Dwimble.com

Nadia holding a baby for the first time – her cousin Caleb.

We headed down to Sugarland, TX for a quick trip to see Chris and Jen’s twins and to meet Lisa and Michael’s new son Matthew. It was a whirlwind, but so fun! I have been dying to see the boys and was so happy we worked it out for a visit. Nadia was not sure what all the hype was since they couldn’t “play”, but then she thought it was cool to hold one of the boys. Jen suggested we head for the park since it was a beautiful day and our girls had been cooped up in the car all morning. While the kids played and Chris walked the boys in their stroller Jen and I chatted. Her mom Jane came by and we had a quick visit.

Nadia is so strong.

Sweet sisters.

That night we headed over to Pearl Dynasty to have dinner and meet Matthew. Nadia and Angelina were so happy to see each other and started to play right away. Meanwhile Amelie tried to eat her weight in spring rolls.

Thank God for His blessings poured out on our two families. And that we live close enough to see each other regularly. The next morning we got up and had breakfast, packed up and went back to Chris and Jen’s. I had the girls bring in their toys and books and they had a great time showing Jen everything while Mike and I fed and held the babies. It made my heart so happy.

This photo is precious! Thank for having us for a visit!

Click the photo above  to see the whole album.

The week of Thanksgiving this year we headed to Albuquerque, NM to my Grandma’s house so that she could meet Amelie and see Nadia again. That will be a separate blog post, but I did want to mention where we started. From there we headed to Denver, CO to spend the weekend with our friends Randy, Jessica and their children. On Thanksgiving Randy smoked a turkey and Jess has prepped everything else the day before while we were driving up. The weather was so nice that the girls had a blast playing outside in the morning.

Abby set the table and made name plates for each of us. The food was fantastic as always with the Petermans. Jess made 2 kinds of pumpkin pie and a chocolate cream pie based on a Colonial Williamsburg recipe.

Here is Randy getting the turkey ready to become soup for Friday night. After this we headed to the park so the girls could run around.

After the park the girls did some crafts while Jess and I made our Black Friday attack plan and around 7 am we were on the road. Jess loves Black Friday shopping and it was a blast to just be together! We both scored some great deals and while we were gone Mike took Randy and all the girls out to breakfast. He told me that they saw quite a few other dads and kids which I thought was funny.

Friday night my Dad’s cousin Kathy, her husband John, daughter Emma and my Great Uncle Jack came over for soup and ice cream. Emma was about to turn 3 and it was so sweet to see the girls playing together. It was such a nice visit and we are grateful that they drove south to visit us.

The next morning we packed up to head back to Texas. The girls played until the last possible second and then we took some goodbye photos.

Thanks for hosting us this year Randy and Jess. We love you guys!!!

Our last planned road trip of the summer was to Houston for my cousin Jen’s TWIN baby shower. Everything worked out in such an awesome way that we crammed in seeing so many people we love – if we had more time I think we could have seen even more. On the way down I got an email that I was the “elite member of the day” and when we showed up we had our own parking spot in the front and this sign at the front desk. Plus a little treat at check in.

We ate dinner in the room that night and the next morning got up and headed for brunch at my Aunt Jane’s house. We had a really nice time visiting with her, Perry and her sister in addition to Chris and Jen. After brunch we ran back to the hotel so I could change and the girls could nap while I went to Jen’s baby shower. It was so sweet to see the outpouring of love for their boys.

Jen’s dad is “Mr. Hunting Dude” and sent the boys their first camo. Adorable!

Jen’s sister Leslie makes handmade nursing covers. Isn’t it pretty? She sells them on Etsy.

This is me with Jen and Jane. I love them!

I didn’t think we were going to get a chance to see my Dad on this trip, but he flew in early from a business trip in London so he joined us for dinner at Pearl Dynasty. SO YUMMY! One of the families from Nadia’s travel group owns it and the food is delicious. You should go there! After dinner we went to have ice cream with our friends and my dad headed home to get over the jet lag.

Could these girls be any cuter? Melts my heart!

Last of all on Sunday morning I was thrilled to death to see my sister Tahni. She was in town to shoot a wedding and drove up to the hotel to visit with us. We haven’t seen her since last year when she moved to VA. We miss you Tahni and were so happy you were in town the same weekend as us.

After check out we headed home. It was a whirlwind, but fantastic weekend!

Amelie, Reagan and Nadia. Click the photo above to see the entire album.

The adoption agency Dillon International  hosts a China Heritage camp in Tulsa, OK each summer. We have known many families that have taken their bigger girls, but children must be 4 to attend so this was Nadia and many of her buddies first chance to attend.  We made plans with local friends and with friends from the Internet that I had never met in real life. All of the girls were in the same class – The Dragonflies. Each day we dropped them off at 9:30 and then picked them up at 3:30. Throughout the day the girls did Chinese language, cooking, Kung Fu, crafts and more. On the first day they had a ceremony for the parents and children complete with a lion dance.

Amelie was not excited about the lion dance. She kept covering her eyes like above.

The first night we invited everyone to our hotel for a pizza and pool party. Our friends the Cannons who live outside of Tulsa came out that night so we got to see them and Alyssa again. After we had pizza and before the swimming the girls played and played. It was so adorable that I actually teared up watching them because I was so overwhelmed by the fact that God brought them halfway around the world to be a part of all these families.

The next day we dropped the Nadia off and when we got back to the car Amelie was saying, “Nadia, Nadia” and pointing at her empty car seat. We told her that we would come back to get her later. Then at the hotel she wandered around the room saying, “Nadia, Nadia”. It was cute to see her wondering where her big sister was. The second night they had a picnic and swim time at a local park, but we were fairly tired and the girls were very sleep deprived so we grabbed some to-go food and had dinner with the Landy’s at the hotel.

At the end of the last day we joined the kids for a Chinese lunch and their program. The kids were all so cute and there were a record setting number of kids attending this year – 258!

After the ceremony we got some photos of the girls (Kiy we missed you). They were SO.TIRED. from going for 3 days.

Nadia fell asleep in the car when we were less than a mile down the road. She slept about 90 minutes and then woke up and talked for almost 2 hours about everything she had done for the last 3 days. We asked her every night, but she didn’t say much; she apparently saved it all for the ride home. We plan on going again as do many of the families who have attended.