Lake Chelan & Goodbye Summer!

We headed to Lake Chelan on Labor Day.  We took an extended vacation to hang on to summer a little longer.  There were no crowds the following 3 days of our stay.  First thing Liliah did was find her bed and do this.

Daddy had a blast driving a boat for the first time . . .

 

Analogy of Liliah's first boat ride, quietly concerned about not flying out of the boat,  to a smile . . .  

to . . .W O O  H O O, this is the life! She kept saying, faster, faster.

We took in the beautiful scenery. Liliah thought the scenery looked like a storybook, because it looked flat. The lake was like glass, not crowded and the temp hovered at 84 everyday.

Daddy did a little fishing . . .

I did a little snacking . . .

 

a little playing  . . .

and a little napping . . .

Mommy got behind the wheel, she likes to go fast.

I even got to do some driving . . .

We swam . . .

and played . . .

Mostly, we just relaxed . . .

Goodbye summer, I'll miss doing art in my bathing suit



Working in the garden



Picking green beans and peas

Splashing in the pool . . .

and, soaking up the sun . . . It's been a great summer.

Happy 5th Birthday (one week ago!)

We waited for you to tip toe down the stairs to see all of the decorations we had displayed.  There were lots and lots of balloons and crepe paper streamers. These are truly life's special moments and we soaked it all in.

You were very pleased with all the fuss we made of you.  You have been counting down how many days until you turn five for about a week.  I would pretend to be a little sad and would say, I only have "X" amount of days with my 4 year old.  The night before you turned 5, you said, Mommy, you love your 4 year old don't you.  And I said, yes I do, but come Saturday, I am going to love my 5 year old . . .

You got right to the business of opening all of your presents.

Thank you Uncle Randy, Auntie Lori, Lacey, Daisey, the dog!

Thank you, Papa and Nana

I love Angelina, Ballerina

We celebrated with cake in the evening after a full day at the local State Fair.  We rode some kiddie rides, peddled away on the wagon trikes, pet some baby piglets.  They are my favorite because I love their curly tails.  I even gently pulled some of those because I couldn't resist.  I felt the wool of sheep and think they make the best sounds.  We giggled at the farmer's produce that made weird shapes.  We even met a HUGE Clydesdale horse and mommy said that she wanted one of those.  I gave mommy and daddy a big hug at the end of the day and THANKED THEM for a FUN birthday!  I think they were very pleased with themselves . . .

I LOVED the cake mommy made me.  She pulled off another Minnie Mouse cake.  I chose a vanilla and strawberry cake with Neapolitan ice cream.

Happy Birthday, sweet Liliah, Happy Birthday to You!

May all the plans your Heavenly Father have for you, come true.  

Fresh From The Garden

Oooh, these are gonna be so good . . . .

I mean, r e a l l y good! 

Peas are my favorite!  Mama and I have been hard at work this summer in our garden . . .

26 Years of Wedded Bliss

August 14th, we celebrated 26 years together.  Thank you sweetie for all of your love and friendship (picture taken by Liliah).

   

C  H  E  E  R  S  !

Thank you for planning a wonderful evening with 3 dozen red roses, a pearl necklace, italian dinner take-out and an evening out on the lake.  It was such a nice surprise and the perfect evening.

Liliah had fun celebrating with us on the lake.  I explained to her what an anniversary is in simple terms.  I told her that we stood before our family, friends and promised to God to love each other forever and always be a family.  She was very happy about that and said, first you get married and then the babies come! I told her that Daddy has 7 brothers and sisters.  She was like, W O! She then told us, 1 more kid is enough for our family (hee hee).

Our Trip to Portland



We took a ride to Portland.  Our adoption agency held their yearly picnic.  We missed most of it because of the unexpected traffic, bummer.

 We really enjoyed just getting away for the weekend though.  We spent Saturday evening swimming.  Liliah LOVES the water and is really wanting to swim on her own.  We put her in a floating swimsuit and she goes to town with me in the pool.  While we were swimming, the fire alarm went off and we had to evacuate.  Darryl grabbed Liliah and I was a little slower trying to get my body covered and flip flops on.  She told her daddy, come on...we have to go NOW!  The good news is that she takes emergency situations calmly and very seriously.  While we were outside she had questions and she said, maybe we had to evacuate because there was a shark in the hot tub! 

  

It was a super hot weekend - 103 degrees.



They put out ice/snow for all of the animals.  The wolves especially enjoyed themselves.



The line up: Mama and her baby bear!

 

Liliah had her first experience feeding little birds.  We had just seen the large bird show and after while waiting for the train, we thought we'd burn some of the waitintg time.  Liliah wasn't very enthused as we had just finished watching the raptor bird show.  She was pleasantly surprised and even had a couple of different people give her free cups of nectar.  I got a good bird spraying while taking this picture....luckily it only went down my arm and leg vs. my hair.    

  

Daddy showed her how to be brave . . .



  

We took the 1/2 hour re-tro train around the park





Liliah's photography skilz



Enjoying the ride (taken by another adoptive family who happened to be sitting in front of us) and capturing a new picture that we can send to China when we are matched with our second daughter, it can't come fast enough!





This little gal . . .



Loves to dance . . .



And she certainly makes our hearts dance when we watch her (xoxoxo)