NY Trip - Sunday

We checked out of the Roger Smith, aka Gorilla in the Mist Hotel, left out bags with the bell boy and jetted off to our first day in New York City. We had breakfast at a diner that would best be described as a Denny's with flair. After our $45 eggs and toast, we decided to walk to Central Park in search of a playground for Little Miss. We entered Central Park, the walks lined with benches and huge beautiful trees in yellows, reds, and oranges. Street vendors were singing, playing saxophones and drums, drawing portraits, and selling all manner of pictures. There were tons of people meandering about or playing soccer or doing yoga. I fell in love with the Park, from almost the first steps we took into it. Searching for all the places that I could remember in the movies was fun, I even sang the "How Do You know" song from Enchanted while circling around by the bridge. Daddy took a great video of my madness.
We finally found the playground, and Little Miss went haywire. She tunnelled, she ran, she slid, she climbed, she ran, she swung, she... where is she? LITTLE MISS!! LITTLE MISS!! Daddy and I looked frantically for her. In the first 4 minutes I was just mildly curious as to where she went, at 5 minutes I was heart thumping, at 5 minutes and 30 seconds I remembered we were in NEW YORK, and at 6 minutes we were at full out HEART ATTACK. Several minutes after that, when Daddy and I had laid out a cris cross search pattern, we found Little Miss in a concrete tunnel on an adjacent park. Daddy didn't let her feet touch the ground the rest of the time in the Park. We had a long long long too long discussion about safety, which she probably didn't retain at all. Whew. Still. I loved the Park. We rode the old time carousel, watched people ice skate, and ate the first of many hot dogs from street carts.
We walked back for our bags and had the doorman hail us a cab. More than 8 cabs stopped, but when they found out we were only going to the Village and not the airport they took off. Finally we got a cab and made our way (very late) to our condo for the week. Our gracious landlord gave us the tour and left. The condo was smaller than my bedroom, on the 4th floor with no elevator, and hot as the dickens. But it was cheap, clean and a fantastic central location for our travels.
We took our first adventure on the subways that evening to Madison Square Garden for the Knicks v Rockets game. We came to love the subway, taking it everywhere. We are Masters of the Subway. We ate pizza at a corner bistro, YUMMY!! and I put Little Miss's Snapple in the inside pocket of my jacket. When walking into the Garden, security made Daddy throw away the Coke in his hand. We no more than got through the metal turnstiles than Little Miss yells "THANKS MOM FOR HIDING MY DRINK IN YOUR JACKET". It was hilarious and we SSsshshhhhhhhhhh'd her. She must have thanked me a million times during the game, all whispering in my ear. The tickets that we got through a favor were unbelievable. We were on the floor of the Garden! Little Miss actually loved the game yelling DE- FENSE all night and almost always at the wrong times. We had blow up whacking sticks to make noise and put up when the Rockets shot free throws.. very fun. Little Miss was asleep across our laps by the middle of the 4th quarter, so when the Rockets sealed the win with 8 minutes to go we took the subway home. It had been a Great Long Day. We got home and fell asleep shortly before midnight.

NY Trip - Saturday

Saturday morning we woke up late. The Grooms family had breakfast accounted for and tables set up with cookies, sandwiches, drinks, snacks and the like to make packed lunches for the bus. We took touring buses into NYC. Little Miss sat with her buddy Lucy and played the whole 2 hour ride there. It was only a 45 min drive, gotta love NY traffic. We got dropped by the bus, leaving all our stuff for safe keeping, and literally RAN through Times Square to the Theatre District. Our huge group was 10 min late for Rock of Ages, but they shuffled everyone in discreetly. My first Broadway show on Broadway!! Tainted ever so slightly, only by the thought that this moment should have come with Auntie K sitting beside me. What an amazing show! A small cozy theater with a show full of loud and energetic 80's music. During the "strip club" scene, Little Miss asked me why the girls were dancing around in their underwear... and I replied that it was just like us dancing around the living room in ours. (blush) Later, after a reference to the Gentleman's Club... Little Miss told Daddy that he was a gentleman and she was his lady. Funny German Franz was my favorite character and I was the amusement of everyone by not knowing Dee Snyder was the front man from Twisted Sister. BORN in the 80's people... I didn't listen to Twisted Sister! Crystal ran up to me after the show apologizing for the content, but we waved it off as all in good fun. It went WAY over Little Miss's head. After the show, we lazily walked back through Times Square to our dinner venue of the evening. Carmine's. We were taken upstairs to the large back room. Pictures of mobsters, old movie stars, and old Times Square on the walls were awesome. We were seated 10 to a table, with 6 or 7 tables put back to back. We all were talking about how the restaurant was still owned by the mob and what scary and crazy things must have happened in that very room over the years. We had 12 or so courses over the next 2+ hours. Salad, broccoli (it was yummy), pastas, calamari, rack of lamb, fillet, eggplant Parmesan, shrimp, and then two desserts. There was so much food.. So Much Food! I thought I was going to explode. Little Miss was entertained by the man sitting behind me, who missed his two little boys and played games with her all night. Best Italian Dinner I have ever had. Hands down. An amazing experience of food. At 8:30, the early bus took the small minority of people back to NJ. We took our bags, said goodbye to Crystal and Kane, said a heartfelt Thank You to Mary and Kenny for the weekend, and got in a cab to our 1 night gap hotel room. We were on the 15th floor of an old classy hotel named the Robert Smith. I kept calling it other names, Robert Jordan, Hunter Smith, etc. It was clean and cute. We had a relaxing night and Little Miss watched Barbie then fell asleep on an old lounge next to our bed.

NY trip - NJ Wedding Thursday and Friday

After lots of changes and turns and all, we were finally on our way to NJ for Crystal's wedding. Little Miss loves to ride and airplanes, but this would be her first flight of more than an hour or so. She kept asking when we were going to be in NY city. After takeoff. Can I have my coloring book? After takeoff. Tray table down? After takeoff. Once we actually got in the air, she was great. Watching out the windows and making up stories about flying animals kept her busy for a long time.

When we landed in Newark, we took a train to Morristown. We were told that a cab would be $75 but the train was only $35 and would be about an hour. No sweat, Daddy is sure that we need to learn the transit system early. After 2-1/2 hours, we arrived at the hotel. Never never never getting on a train in NJ again. I was absolutely sure that the $35 we saved was not worth it! Little Miss was at the end of her rope, we were at the end of our ropes, but ready to settle into our trip.

When we arrived at the hotel, we were given the itinerary for the wedding and a bag full of goodies from the wedding party. We walked a half mile to Cluck U for dinner. Daddy has been talking about this place for 10 years. He always tried to get Crystal to UPS him one next day air. GROSS. She never did. Because its gross.
Our dinner, however, was wonderful. Cluck U makes a sandwich called a Little Roman, which was great. We went to the ice cream social provided by the grooms family at the hotel. Saw Crystal for the first time in 3 years. Missed her bad, we both did.

Friday was Wedding Day. We walked to find somewhere for breakfast and then we were going to Washington's Headquarters. Not very exciting but there wasn't much to do without a car. We got to the headquarters, but oops.. didn't pass anywhere to have breakfast. We were all hungry. The museum was a bunch of old stuff. Surprise! The old house was having a tour, so we took it. Another hour, and Little Miss was touching everything in the BORING OLD STUFF HOUSE. We left and Daddy said "5 year old in a 100 year old museum house, um, Bad Idea. My bad". Now we had a very hungry and pent up 5 year old and a cold and cranky Mommy who have yet to eat. We let Little Miss play in the grass to get some energy out and went for pizza.

We took the shuttle to the church around noon. The Catholic in me showed through, standing/sitting and repeating the words. Daddy was mad that I quote "Didn't tell him the secret password to get the cracker". Sorry Catholic family, but it was humorous. Daddy just wanted to see if I would squirm when he threatened to get a cracker just to make Auntie K furious. Don't worry Auntie K. He didn't. The wedding was beautiful and in a great church. Crystal was shaking in a time honored tradition that I can relate to. She looked absolutely beautiful.

At the reception, we had great food and danced. We were at the "work" table and we know work people know how to have a good time. Kelly, Lars, Laura, and Hailey were good people and we hung out with them the rest of the wedding events. Crystal danced the night away, we joined her, Little Miss went until 11:30pm. She did fall asleep on my shoulder during the last slow song. Daddy tried to capture it, but she woke up when he flashed the first time. It was adorable. To say that this was the most thoughtful and elaborate wedding that I have ever been to - Would be an understatement. Flat shoes in multiple sizes for women to change into, free food everywhere and sometimes homemade, drinks all night, and thoughtful people always around to direct and help.

HaLloWeEn 2010 (it lasted for 10 days)

We had a crazy 2010 Halloween, um, season. We had pumpkin patch day, we had swim class dress up day and parade, we had pumpkin carving, we had Trick or Suiting, and of course the actual Halloween... phew. It was amazing and fun and wow busy busy. It was made ever more meaningful by the sudden departure of our dear friends, the Spice family, who moved far far away.

First was the pumpkin patch. We drove all the way out to a patch on the outskirts of town for the "flavor" of farm. The Spice family, Houles, and Nasons all came.. it was great big group fun. The kids rode horses, did a petting zoo, hay maze, games, hay rides, roping, and of course Pumpkins. Each kid did their best to get a timeout, but they were thoughtful enough to do it at separate times! Daddy refused to pick a pumpkin, so Little Miss and I did the honors. Mine had a wicked scar that I had plans for...but didn't end up using... such is creativity's way. We were invited by the adoption agency to attend a Hilton event, Trick or Suite. We went with the Houles and Spice families. Prior to the event, thoughtful costumes were delivered to our houses by our respective representatives. We were floored. Expecting Tshirts or paper craft costumes, Little Miss got a full blown Belle dress. Her best friend Asha got Ariel.
On the day of the event, we carpooled to the Hilton because it was downtown. We had a malfunction of a seat belt and ended up taking 2 cars instead of 1... much to my dismay but Chris's obvious delight. Only 1 boy in her car! At the Hilton, we had a nice dinner and then were split into 2 groups. We got a nice little show and tell display from the Zoo while the first group trick or treated. The show was all spiders and snake stuff... so Mrs Spice kept her distance... it was hilarious. When we got to trick or treat, we were AGAIN blown away. Each hotel room was a different theme, each group of people elaborately dressed up to match, and most had games for the kids to play and candy to hand out. We learned while walking that the Hilton employees are financially responsible for their own suites, the decorations, the ideas, the candy, etc. The employees switch hotels and swap shifts to cover the ones doing the event and they throw the party every night for 1 week- each time for a different disadvantaged group: foster/adopted, medical disability, low income, veterans kids, etc. We don't hear enough about these kinds of events. The people of the Hilton touched my heart that night. Mine and every other person attending, kid or parent. Pics were tough cause the rooms were small, but I got a great one of Little Miss with the Wizard of Oz group... which was in my top 5 favorites.. but by no means best of show that night... to give you some perspective of how great it was.
We did pumpkin carving at our house and were delighted when the Childs came! Racer had hockey, so we ate and delayed and delayed... then Princess, Bella, and Little Miss started their pumpkins. I was the master of the pumpkin design, Daddy was the kids Carver Assistant, and everyone got mucky gooey arms! Luckily Auntie K and Racer made it for most of the fun.Then lastly came Halloween night. It was Sunday. It was a school night. It was a religious day. It was the shortest Halloween I have ever seen. Kids started coming at 7pm and stopped coming at 7:45pm. Racer, Princess, and Little Miss were the first kids out. We thought no one was going to be trick or treating. There were a good number of kids out in our neighborhood, but not for a long time. Odd. The best part of Halloween was my new decoration... Napoleon Blownapart... HA ha ha ! I LOVE HIM! I thought he might scare Little Miss.. but she helped me set him up and was totally fine.

Thoughts on the Eve of my Birthday

It is late on a Sunday, and with little else to do... I am contemplating how to catch up the blog. There has been so much going on, life just seems to fly by. Little Miss had her 5th birthday, I had knee surgery, and we took 15 people camping for 3 days.
So, here are some of my favorite moments from the past few weeks.
* Hailey's birthday party. We had 12 kids from all walks of our life. We had her party at McDonalds, which was the easiest thing in the world. But my favorite part of the night was twofold. One was that we got to see many of our adoption friends all together, foster and natural children alike. Second, Daddy was the child monitor. He helped kids on the slide, opened all the nugget sauce packets, took pictures, and cleaned up kids messes. Love you Daddy!
* My knee surgery was no big deal. Just a little cleanup from a domestic accident last October that wouldnt go away... but my very very over active life was not conducive to being out of commission. Little Miss was very attentive, my round the clock nurse. She brought me reading material, drinks, snacks, and asked me every 30 seconds if I needed something. I am now 2 months post surgery and starting to do things normally. Still no softball or hiking or fun things like that, but my range of motion is back, if only the strength would return.
* Camping. What a fiasco. Can I just say that every time we go camping with other people that it turns into drama? We were taking Papa, the Spice family and Child family camping. We ended up with the Child family, Papa, the Naked Boys, and a friend of a friend. We left 3 hours and $900 later than we were supposed to... but ... we had a FANTASTIC Time. There were 5 kids all 5 and under. Daddy caught 5 fish, the kids caught 1 million crawdads, we all sat around the campfire telling stories, and the kids all got so dirty it was hard to tell who was Little Miss and the Naked boys and who was PigPen.
** I was fidgeting in my sleeping bag, trying to get comfortable because I knew the day was soon beginning. I slept alright, but needed just a few more minutes of wake up time. I love that time in the morning, camping especially. You can hear the rustle of the forest. The sun starts to illuminate the tent. You smell a little campfire smoke, a little grass, a little rain and a little dirt all mixed in. The glorious thought that I always have at this moment is "There is nothing to do today but whatever I want. Thank you God for this beautiful moment". But this Saturday morning, I get a 5 year old freezing cold nose pushed to my nose. A barely audible "Mom", "Mom". I peak open one eye barely a sliver to see Little Miss in all of my view. "Mom - I LOVE sleeping in a tent!" she says. "That is great" I reply, "try doing it some more" ha hahahaha. Yeah. We didnt. We got up. But I just love that my pink pink princess pink daughter has the love of camping that her Dad and I do.

And when I find my camera... I will post some pictures!

KINDERGARTEN!!

Little Miss has several big events coming up, but none as exciting for her as starting Kindergarten. She calls it Big School. Her preschool is little school. We have been talking about going to Kindergarten for weeks now.

Little Miss was very very excited to get ready for school. Her school, although public, requires a uniform. Little Miss and I went shopping at thrift stores, Old Navy, and Walmart to give her a whole new wardrobe. She was so excited to wear her NEW clothes. She wanted to pack her backpack, get her lunch from the fridge, make sure her hair was done, and then she wanted to go go go go go right now...
Now for anyone who knows me, you know that I am a maticulous planner. Not just the little things either. I am a type A, ridiculously detailed planner. How did I miss the fact that on the first day of school... there might be 1 or 2 or 100 people who all decided to take their kids to school... and therefore GRIDLOCKED the streets leading to the school? Luckily for me, I was still on crutches from my knee surgery. The loading zone guard was sympathetic to my handicapped self. Its possible that I may have led her to that sympathy with a little desperation and persuasion. She let me park in the loading zone, and crutch through the school. :)

Little Miss made it to the first day of school with a whole 4 minutes to spare. I got her in line just as the teachers came out to get the kids. She was so cute. She was excited and ready to go. I wonder how long THAT will last.

Side note: I have seen soccer moms, softball moms, choir moms, etc all in their fierce modes... but the faces, determination, and grit coming from the Kindergarten Moms was unparalleled on the first day of school. I am soo glad Daddy is taking her to school from now on!

Baby Shower for Auntie Kari

Auntie K and I put on a baby shower for Auntie Kari. We miss Uncle M immensely! The news that he would not be coming home before being stationed in Georgia was a shock to our family. We are going to miss his hugs. We are going to miss the birth of his baby girl, which made our baby shower all the more important. Auntie Kari is flying out to meet him next week. We are all so sad to not be able to kiss our newest family member after her birth, hold her and snuggle her. We pray that Uncle M and Auntie Kari have everything that they will need.

Family was the main theme of our shower for Auntie Kari. We also focused on baby names, as Auntie Kari and Uncle M have yet to name their little girl. I have found a great connection, an old friend from high school, who does amazing things with cakes and baking. I gave her 20 little girl names and she put together these amazing looking and yummy cupcakes!
We played unusual shower games. My versions of some old classics... giving clothes pins when someone says your word (sorry Auntie Kari.. all's fair in love and war), Nerf shooting at baby names, etc. We had a great time.
Auntie Kari had presents from us, Grammy, cousins, aunts abroad, etc. We opened presents, more presents, and more presents. It took some coaxing to get Auntie Kari to stop hiding her preggers belly, but eventually she caved. I love preggers bellies. Maybe its because I know that I will never have one. Maybe its because I wanted one so badly... I don't know. But we took as many of them as she could handle.
We had a great time giving the shower... we hope that Auntie Kari had as much fun as we did. We caught Little Miss trying to get after some more cupcakes while we were cleaning up... nice try little girl... but those are for MOMMY!

Our First Flying Bates Vacation

One of the most frustrating parts of the adoption process for Daddy and I, amongst many many other things, was that we couldn't take Little Miss out of the state. Daddy and I travel frequently, taking long weekends to see National Parks, family, fun places, relax, etc. No travel made for Grumpy Bates! Finally... finally... finally... the time came. Daddy's last boyhood friend was getting married in Denver. That is also where most of Daddy's family and old friends live, so there was much much to do on our long weekend. Here is the story of our trip:

Leaving the house with our suitcases was very exciting. Little Miss wanted to know when the airplane was coming to pick us up. Ummm.. no. The airplane goes to the airport. Well, she replied, how do we get to in? This was the first of many confusions for our first traveler. She thought the airplane, bus, and train all came to the house... that every airport was one Airport...

Little Miss took her first ride on a bus, airplane, and train this trip. She walked along with her backpack, watching every single step of the process. She thought it was nice of the Security people to keep us safe. She didn't understand why Apple Juice was unsafe and had to throw it away. But the biggest worry was putting her shoes through the x-ray machine. She was not quite sure where her shoes were going. After much much much convincing, she put them on through!

Once on the plane, Little Miss wanted to play her Leapster, get a drink, put down the tray table, and color. After each request, I told her "After Takeoff". It took 3 times before it occurred to me that Little Miss didn't know what that WAS. She was a great flier and loved the experience... thank goodness... since we fly so much!

When we arrived in Denver, Daddy's best friend and family picked us up and we drove to their house. We stay with them every time we are in town. Little Miss and Anta (our 6 year old God daughter) were fast friends in the car. They built a circus tent on the couch at the house and stayed up until well after 1am whispering and giggling. We stayed 3 days in their house. Little Miss stayed up past midnight every single night. We watched Sam play softball, went to Cris's wedding and saw Daddy's old friends, and had a BBQ the next day. It was a very relaxing and fun time. We learned that Little Miss and Anta are both bossy Stink Face givers, and that they are TOO much alike to be friendly for very long. They fighting lasted all weekend. We learned that I watch a little too much SYTYCD at home, as Little Miss danced all night long at the wedding... by herself, to the beat, and totally oblivious to everyone watching!

Ramz and family took us to the Denver Zoo on the way to Daddy's uncle and aunts house. The day was perfect and was the best end to our time together, minus the rain delay that we waited out in the penguin exhibit!!

We said sad goodbyes to our friends, and Hello to Daddy's family in Denver. We stayed one night. Annie took Little Miss for pizza (after she refused to eat dinner of steak, asparagus, and cheesy rice) and came back 2 hours later with stuffed animals. I think Annie got a little more than she had bargained for. 4 year old stubborn, exhausted, nervous and scared will is too much for the uninitiated!

Daddy had a late night catching up with his cousins, while Little Miss and I had a battle of wills in the basement... which was fine because I finished my journaling for the trip!

Our first trip was great. Little Miss didn't miss a beat. She met a ton of new people, stayed in new places, and tried a TON of new things. We were worried she might overload, but she was fine. We missed the boat on that one! Going on a fun adventure wasn't too much to handle.... COMING HOME WAS!

Honorary Mention goes to Ramz... who got a visectomy in order to have the time off for our trip... Crazy Ramz.. CRAZY but we love you!

Happy 4th of July Weekend!

I love the 4th of July. Nothing is better than remembering the best things about being American. Freedom of Speech. Freedom of Religion. BBQ and Family. We hosted the in town family at our house Sunday for the annual party. We started by playing pool wars. We had 4 adults (Mommy, Daddy, Auntie K, and Papa) and all 3 kids (Little Miss, Racer, and Princess) in the pool with 8 water guns, 5 noodles, and 1 floaty also known as the Gun Ship. We had massive wars, kids v adults, everyone v Papa, etc. It was great fun. The kids kept yelling "FIREWORKS" then shooting the water guns in the air. We all clapped and oooooh'd and aaaaaah'd at their show. The water was perfect and the sun was just setting.

Daddy and I bought a 1/4 of a cow that we have named Gertrude from our boss, who is a rancher. The meat is super aged and yummy and we have a lot of it! So, thanks to Gertrude and Fry's Grocery store, we had quite the spread for our party. We ate inside and outside and all night long.
The kids watched movies and played Wii while most of the adults played Mexican Train Dominoes. We ACTUALLY finished an entire cycle of 13 games from 12 to blank. And thanks to all my hooligan supporters... I am the CHAMPION. It should have been Uncle Ray who was the leader all the way... until I blocked him and offered rewards to everyone else to do the same. Cutthroat Dominoes.... aha aha ha!
We interrupted our dominoes to jump in Joe, drive to a great little spot and watch the fireworks. The kids oooooh'd and aaaaaaah'd and then got itchy in the grass and wanted to go home. We stuck it out, threw some Pop Its in the parking lot to the crowd of dozens of kids whose parents didn't have counterfeit fireworks. (Note to the neighbors: the bottle rockets going off were not coming from MY house last night... they were coming from my YARD)
We all stayed up until MIDNIGHT, even Little Miss... who gave me the Stinkface when I told her No to having more snacks at 11:30pm. How do you explain to a 4 year old that they stayed up all the way until TOMORROW and so NO.. she could not have more ice cream!

All in all we had a FANTASTIC day. The party was a fun time and we love hanging with the family. Special shout out to Grammy, the Lawson family, and Uncle Matt... we missed you all terribly.

Corn and Farmer John

The farmer who operates the field by our house planted corn. We have been watching it grow with great interest. Basically Daddy has been waiting to reenact his corn stealing days from his youth. Little Miss and I had never actually TOUCHED corn stalks, so Daddy took us for a half mile walk to the corn. He was actually somewhat aghast that I have never been in a corn field, and was somewhat nervous about what happens in the stalks. "If you build it..." was all I could think... that and horrible memories of Children of the Corn. We walked to our corn field, but unfortunately it had been recently irrigated. No walking through the stalks for me. We did take a good nature hike, with Little Miss appropriately in her Sunday dress. We saw horseshoe imprints, watched a hive of fire ants go BANANAS when Daddy poured irrigation water on them, touched the corn stalks, walked through the weeds and bugs, and had a great time. Now every day when we drive by the corn field, Little Miss says she hopes Farmer John doesn't cut down OUR corn. She wondered where it will go then was all upset that Daddy said they were probably going to feed it to cows. "Mom, we don't HAVE any cows" ... ha ha .. had to explain it wasn't really "our" corn. No need for cows!

Update...

Things have been such a whirlwind since our Adoption Day. Racer had his birthday party at the Science Center. The kids all got to dig for fossils, make dinorsaur masks, then go into the full Center.. where kids and adults played (more the adults I confess!) until it closed. Little Miss had a great time. Racer loves science, dinosaurs, and the Center.. his enthusiasm is catching! Little Miss was so exhausted, she did something she had never done for us before... fell asleep in the car!



Little Miss has gotten used to her routine. She participates more in her classes, brings home more art... and has started to convince Daddy that art is fun. Truthfully, he has been a great sport.. evidence here with the colored styrofoam necklace that she made him, but alas he is a big guy... so it became a Daddy Crown instead!

Next came Easter. Little Miss really enjoyed this. She understood that Grammy sent her pretty dresses, we ate bunches of candy, there were a ton of extra people at church, and we got to spend all day at Auntie K's house. At least its a start! After church, we met the whole family at Auntie K's. We played the Annual Family Croquet Tourney, which I have won the past few years. This year, despite some hilarious antics, I came in second to Papa. Its good to know that the only one who can beat you, is in fact the man who Taught you to play in the first place. Just as a side note, the only thing anyone will remember from this year is Uncle M hitting Auntie K's ball so hard it went across the yard into the sand box... and that we made her play it from there! We laughed all afternoon! The kids all swam (Brrrrr!) and then did the traditional egg hunt.

A last note to my month of a million things to do and overcome, Daddy and I have been ridiculously frustrated lately. Little Miss has seemed to regress in her behavior, all signs leading to 6 weeks post adoption that she is finally figuring out that she isnt going anywhere else.. that forever means F_O_R_E_V_E_R! So, on top of work getting into the busy season, we have to deal with issues from 6 months ago. Frustration is at an all time high. So, we decided that we were missing the forest for the trees. Both of us are making conscience and purposeful attempts at enjoying the here and now, and making sure that Little Miss is too. In that light, here are a few pics from a random day last week when the sun was shining, the sky was blue, and the family spent an hour and a half out back before dinner. We played with the dogs, pointed out funny shaped clouds, and my favorite.. took a moment to breathe and enjoy it.