Thomas turns 1

Thursday was the Thomas' first birthday.  It was not as hard as I expected, probably because I had a few melt downs before the actual day and the actual day was filled with peace.  I know we had a  lot of  thoughts and prayers headed our way and it really made a difference.

We decided that besides donating a  gift, we would also do something fun that Thomas would enjoy at this age on his birthday.  We went to Hogel Zoo and had a really good time.  Ellie loves animals, especially monkeys, and this was the first time that we went to the zoo that she was able to verbalize how much she was enjoying what she was seeing.

During the bird show

My Ellie-phant at the elephants

Afterwards we went for a drive through emigration canyon while Ellie took a nap in her car seat.  It was so beautiful.  When she woke up we headed over to the cemetery.  Ellie was so sweet.  She has been carrying around this Elmo backpack ever since we went to Seattle and I'm never quite sure what is in there.  When we got to Thomas' grave she said "Hi Thomas.   You hungry?  Ok I make lunch".  She then preceded to pull out all this random stuff from her bag and made Thomas lunch.  Then she pulled out her train set and had Andy set it up around the headstone, so that Thomas could play too.  It warms my heart when she does things like this.  She knows that she has a brother and that it is Thomas.  I'm sure she doesn't exactly understand, but she knows enough.  When we got up to leave she said "Bye Thomas, love you, see you later", and blew a kiss.

We went out for dinner at a fun little burger joint called Training Table.  It's fun because each table has a phone and when you are ready to order you pick up the phone and order that way, and they call you when your food is ready to be picked up.  I'm sure this is something that Ellie will really get a kick out of when she is older.

After dinner we came home and I sang happy birthday to Thomas and had some cake.
My sister, Rebecca, also sent me this picture.  They let blue balloons go in honor of Thomas, I started crying when she sent it.  It meant so much to me.

 It was a bittersweet day, but thankfully more sweet than bitter.