Another First!

Last Friday was J's first day of Kindergarten!

So much fun to be able to share this with him.

And we can't believe he's growing up so fast!!

We are so so proud of you!

Our camper

If I can get it uploaded correctly, here is video of our camper.  I had to cut it into multiple shorter movies because it was too long, so watch them all if you want to see the whole camper!

Looking forward to going back up!  The camper will stay there, so that way when we go up, we can just unlock the door, push two buttons to pop out the slide-out and the awning, and we're pretty much good to go after Chris hooks up the water and electric.  Guess it's not really true camping anymore, but boy is it fun!!

And next time we go up, I finally get my hammock hung up...just hope the bugs aren't too bad.

Who's up for a visit?!?!

300th post!

Took me a while to get there, but this is my 300th post on the blog!!  And to commemorate it, I want to wish my husband a happy 10th anniversary a day late (June 26th).

It's been a wild ride, with ups and downs, but I'm so glad it was you I was on that ride with.  I can't imagine what my life would be like without you.

Happy 10th Anniversary, Honey!!

What a difference ten years makes...

Thank you for making me so very happy.

I'm the luckiest woman/mommy in the world.

4th Family Day!!

Four years ago today, Chris, J, and I became a family of three.

The ride in the van from the adoption agency to our hotel:

The following day on the plane, ready for takeoff!

 

Daddy helping J get to sleep at home.

 Chris' first Father's Day

Later in the summer:

Guess we know how early J caught the flying bug!!

Happy Family Day to us!!!!

And Happy Family Day to good friends that we met while over in Korea, Annie and Mike, and your J as well.  We got our boys on the same day and flew back home on the same plane.  What a ride we've been on!  Congratulations!

(this picture was taken 4 years and a couple of days ago)

Chopping Wood

I forgot the best video from the trip!!!

(and it shows some of the camper as well)

No worries, I told him that chopping wood is definitely NOT a game, but how can you not smile and laugh at this video?!?!

First Camping Trip of the Year and Graduation!

Knock, knock.

Hello-o-o??

Anyone there?

Yep, I'm back!

So sorry to not have posted anything in 2 1/2 months.  I have been getting used to a new job, working at the same place, and am now a Monday-to-Friday-er with a (very) flexible 8-5 schedule for the first time in over 10 years.  Which means J is also going to daycare five days a week.  (I think he's transitioned better than I have, but that's not surprising, as he's always been pretty laid back and goes with the flow.)  At work, my to-do list is perpetual, which is new for me as well; I'm used to finishing all my charting on patients and then going home with everything completed.  It's been hard for me to leave things unfinished each afternoon, but I'm learning.

And speaking of learning, we have a graduate on our hands!!  J graduated from pre-K last week and his school had a ceremony for all the kids with diploma, awards, and cake included.  I swear Chris had tears in his eyes when they started playing "Pomp and Circumstance" for the children to walk in to (although he keeps denying it!).  Mom of the Year moment: remembered the camera (yay!)...forgot to charge the battery (boo!).  Argh!  So I got a total of 5 pictures before it completely died on me and most of those were blurry.  J's award was that they think he's going to be a Future Airplane Mechanic or Pilot.  And if you've been around him for any length of time in the last oh, 7-8 months, you know that they are dead-on with that guess!  Here's the best picture of the bunch:

We also went camping a couple of weekends ago to put our new camper on our land.  It will stay there permanently and it's going to be so nice to just drive up there, unlock the door, and push a button to slide out both the awning and the one slide-out we have!  We definitely have room for visitors, so if anyone wants to set up a time, let me know.  :)  I made a video tour of the camper, but it's way too long to upload to here...and I didn't even take a lone picture of the camper.  Sorry!  I'll get one next time.

It was a tad bit cold at the beginning of May when we were there, so we were all bundled up.

picking up kindling for the fire

this is B's idea of "kindling"!!

don't know how many more years he'll be able to do these splits

Daddy and J walking back to the campsite; they've both been waiting years to do this together!!

Chilling by the fire

Our last morning there, this is what we woke up to!  But it had all melted by 8:30.

putting together a model airplane

LOVE!

My boy

Took him forever to get to sleep in the hotel on the way home and this is how he ended up when he finally gave it up to Mr. Sandman!  He looks so long in this picture!

I'll try to be better about posting.  I've got tons of pictures to put up from the last couple of months!

Ice Skating

Look what we did yesterday...

Action shot so it's a little blurry:

We all had soooo much fun and J did awesome!

He even told us after a while that he didn't want the ice walker anymore and kept saying, "I can do it. I can do it!"  He's definitely getting more and more independent and wants to do things by himself.

What a blast!