Some of the things I have been up to the past two years while not blogging….

Please remember to click on the photos to see them better, but I think you have to use your back button to return to blog. I am not sure as mom is still trying to work on improving that (making it more user friendly).

Please excuse the “book”.. It was hard to choose what to tell you all. Just so many important things to share..
Hopefully, I won’t have to do this kind of a post again as I should be able to keep you all up to date here on out. 🙂 Well…

So here are some pics of what I, Miss Kayla has been up to over the past say two years… Been very busy with graduating from post-secondary school and transitioning over to my new Adult Day Program which I love! I just hit the one year mark. 🙂 Done some traveling… Mom has gotten into night photography so I have been camping in the car, tent, hotel so mom can capture the night sky with her camera.. Well, so we can capture it as I do help! 🙂 It is really cool to see the sky after dark and I LOVE all kinds of camping… I don’t go whale watching as much as I used to as there isn’t a lot to see down here (hence new photography subject)… To be honest, the night sky is much more interesting than whales, but I sure still love my best friends; the Common Dolphins and their cousins…

So let’s start with my post-secondary graduation with me receiving my certificate of accomplishment. This was my teacher; Mrs. Debbie and a photo of me on the screen in the HOPSA. Grandma and mom went to my graduation party that was held in my classroom on the last day of school.

Mom was really excited that I was able to start my Adult Day Program @ STEP before I turned 22. I graduated a little over two weeks before my birthday, but the director said I could start the following Monday after graduating from post-secondary. We have a lot of parties and activities at STEP. We also have a lot of fun keeping the center decorated in monthly themes so I get to do a lot of art work. I also enjoy music, exercise class, sensory room, computer time, gardening and everything else we do. And I love going out into the community. During the summer, we get to go to some really fun places. My previous post was about my fun day (just the other day) at the San Diego Fair with my peers. My first outing was to CAMP Able on Coronado last summer. It had changed from previous summers from what I understand so it wasn’t too organized which meant we didn’t get to do what we thought. We went for a nice long walk, hung out and it was nice just being at the beach (bay). Since mom drove there to hang with me (yes, this was just a one-time thing) I was able to leave whenever so CAMP Able was able to put me in a time slot to go sailing in a sailboat. That was really cool, although I wasn’t really in the mood to go by the time I got to. We did a short run in the bay so I could get a feel for it and see how it works. Mom was excited I got to go sailing. At one point mom even helped me hold the rope for the sail so I got to help sail the boat too.

My day program had a Luau. I was really tired that morning getting ready but mom still got a photo of me before I headed out the door.  I really enjoyed shopping for the Luau. When do I not like to go shopping? I believe I mentioned this already, but I found a new store that I am in love with – HOBBY LOBBY! Such a cool store full of so many colors and neat things. Mom did my nails. She waited this time until I was asleep – well, I made her think I was asleep but she could tell I really wasn’t, but I wanted my nails done and knew mom was waiting for me to go to sleep so I just pretended. I do really well with my hair and nails when I really want something done to them. 🙂

Opps, I need to back up just a tad… So before CAMP Able I had my birthday. For my 22nd birthday, mom and I went to our favorite weekend getaway spot (not so much a weekend getaway anymore – its complicated) and had a blast! We didn’t want to come back home. You might be able to guess where it was as we used to go all the time when we lived further north and the drive wasn’t so complicated. 🙂

Back to my day program.. Every year they hold the Special Olympics so I got to participate in them. Mom made me my team shirt and she came to watch. It was so much fun! I got to eat Vanilla ice cream and nacho cheese. Have I told you how much I love cheese?? I do.. Oh, and I didn’t eat these together, but did have ice cream before lunch.

I hope these are viewable. I did some of these collages on mom’s phone so they aren’t as big as doing them on the computer. In the one photo of me playing golf with the gentleman assisting me, that is the director of my program. He is awesome!

I really like my new program!! Mom does too..

So mom has left the cetacean world because there just isn’t much happening down here in our local waters and she doesn’t have the opportunities she did in Ventura. We have also changed our whale watch activities so we can explore other areas on earth. However, we still try to go to Monterey once a year, mom twice a year and we hope to get back up to the San Juans and Vancouver Island again. However, last year, mom and I did get to Monterey to do some whale watching (well, mom whale watching, me dolphin watching). 🙂 The Orca photo and the lower photo of me, even though we see Orca yearly in Monterey, that photo is from our 2017 trip to San Juan Island and taken in Canadian waters. I am so ready to go again, but mom says we are traveling to some other areas first before doing another road trip to there. She says we need to see new areas and get some stamps in my passport book.

At home, I love going for walks down the “back” road from the complex we live in. There are some goats that I call my friends who I visit on every walk. It is so much fun to go see them. They like my music I play for them and I like watching them. When they are out in the pasture, they come up to the fence to say hello. It is so funny to hear them vocalize. Have you ever listened to one vocalize? Its so cute! One day I went to see them and there was a baby, yep ONE baby that had just been born within the past 24 hours because I had seen them the day before and there was no baby. Well, I went the following day after seeing the ONE baby and guess what, there were TWO babies from the SAME mom. Where did the second one come from as it was NOT there the day before?! 🙂 Anyhow, how cool is that? I now have goat friends that include two little ones that I get to watch grow up. They are so much fun to watch.

Along our walk one day, not far from my goat friends I took this flower pic. Mom helped me take it with our phone. 🙂 And NO, I am so not going to get into photography! 🙂

Mom still wants to figure out if there is a way to hook a switch up to my iPad (or I might need an updated new one) so I can activate the camera on it to take pictures of my travels and activities, etc. It would just be another way I can be more involved. 🙂 Hmmm, that could be fun..

So mom had to find another subject to focus on for photography and it is such a fun one! I love it because I get to stay out late, I get to spend so much time outdoors, I get to camp in the car, tent, hotel camp sometimes. I get to go on trails and listen to all the cool noises of nature. Mom has taken up night photography and has even started teaching others how to. Who knew the sky was so full of stars and the Milky Way! I even studied the Milky Way and planets in my new program that I go to. I have seen Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, Venus too..

To name a few places –

Trona Pinnacles:

Dry Clark Lakebed

Lost Dutchman State Park

Here are a few of mom’s and my Milky Way photos. I say mine because I was with her and at times she helps me push the trigger on the remote cable so I can take a photo. I enjoy helping mom, but briefly.

In 2017 mom and I went to White Sands National Sand Dunes and along the way, we went to the Albuquerque Zoo and Cubby’s store (Build a Bear), Phoenix Zoo (with a friend) and visited a few other areas. We had so much fun and it was nice to head east for once – no traffic.

Oh, mom is also not trying to do a lot of photography with me because I will tell ya, I am not into it as much. I love the night time stuff but daytime, not so much anymore – been there done that. So now mom tries to just do photography when I am at my weekend camp once a month or she will do it with me at night time. When we go to the zoos, she will not always take her camera, but when she does, she doesn’t photograph as much as she used to. Well, except for the Chimp kids that she has been following/photographing for 7 years now. Yes, in the top photo is Zuri the oldest kid. She is going to be 8 years old in July this year – Wow, where has time gone!.  And the smaller Chimp on the left is Johari who will be four this October. He is the second to the youngest kid. Then just two other random baby zoo photos. 🙂
However, now when we go to that zoo, I LOVE to feed Phil the Giraffe so we both get to do something we love.

First trip this year to the LA Zoo – first time feeding Phil…

Two weeks later we went back so I could feed Phil. I love it!! I am ready to go again.

And I get to have ice cream even before lunch 🙂 …

So we need to back up a tad to this past April when mom and I met up with some friends in Arizona to camp and photograph the Milky Way at Lost Dutchmans State Park. We also did some sightseeing in area and went to the Phoenix Zoo where I fell in love with the bug exhibit. The noises they make are so funny! You can hear and see one of the bugs in the video I posted below.

At first, mom was just going to record the sound of the bugs, but then she decided to videotape me too. She doesn’t have many videos of me out and about… She needs to start so here is a good first one. 🙂

Another favorite thing I started to do that I love doing is ride the trolley. Not sure why it took mom and me so long to start riding it, but we did about two years ago. We have a checklist to make sure we visit each stop even if we only get off to take a short stroll. We use it to run errands, meet up with friends for lunch or just to get out for a nice stroll. It really is fun. Before we moved to the south bay area we used to use it all the time since we lived just up the street from it. Now when we use it, we have to drive quite a ways to catch it so its not too often. We need to go again though. 🙂 Maybe this weekend.

I love to help mom cook especially when its something I can eat too. I love eating and now mom orders me something to eat when we go out to eat. Its a lot of fun and mom enjoys me eating too. I have a difficult time with it as it has to be inserted on one side of my mouth otherwise, it’s not good. I try really hard and I do enjoy eating and want to. I am getting much better at it and mom is figuring out what works best. Living down here in San Diego I get to eat a lot of guacamole which I love too! Here are a few photos of me helping mom cook (mix up things with the blender via my switch). The other photo is of the hillside that is behind us when it was really pretty yellow-green about a month or two ago. 🙂

Now this is really cool… Mom finally figured out where to go to photograph the Blue Angels practice in El Centro this past winter. She went one day without me as I was at camp and then the next weekend she took me. We went really early in the morning as the wind was supposed to pick up and plus mom wanted to photograph them in the morning light. A friend of ours met us there. I loved it and it was so much fun! I got to wear ear plugs AND headphones that mom took me shopping for a few nights before. Cubby wore them when I didn’t need them. Let me tell ya something – those planes are HUGE & VERY SUPER FAST!

A couple of times they flew directly over me.

Well the day I went was the day the pilots, other crew members of the Blue Angels team were to do a meet n greet after the afternoon practice. Since I was having so much fun, weather was holding nicely mom decided we could stay. Yay! I got to meet ALL the pilots and many other crew members. They were so nice. I got their signatures and pictures taken with them. It was a tad overwhelming but it was also just so cool!

When mom went out there before without me, she drove around the area looking for Burrowing Owls. There were actually a few within strolling distance of where I was at which I got to see in-between practice sessions. But mom took these photos the weekend she went searching for them.  They were northeast from where we were at near the Salton Sea.

I am still dressing up for Halloween and this past year I was Vampirina. Mom and I helped mom make my Halloween outfit. Going shopping for the supplies was the best part. I love watching her programs and I really enjoyed being her.

Almost done here.. Next topic is my weekend respite that I call camp that I still go to. I love going there. I have a few friends, although, one of my most recent friends just moved out of state. We just started to become friends at the beginning of the year. She slept next to me and every night she and I would have our own conversations (vocalizing to each other taking turns) and stay up really late.   Mom loved getting those reports from the nurses. It was really sad when she moved a few weeks ago. I love to go on the swing there. They are building a new playground for each division so I can’t wait for ours to be finished. It will be so cool to spend more time outside. My two other girlfriends there always get so excited when I arrive as they are already there. The next time I go, I am having a birthday party since its right before my birthday! I can’t wait. Mom said she will take me shopping and help me make cupcakes for a party. She said I can take decorations too. I am going to bake something for my birthday to take to have a party at my day program as well. It’s going to be a lot of celebrating. I might be able to convince mom to let me do a month-long birthday. I did that when I turned 21 and it was so fun!  If I had it my way it would be every day of the year.
Here is a photo of me on the swing.

At Easter time I put bandanas in plastic eggs for the egg hunt we had so here is a photo of mom helping me do that.

And yes, I still love getting my hair done…. I actually just got it cut really short to help minimize the amount of matted tangling I am doing to my hair by rubbing it and its not fun for mom to try to brush it out. SHe is hoping this is just a phase I am going through. It has really helped with managing the tangles being short, but neither of us are crazy about it. Anyway, it will grow back and hopefully, the area that I actually rubbed out will too. Here is a pic of me getting pink streaks in my hair a while ago. I need to get it done again soon. 🙂

And to end this “book” of my previous two years selective events this is of me recently at a hotel down the street where we live. I was so excited to spend the night in a hotel. We had really bad fumes that came through the vents from them working in the unit above us mom was having a difficult time with it so we left for the night. I loved it!

So until next time which will be the rest of our Disney trip (cruise and land) and our most recent road trip…

Love,
Miss Kayla