evie- 5

2020 - Chris added Great Falls, MT. Before COVID shut down the world, Egypt flew from Las Vegas to Sacramento (One-Way) and both girls and Lisa flew R/T from Sacramento to Portland, OR, but didn't add any new airports.

2019 was another year where all of our family trips were to Chicago to visit family. Lisa and Evie didn't visit any new airports. Laurel had one father/daughter trip where she added Hollywood/Burbank and Salt Lake City airports to her list. 

Kellisa and Chris added Billings and Kahului while working on their book. Kellisa also added Boise, Oklahoma City, and Salt Lake City while Chris added Redmond/Bend, San Francisco, Vancouver, Victoria, and Saskatoon while working his regular job.

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22

 GO BIG or Stay Home!

After years of going big for Kellisa's birthday, we stayed home for the second year in a row due to the global pandemic. We had HUGE plans last year for Kellisa's 21st birthday, but didn't even think about doing much this year. We're still playing it safe since Kellisa is considered high risk. 

Kellisa woke up a 22-year-old young lady and enjoyed a low key day at home with family. She enjoyed a push through the neighborhood before opening presents from family and friends. Kellisa watched and listened to plenty of The Wiggles and Hannah Montana. She selected a Poke bowl with brown rice, raw salmon, avocado, and house sauce for dinner. We ended the festivities with a best of both world cake, half vanilla and half chocolate. All in all another great birthday.

We are so ready and hopeful.....2022 will be a very big year as we make up for lost time! 

Enjoy a few pictures from today:

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Kellisa Loves it Loud...Now

   Kellisa turns 22 on May 23rd and due to the ongoing pandemic, we do not have anything big planned for the second year in a row. I came up with the idea to share a few Kellisa stories in the week leading up to her big day. I'd like to post one a day, but only have two planned so far. These might be stories shared for the first time or stories that can be found elsewhere, but I'll add new details and/or more background. 

It's easy to find Kellisa if there's loud music blasting from speakers because she will always wheel as close as she can and park herself for maximum exposure. This is true of every dance she attends and PE class at school when they play music in the gym. And she's not shy, if its not loud enough, she will ask for more volume. 

Kellisa spent 113 days in the NICU with alarms and bells going off around the clock, so you might assume she was accustomed to loud noises from her early days. You'd be wrong. Kellisa was petrified of noise, any noise, not just loud noise. Sudden noise was the worst. Kellisa would cry uncontrollably for hours when startled. She was inconsolable and would approach hyperventilating. It was horrible.

Lisa and I lived on eggshells. We couldn't even turn on the water at the kitchen sink if Kellisa was within hearing range and her hearing was heightened. One of us would have to take Kellisa to the farthest bedroom, close the door, and hug her with one of her ears pressed against our chest while using a free hand to cover her other ear. This would give the other person a few minutes to make minimal noise in the kitchen. Don't even think about opening a can of pop. 

It was always bad when we accidently made a sound or just let our guard down for a second because it would be at least 45 minutes of Kellisa screaming and shaking. While we could mostly control what happened inside our house, controlling what went on outside was a different challenge. Normal noises would send Kellisa crashing, a dog's bark, a motorcycle, kids laughing, literally any sound. Living life on eggshells was not pleasant. 

Slowly, extremely slowly Kellisa would get a little better at handling noise. She was always OK with riding in a car and even at her many doctor and therapist visits. We figured it was familiar sounds and she just struggled with unknown and sudden sounds. It didn't matter how loud or soft, any sound was scary.

Eventually, we tried to take Kellisa to a restaurant right before her first birthday. We chose The Lighthouse Café in New Smyrna Beach, FL for this experiment in sound. We made it to the front door and as soon as I opened it and we were hit with noise, Kellisa started her meltdown. We left defeated, but wouldn't give up. A few months later, we returned to The Lighthouse Café. We made it to the Hostess Counter before having to leave.  

This was repeated every couple of months and eventually we were seated, but left before ordering. Then, we ordered, but would have to leave before the food arrived. You guessed it, we ordered, the food arrived, and then a plate broke on the floor and we left without eating. We probably went to the restaurant 12-15 times and never ate a meal inside. We relocated to Jacksonville and continued our quest to eat out with Kellisa. At some point, I believe it was at an Olive Garden, we finally made it through a meal without having to carry Kellisa away. We always said we would go back and eat at The Lighthouse Café, but sadly it closed before we got the chance.

Kellisa still jumps at every little unexpected sound, but she is likely to giggle and brush it off as funny. She hasn't cried in probably close to 20 years from a loud noise. Kellisa has loved music since Lisa found The Wiggles on the television in the hospital when she was 4 (story can be found here). Since Kellisa discovered her love of music, she loves it loud! 

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Spiders

  Kellisa turns 22 on May 23rd and due to the ongoing pandemic, we do not have anything big planned for the second year in a row. I came up with the idea to share a few Kellisa stories in the week leading up to her big day. I'd like to post one a day, but only have two planned so far. These might be stories shared for the first time or stories that can be found elsewhere, but I'll add new details and/or more background. 

Kellisa in her room (5/21/2021)

Spiders. 

Anyone who knows Kellisa, knows she loves spiders!

What you might not know is where her love began.

We can trace this obsession back to when we visited Grand Canyon National Park back in March 2006. We were at the gift store and wanted Kellisa to pick out a souvenir T-shirt. The wall was covered with display shirts and Kellisa was immediately drawn to an orange shirt with a black, hairy spider with 8 legs sticking out the front. We were surprised by her choice and guided her to other shirts, but she kept coming back to the creepiest shirt on the wall to the point she was adamant on her choice. Lisa made the purchase and Kellisa was happy.

Kellisa wore the shirt with pride and loved all the attention. She loved that most people acted scared and shocked because the spider was so large and realistic looking. She wore that shirt every chance she got and we finally had to retire it many months after she outgrew it. We still have the shirt safely packed away somewhere in our garage. When we returned to the Grand Canyon in June 2010, we hoped to buy the same shirt in a larger size, but were disappointed to find the shirt no longer sold at the gift shop.  

Over the years, Kellisa has added to her shirt collection with all kinds of creepy shirts. Her vast collection includes spiders, snakes, lizards, alligators, sharks, bees...really anything that would scare the average person. Kellisa's collection has grown to include realistic decorations all over her bedroom. At any given time, you can find a rattlesnake lurking from under her bed to a flying bat circling her ceiling to a giant tarantula staring at you from some dark corner. We never know what we might see in her room and joke that if a real creature somehow got loose in her room, we'd never know it was alive. Kellisa also has an impressive scientific book collection featuring all the creatures she loves. Kellisa can spend hours flipping through her books looking at the realistic photographs.  

Kellisa's room is just how she loves it and we need to warn people before they enter her room. They usually look at us like we're crazy and probably think, "How scary can it be?" which is usually followed with a gasp or two, then thanking us for the warning.

Kellisa also loves visiting zoos with the snake house her favorite exhibit. We've even visited a bug museum once. Her younger sister, Egypt has always been around Kellisa and her unusual interests and also loves creepy creatures. I need to pry them away from the snake exhibit if we happen to stumble upon an active snake...they could watch for hours. 

Despite wearing that original spider shirt dozens, if not hundreds of times over the few years it fit, we cannot find a single picture of Kellisa wearing it. I also spent too much time unsuccessfully trying to find an image of the T-shirt online. I'll update this post (and probably write another) when we come across her shirt someday when going through the kid's clothes in the garage.

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