Day 82: The Day You Turned Fourteen

 When I started this blog eleven YEARS ago, I never dreamed I'd still be going (intermittently, sometimes more consistent than others). Back then it was to journal my life with toddlers. Now it's documenting my life with teenagers. My how things have changed. 

Shortly after I began this blog in 2012, I documented Calen turning 3 years old. Even without rereading the blog, I remember that day like yesterday. Even in the years when I'm not exceptionally good at blogging often, I usually (usually) remember to log in and blog about their birthdays, because it's one of my favorite things to post. 

Today, Calen Elijah turned 14. 

Fourteen!!

Fourteen is full blown teenager. It's the end of middle school. It's being legal to drive (in Alaska). 

This is ridiculous. This can't be real life. 

For the second year in a row, we've been out of town for Calen's birthday, courtesy of his kid brother's big State hockey tournament of the year. Last year we were in Wasilla, AK, and this year we are in Fairbanks, AK. Luckily, Calen is a pretty good sport, and it opened up his options of what he'd like to do on his birthday. 

Per request, we started the day with birthday donuts! Which is almost better than cake if you ask me. 

After a fairly quiet morning, we set off to an early lunch at a restaurant destined to delight Calen - a custom pizza parlor perched on TOP of a small craft airport watch tower (called East Ramp, at East Ramp airport). The pizza parlor is designed exactly as it should be. Flight maps for tablecloths, a TV monitor with current active flight trackers on the screen, binoculars hanging on hooks for you to look out the window and watch, and propellers hung on the walls. 

Calen was in heaven, and the pizza was delicious. We handed off two small presents - a small Lego car (his obsession), and socks in the designs of a pizza, complete with a "pizza box" to keep them in, because his name is Socks after all. 

Pizza socks!

After lunch we headed to Fred Meyer where Calen could pick out a "small" birthday present, as he had ordered a Nerf Gun online before this, and we had a whole other vacation planned starting, well, tonight, so space is limited. 

Calen headed straight for the toy car section and picked out three model cars. 

We went home and Calen happily built his Lego car while drinking Mountain Dew Spark and watching Far From Home (The Adventures of Yellow Dog), and then we had fudge brownies and homemade vanilla ice cream for birthday dessert. But the night wasn't over, because we had more on the agenda! But, more on that for tomorrow's post, because today is all about Calen. 

Looking back on his 3rd birthday, I did a list of all his "favorites." Let's do a redo, 11 years later:

1. Favorite toys that he plays with every day without fail (and yes, this is still a category, bless his young soul): Legos! Every day. Without fail. Honorable mention to some sort of toy car, but usually that falls under Legos also. 

2. Favorite TV shows/movies: Gravity Falls, Star Wars, Guardians of the Galaxy, any documentary on severe weather or CARS

3. Favorite Foods: Spam Musbi, pork buns, kung pao sliders, pizza, chili dogs, root beer

4. Favorite activity/interests: Baseball, drawing/cartooning, nerf battles, riding bikes, anything and everything to do with cars. 

5. Favorite video games (now replacing sayings and phrases): Need for Speed, Zelda, Smash Brothers, Minecraft, Starfox

6. Favorite animals: DOGS! He loves dogs. 

7. Won't Leave the House Without: Fingerless gloves, a nerf gun or weapon, a toy car in his pocket, a backwards hat OR a bandana, sometimes a Pizza Planet 80s style jacket. 

8. Wants to be: A Disney animator or cartoonist, a car designer or mechanic. 

He's still the easiest going kid in existence and I'm so thankful to have him around! This is fourteen!!

Pin It