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Mike’s mom is now living at an assisted living and retirement center. Out of the 80 or so people who live there, about 9 are men.

This Memorial Day the place did a little display to honor all of the vets living there. Guess what? Every single man in the place is a vet. Plus 2 of the women who were in WWII. That is the era gone by that will never return again. If I ever end up in one of those places I know it’s not going to be that way. There are good odds that not a single man or woman in there will have served our country.

It’s a good thing that we haven’t seen a major war in the last generation that would take so many of our young people off to fight, but there is also a bit of American pride that has been lost. When I am out and about and see people in uniform I stop what I am doing and tell them, “Thanks for serving our country.” I don’t care if it’s on the street, in the airport or in a crowded restaurant - I do it. I now find myself compelled to do the same thing when I see old men out with their “Veterans of xxxx War” caps on. I go up and thank them for their service because I believe they truly made America what it is today and turned the tide of the world back during WWII.

Most of the time it catches them off guard and they look genuinely surprised. But then they give me a GIANT smile and say, “You are welcome” or “I’m just doing my job” And you know what? It bothers me that so many service people look surprised when I do that. I feel like more people should be thanking the ones that provide us with this totally blessed America that we live in. I often find myself thinking of how horrible the returning Vietnam Vets were treated and I hope we as civilians never put our men/women in uniform through anything like that ever again. A lot of service people are going to be coming home soon with the pull out in Iraq and it’s my great wish that we would welcome them home with kindness and respect for the job that they did - no matter what your political viewpoint.

 I snapped a few shots yesterday because the sweet display was still up.

There are games that never get old in a 2 year old’s world. Like covering their face and saying, “Where’s Nadia?” This would go on for hours if you would let her. Another game she likes to play is for me to pretend to be asleep on the floor and she gives me George to sleep with. Then once my eyes are closed she grabs George and runs to the chair or to Mike if he is home to protect her. I jump up and yell, “George, George, Who took George?” Nadia thinks this is hilarious and will usually toss him towards me to prevent me from tickling her. Then we start over.

Here is some of the action caught by Mike one night.

This is technically Mike’s 3rd Father’s Day since we had Nadia’s photo in 2007 We love you very much and think you are the best dad EVER!!!

Here we are about an hour north of Denver, CO on our spur of the moment road trip. We visited with the Peterman’s and it was so nice to share such a fun weekend with them. More photos to follow soon. (Nadia is showing off the rocks she found in the photo)

And because I love the comparison shots - Father’s Day 2008

Click the photo above to see all the photos from the trip.

I was thinking yesterday about a trip Laura and I took to Sausalito in June of 2007 that was a spur of the moment “girls trip”. It was so close to the adoption trip and all the other craziness of preparing to go to China that I never had the chance to blog about it. My sister Michelle came across the bay from San Francisco to join us and we had a blast. We stayed at the “Inn Above Tide” and had a great view overlooking the bay. (thanks for the recommendation Gina!)

Here was my absolute favorite thing about the hotel room. The bathtub overlooking the bay. I had a very nice bubble bath in the dark one night. It was so cool!

We ate great food and took the ferry over to Pier 39. I wanted to see the Sea Lions, but they were not out if full force. Kind of a disappointment, right?

I loved this sign.

And when we rode the Carousel which was fun - Nadia would have loved it

We went to Michelle’s apartment in little Chinatown. (who knew the smell of those shops was preparation for the China trip?)

We took a ride on a boat all around the bay. We got these giant strawberries and chocolate to dip them in. Laura and Michelle thought the funniest thing on the trip was the chocolate getting stuck in my hair and flying all over my face, but I kept eating and then cleaned up. Why fight the wind and the waves when you are enjoying good chocolate?

All in all we had a blast - eating and laughing and having a great time. We sat out on the deck day and night.