Sweet 16! Happy Birthday, Thalia!!!

 Sweet, sweet Thalia!

She turned 16 years old yesterday...

In this picture, she was 5...Wow!
 

This is one of my all time favorite pictures..

Thalia and Ozzie?  I think that was the dog's name.

Our neighbor, Pete, had this dog..probably still does.  Every time Thalia came to visit, going to get Ozzie or going and getting him to come to our house, was some of the first things she asked for.

Thalia has definitely always been an animal lover!

 

Saddie, Thalia, Emily, Erica, Lindsey, Me 

 

 This was Girl's day for lunch!

We all went to eat sushi..

Thalia had to help her Saddie to know how to use chopsticks.

 

This was at the farm...

and I do believe it was Thalia's first driving attempt.

In this picture, Erica is manning the Texas Golf Cart..

but I think Thalia manned it for awhile?

 This is the same trip to the farm...back in 2010.  Country roads are some of the best to learn to drive on...and Thalia did a great job. 

 Fast forward to July, 2014... her Mimi said, "Come on, Thalia, you can drive!"

This time, it was no country road,

but a busy 4 lane road through the heart of our little town!

There was traffic,

and a white-knuckled Erica in the backseat,

and a cool-calm-collected driver "manning this beast" as her Papa would say.

 

I knew she'd be a great driver!

 Thalia's a good sport about getting together for pictures...

although she can be a bit ... no, she can be

extremely critical of pictures of herself!

"See Mimi," she says, pointing out things that don't look good in her pictures.  I never see them, I only see my beautiful granddaughter! 

 She loves the beach,

loved it in Southern California

and loves it in Northern California...

 This past summer, I loved traveling with her...seeing her in a whole different environment.

I've only seen her with family, so seeing her with friends was new for me.

I loved it...loved it all!

This was in Scotland...

she looked a bit dangerous................ 

 This is also in Scotland...

 

 The animal lover side of Thalia was the first in line to sheer a sheep...

but it was the dogs she was crazy about!

 

 We went to a watch sheep dogs

and saw some puppies in training!

 

 We went looking for Nessie together...

Nessie, the LochNess Monster.

Unfortunately, we didn't see her.

 We also went golfing in Scotland...

 and went to St. Andrews

 This was up in a dome in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

 Also in Northern Ireland, my brave granddaughter went across the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge.  The rope bridge that's about 100 feet above the sea.

I asked someone to take our pic on Carrick Island!

In Belfast, we went to the Peace Wall.

Thalia is immortalized there after signing her name!

 In Ireland, at Bunratty Castle, she rubbed this statue which should

guarantee me to be a great grandmother many many times :)

 In Wales, we broke boards...with our bare hands.  Thalia is tough!

 In Wales, at Penryn Castle,

Thalia conquered some of her fears by rappelling down this castle.

It took her a while to get started...

(she's the one standing up on the top)

 But once she got started, we could hear her loud and clear :)

I loved it..

I laughed till I cried..

 Down she came!

 

We watched a sunset at the Pen y Pass hostel in Wales..

 We ended in London,

where she lives.

I loved being there with her..

being on the London Eye

and seeing this city she's loving!

Now she's 16 years old...

traveling around the world...

USA, Thailand, England, Scotland, No. Ireland, Ireland, and Wales.

What an experience!

Her dad said realizing that if they were living here, she'd be out driving a car by herself.

yeah..

but she's known how to drive for a long time!

Thalia...I hope you had a wonderful 16th birthday!

Your Mimi loves you...so much!