First Summer Swimming

We arrived home from our trip to Maine to very hot weather.... it is summertime in Florida (the hot, humid time!).

Nana has given AA several bathing suits in size 3T and 4's, so we try them on periodically for fit. Most are still too big as this cute pink one piece is; being a little too large, it sagged in the pool so will wait a few more months before trying again.


We went to the pool to check AA's floating skills from her ISR refresher.


She does well swimming under water, kicking her legs and using her arms. She really enjoys pool time!

New Skill - Scooter Time!

Nana in Maine had a scooter that AA loved learning how to use (with help from cousin Andrew)!






Guess what we will need to buy now?

A Magnifying Glass and AA

We had so much fun at the Two Lights State Park with Auntie M and Nana. We ate lobster (several times while in Maine - yummy!!) at the Lobster Shack and found a toy magnifying glass in the gift shop. AA had so much fun running on the real grass (those who live in Florida know what I mean) and looking through her magnifying glass!

Next Stop - The Foy's

The Foy's were in our travel group to China in September 2008 and they adopted Sophie. During our trip up and down the East coast we visited them. When we first arrived, Sophie was just waking up from a nap, so was a bit shy as expected.

After playing and sharing her toys on the large front porch, she began showing us her smiles and giggles:

She's not the happiest when AA drove her Barbie car; but AA had LOTS of fun (I hope there is one on Craig's list soon!):

Sophie has lots of play areas around her house; a bouncy house, a play house with it's own deck and playground/slide, a swimming pool and plenty of yard to run in (not to mention three HUGE dogs for playmates!):

Isn't she adorable?

The fancy play house!




Daddy helping with the fun:

The big slide:

We went inside for a North Carolina BBQ dinner and the girls got real silly with running and jumping (visit their blog for the video and more pictures):


We had a wonderful time and wished we lived closer; the girls were precious together. I think every six month visit wouldn't be too soon.....

What a Visit with the Foerstner's!

I will confess that I have had a few pangs of jealousy when I read about the China travel groups holding annual reunions.
Our group of 20 families? We hear from seven of them (from Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Washington State, West Virginia, Kansas, Colorado and Illinois). The other families? Haven't been in contact. Of course, those we do keep in touch have blogs and/or are active on FB. Easy to say Hi and check the latest pictures of the cutest little girls on earth!
So when we were thinking of going to Maine, we decided to drive with a strong desire to check in with a few of the East coast families (if they would have us!!). We were thrilled to see two of them (a third was our longtime bloggy buddies as posted a few days ago; we shared a close LID, but different agency and travel dates).

Our visit was short (including our rear truck brake smoking from 8 hours of braking in bumper to bumper traffic!) and these pictures do not show the absolutely best steak dinner we have had; Georgia waited on us the entire time! A relaxing time with a glass of a yummy red wine. Thank you!
Daddy Jim with Augustine:


Happy smiles as they tried to hide from the camera:



Lots of energy!!

Wish this one was in focus; the girls had so much fun together!

Thank you for the visit; wonderful time and loved talking to Jim and Georgia!

Two Lights State Park

This was the first time we took AA to the "rocky coast". She was very good walking on the rocks and enjoying the science lessons....





Every time the fog horn would sound, we covered our ears!


Enjoying the beautiful day with Auntie and Nana:

Visiting with the Original "Referral Estimater" Family

We had the pleasure of dropping in on the Curewitz family in Massachusetts.
Hubby first stumbled onto Dave and Sandy's web when we were looking for other adopting families; they had lots of travel information AND Hubby thought the audio on their blog was just the coolest! Our LID dates were just one day apart and we did get our referrals in the same month - August 2008.
Dave was also the original referral estimator where he "predicted" when the next batch of referrals would arrive by using past data. We stalked his site for the three plus years we paper chased and waited for AA (then that "RQ" copied, oops, began some predicting of her own :). He has since discontinued his blog :(

The beautiful Wren and Alyzabeth played together so well. It helped that Wren has a really cool elevated sand box with a pond built in :) They love playing with the water and made us several concoctions for "dinner". Wren made the best "soup!"

Isn't she a beauty?



AA was a little jealous at times.... Hubby plays well with children :)

We had a great visit and love keeping in touch on FB.