First Reunion

We had the neatest opportunity on Saturday to meet the family who adopted Leah's friend from Nanyang orphanage.  We found out about them while we were still in China, and I was able to track them down when we got back.  I had no idea where they were from, but it turns out they live less than 2 hours away from us.  Isn't that amazing?  Of course it's no coincidence that two little girls adopted from halfway around the world live so close—it's miraculous!  We met Dustin, Mia, their daughter Hadley, their boys, and little Jill at a park near their house on Saturday.  It was so neat.  Mia is one of few moms that has actually been to Nanyang orphanage.  They were only allowed to see one room, but  it's the room Leah spent all her time in.  She told us all about it and even gave us a DVD with her video footage from the visit—it's truly priceless.  Jill turned two in July so these girls are very close in age.  She came home in January and is doing so well.  She had an unrepaired cleft lip and palate, and it's incredible to see the progress she's made already.

In all honesty Leah and Jill didn't pay a ton of attention to each other.  They were both on the go non stop and hardly ever in the same spot, but I know they'll cherish this friendship and connection to their past.  It was hard to even get them in the same location, let alone take a picture, but here are a few of their budding friendship... (and on a technical note all of the pictures I edited lost a lot of quality when I exported them, this series particularly bad, so I've got to figure out what I need to change in my settings but here they are anyway)...

 They were pretty tentative at first...

although in reality I don't think Jill is the tentative type.  This little girl has that same light and spirit as Leah.  They are survivors and it shows.

 They were soon getting cozy...

 and laughing...

looks like the makings of a beautiful friendship!

Check out this picture of the girls back in January in the orphanage...wow.

Back to School!

I have two kids in school this year.  I can't believe Seth is old enough for kindergarten.  He certainly looks it, but the time has gone too fast for me.  Luckily he's home by lunch, so we can still enjoy lots of time together.  He has Mrs. Searle this year and so far likes school a lot.  It wasn't nearly as scary or sad sending him off as Luke because he was so excited and ready, and he has Luke to take care of him.

Luke has Mrs. Rees this year.  He's excited because she does lots of science.  He didn't seem too excited to go back to school so I was a little nervous, but he's settling in great and loves it so far.  It seems ridiculous that he's already in third grade!

I did snap a few shots on the big day.

 Love these boys!

The bus stop gang.  The bus stop is right on the corner and the school's only about a mile away so it's perfect!  Lots of great kids, and this isn't even quite the whole bunch!

Determination

Leah is proving to be a determined little girl.  I knew she had a strong spirit, and she proves it every day.  In fact, she amazes me daily!  What she is learning and can do with her little arm is incredible.  Watching her is a lesson in having joy and living each day to the fullest.  I did tell some kids at the pool the other day that "it's not nice to stare."  They were totally old enough to know better and after they came back for like the third round of pointing and whispering to each other I'd had it.  I was nice though.  When she's older I may not be so nice, or she'll probably just stand up for herself!

I took some pictures of Leah in the sand the other day.  She absolutely loves it and has no qualms about having it in every nook and cranny!

Park City

I'm only on post #2 and I'm already losing steam so this is going to be mostly pictures.  We headed to Park City with my family for a few days in August.  It was our last mini vacation before school started. The kids spent literally hours in the pool and that was vacation enough for them, but we did some other fun things too.  Thanks mom and dad!  (While I'm on the topic of awesome grandparents I must mention that Jer's parents took all three boys camping back in July.  They were gone for almost four days and had so much fun.  I've got no pics to prove it, but they had a blast in Stanley!)

I fiddled around with editing some of these with no particular theme or consistency—just fiddling!

When the kids weren't swimming they had fun riding the gondola and exploring at the Canyons followed by snow cones.

Playing at the mountain in Park City.  Airplane and carousel rides for the littles (Leah's not a fan) plus mini zip line and Alpine Slide for the bigger boys.  Ian got in on the Alpine Slide action too.

The very long and scenic way home took us to the Provo River waterfalls and Mirror Lake.

Lava Baby

I am about to go on a posting tear.  I am way behind and am going to make a desperate effort to catch up.  Way back at the very beginning of August we made a very short weekend getaway to Lava.  What started out as lots of families with plans to camp eventually became a last minute trip by us, the Liechtys, and the McBrides.  I was very brave (enter a bit of guilt too) and had Ian and Leah stay the night with my parents.  The stuff we were doing was just not for really little kids.  The place we stayed in Lava was Bates Motelish, but we had lots of fun.  It could definitely become a tradition.  Most of our activities were done in one long Saturday.

We tubed the Portneuf River and Cami caught some of the action from the bridge....

 Matt and Finn

 Steve and kiddos

 Our fam on the underinflated tube

 

Lindsey and Macie...

It was a blast.  We did it 5 or 6 times.  One event not caught on camera were the waterfall trips.  Up above where we put our tubes in there was a pretty decent sized waterfall.  Jer, of course, hauled the tube up there and went off of it.  Well, the next time we went up Seth wanted to go too.  He had trouble hiking up there because it was so steep and once they got started they ended up the wrong way, got high centered on rocks, and Jer had to get Seth off the tube mid run.  The next time around they tried it one more time with flying colors.  I was a bit worried for Seth, but he's so stinkin' brave!

Then it was on to Lava where the kids did the speed slides (Seth wasn't even quite tall enough but got away with it).  Typical of their personalities Seth was all over it and Luke took some coaxing.  Luke did the regular high dive and Jer and some of the guys did the high platforms.  I didn't have a lot of desire to do that.  The slide was fun, but I'm not sure about jumping.  It looked a little painful and the pool was shut down twice including an ambulance while we were there!

They were some exhausted kids but we still managed to see the sites of Lava including a funky hot tub, old school park, the pizza joint, and the candy store.  Very fun memories!