Southern Hospitality Repaid

Many of our adoption family members live in either North or South Carolina - and so we don't get to see much of them. We've been out their way a couple of times, and there has been amazing southern hospitality extended to us. Last week - we got to re-pay the gift in a small way when Shannon & Colson tagged along on Matthew's business trip.

On Wednesday, we went to the LA Zoo - and brought along Paloma & Vincent.

some monkeys were in cages...others....well, not!

wrestling alligators

Thursday, we headed down to Long Beach & the aquarium - and were joined by another CWA mom, Terri and her son Elisha. They have a really cool new exhibit there where the kids could touch a jellyfish. Normally very timid about these kinds of things, Becky got totally into it.

There is a great outdoor area complete with a water boat

Becky also really liked the tide pool experience....

but she loved the sting ray tank! Last time we were there (just a few weeks ago she would have nothing to do with them) - but this time, she just couldn't get enough of them!

You may have noticed that there are no pictures of Katie at the sting ray tank - she, my normally brave & fearless child, would have absolutely nothing to do with them!

Waiting for the seal and sea lion show to start

Finding a lot of Nemos!

Wouldn't be a complete Southern California experience without at least one character experience!

It was so fun to be able to spend some time with Shannon and Terri and their boys - love our CWA family and am so thankful that God brought each of them into our lives!

Welcome to the day

We are in the nasty pattern right now of both girls being awake by 6 (am!). So - to help everyone ease into the day...we now climb into bed with momma and look at some books so that maybe momma can rest a few more minutes. Not sure it helps, but it certainly can't hurt!

Another Lucky Mommy

I love how God works to bring people into our lives - and the adoption world is a place this happens so often! Through my MOPs group, I met a new Lucky Mommy this week - Paula and her absolutely precocious daughter Sofie. Sofie is 2 1/2 - and adorable. The really cool thing is that how many ways Sofie and her mommy Paula fits in with us. They have two older kids - a 16 year old son & 20 year old daughter - who goes to the same college as Ashlee. Paula is a former kindergarden teacher like Tanya and Sofie is cleft affected like Ryan.

Monday - we met at Santa Ana Zoo for some play & fellowship -

Sofie & her Lucky Mommy

Sofie, Ryan and Katie on the carousel (Becky was in front of them riding the bench...)

One of the best parts of the day was feeding the goats....

Great day with our new friends!!

Do you think...

...that maybe we travel alot? This came in the mail this week -

This means that Becky has flown over 25,000 miles on American Airlines in 2010. SInce January. In 7 months.......

quite the little traveler -

A Special Visitor!

We've had a very special visitor this week - our great friend Ashton came to see us (ok - mostly the girls) from South Carolina. We met Ashton while in China on Katie's adoption trip - and she quickly grew to be one of the girls most favorite people!

On Tuesday - we headed down to lunch on the beach at Dukes in Huntington - Surf City, USA. It turned out to be a much nicer day that we thought it would.

It was a double bonus as Tia Annie is still here with us too!

Lunch at Duke's

Wednesday we went to "Splash" - the small water park at the aquatics center where the girls take swimming lessons. We have season passes and have been several times this year already, but usually I have no one to take pictures or watch the girls while I take pictures - so this is the first water park post of the year!

Triple bonus - Matt showed up late Tuesday night for the week (we have a little bit of a full house here right now!)

The big kids did the big slides....

here's Ashton..........!

Today, we headed to Long Beach to go to the aquarium with the Lucky Mommy's. The kids had a blast - it's fun because they are finally at an age where they really have fun with places that are designed to teach them through touching and doing -

best friends.....

I hope Ashton doesn't think that our lives are this much fun always!!! We have her for another full day - and then sending her back to her mom (who misses her terribly!) - thanks Rice Family for sharing your beautiful girl with us!!!

Aunt Babe

The advent of technology has brought with it so many things - some good, some not so good, same pretty bad. One of the great things is being able to find & re-connect with long lost friends and family. Today, we did just that. My dad got reconnected recently with his cousin Babe (actually Delores, but everybody knows her as Babe). Turns out she lives about 1 1/2 hours from us, so this morning we headed down there to visit. I hadn't met her (and if I did I was probably the littles ages!) - and it had been over 25 years since my dad had seen her.

She looks terrific - and if you look closely - the family resemblance is in the nose!

She lives a short walk to a lake, so after lunch we took a little stroll to look for ducks...

Becky thinks she's quite the big shot - and was leading us around the path like she owned the place -

A family affair - so glad we got a chance to get pictures like this!

One of the other really cool things is that Babe had four daughters who all live in the area - so I've inherited 4 second cousins. Now - for someone who has a VERY small immediate family (mom is an only child, dad is one of three & only one has kids and they are my kids ages) - this is a very big deal. I am looking forward to getting to know these ladies of whom their mom spoke really highly of! We've been invited to Italian food at Babe's house next visit - and invitation I am sure to accept!