Family Tour: Part Two

After a quick stop in VA to visit some dear Oki friends, we head to Maryland . . .  


                             
for a visit to the most wonderful library!  While we were there we stumbled across this super-adorable kid . . .


who happens to belong to these fabulous people :)


But the library really is amazing too!

   
Eventually we head back to the apartment, pick up another friend, Chrissy, and go for a dip in the pool.

    Then it’s time for some outdoor fun,  
                                         
followed by indoor play and snuggles.


Logan got to help Uncle Pete make a sweet treat.  Nearby, Micah wants to know where his treat is while Naomi pacifies herself with a keychain flashlight.

           
Later on, Logan helped set up for the party.  Naomi, in her chariot, arrived fashionably late.

                              
Micah-man got his first taste of ice cream at the party.  By golly, I think he likes it!

And as the sun sets on Naomi’s pigtails, we head on down the road yet again.

Family Tour: Part One

BOOM and then we were in NC. 
For the record, we dropped the kids off with Aunt Rachel for the weekend while Jake and I headed to Winston-Salem for my Governor’s School reunion.  In case you care (I do), after a hard-fought battle and the most impressive fundraising effort I’ve ever seen or heard of, the NC Governor’s School will live on to encourage and inspire more eager young minds!  If you want to hear more, ask me and I’ll be happy to tell you, but the gist of the weekend is this: it was good.  It was good to return to that place that was and is so important to me and it was good to get some adult time with Jake in the middle of the craziness of the move.  But we didn’t take any pictures there, so moving right along . . .
 
Family time!  In Jacksonville, Uncle Jonathan splashes around with Logan, Naomi and cousin Noah.
                        
Actually, since about half of you reading this were actually there that week, I probably don’t need to offer much commentary.  The relevant people, in case you don’t already know, are Grammy & Grampy, Aunt Holly, Uncle Drew & Noah, Uncle Jonathan, Aunt Rachel, and Uncle Sam.  Unfortunately, Drew, Rach and Sam weren’t able to join us for the full week of rousing festivities and uproarious laughter, and are therefore featured in fewer pictures, but we love them just the same :)


 
Exploring a neighborhood construction project.

                  


   
    Would anyone like to make a guess about where this is going to go?







                   







 
                         
Yep, they did.  Did you really have any doubts?


              
This is my nephew.  He’s the third-coolest kid on the planet.


        
Lots of random fun and relaxation.


                                       
Also for the record, the pool belongs to my parents’ neighbor.  Mom and Dad have made many recent upgrades to their house (new flooring, new countertops, renovated bathroom) but adding a pool was not one of them.


            
                    
I wasn’t entirely convinced the aquarium was a good idea; after all, you’ve seen the pictures of the aquarium in Okinawa, so you know the kind of wow-factor my kids have become accustomed to.  But this turned out to be a lot of fun.  The penguins were cool, but the river otter seems to have been the special favorite.
We did make it to the beach as well, but somehow I don’t have any pictures of that.  Another non-photo-represented event was the “Middle Kids” outing, which was assisted by the “Big Kids” (Grammy and Grampy) watching the “Little Kids” (Logan, Naomi and Noah, of course).  Thanks, Mom and Dad, for doing that!
The best part of the week was just having everybody together, especially over the weekend when the WHOLE gang was there, even the adoptees.  We did get a photo shoot of everybody but, again, I don’t happen to have a copy of that yet.  Don’t worry though, all those pictures that I said I don’t have, Mom/Grammy has abundantly provided for—she has over 700 pictures of that week which she is passing out, in CD format, to everyone involved.



For now, you’ll just have to settle for a parting shot of all the cousins.  Little blondies!

Del Mar Beach

What could be better than an isolated stretch of pristine oceanfront?


Oh yes, a beach with a playground!  Hooray!

For the record, this beach is on the south end of the base, a 15-20 minute drive from our house.  There’s another beach within easy walking distance from us but it’s more of a surfer’s playground. 

Putting the Pieces Together

Most of you know that an enormous thanks goes out to my good friend Melissa for taking care of us once we landed in San Diego.  (Let’s not even discuss the flight; personally I’m going to pretend that part never even happened.)  Things went fairly smoothly that first week in CA, except for the part about not getting into our house quite as quickly as we’d hoped, but there really wasn’t a whole lot going on that was picture-worthy.  Oh look, here are the kids sleeping on the floor of the hotel, recovering from the time change!  Here are Heidi and Jake trying to get their foggy brains in order!  Eh, how ‘bout we skip that part too?  But there was one cool thing we got to do right away: Jake had a couple of days where he couldn’t check in because of the 4th of July holiday, so we jumped right into the closest major attraction and headed out to . . . Legoland!

  





It’s a fabulously fun and colorful place, with a little something for every age group.  You won’t see any pictures of the rollercoasters or similar rides, since our kiddos are too small for those but they do have quite a few of them. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The part that Jake and I really appreciated was that all the park sculptures and decorations were made of Lego blocks.  That elephant that the kids are watching?  Yep, made of Legos.  Pretty impressive!

                                           
Maybe you’re thinking the kids don’t look all that impressed, but they were still tired too.  And it was definitely better than being cooped up in the hotel for another day.

 

Our first ride took us on a tour of Storybook Land, with characters like the Three Pigs, Little Red Riding Hood, and Sleeping Beauty popping up around every corner.

                               

Next up, the Duplo Play Area.

 
And the train ride, of course.  Logan got to sit in the engine; he was very excited about that.

Factoid: The annual production of Lego bricks averages 10 billion per year, or about 2.5 million per hour!


 

Scenes from Miniland.  This really was impressive; they had iconic portions of San Francisco, New Orleans, New York, LA, DC, and Vegas recreated in Lego.

                       
A couple of my favorite details—look close, they even have shisas on the Chinatown gate.

Well, I can’t fathom how you have survived for over a month without getting updates from me here.  Obviously I’ve got a lot of catching up to do but, if all goes well, we’ll be moving in to our new house TOMORROW and it may take a few days to get internet established and the house arranged to a point where blogging becomes a priority again.  Rest assured, I won’t leave you hanging for too long!