camp update (and other updates too)

Well, Harry and Will are coming to the end of their 2 weeks at camp and it looks like at least Harry has had a great time.  There have been a lot of photos of him on the camp website but hardly any of Will.  I even called because Dave and I were beginning to wonder if Will was really there.  We would see photos of his cabin mates but he was in none of them.  I called to check.  He is doing a leadership course there and I don't think the camp photographers go into the class.  Will has always been an "under the radar" kind of kid as it is.

Here are a few pics from the website this week:

Harry and his buddies.  One night is a water party and there is a giant bubble pit.

I love these next few.  Harry loved wake surfing....

And here he is doing some kind or craft/science experiment thing...

Will playing beach volleyball.  

And playing mini-golf with a younger camper...

And finally doing the talent show with his cabin mates...

They get home Saturday night and the laundry marathon begins.  Their clothes come home so gross and dirty and smelly and I am a stain removal fanatic.  I will inspect every piece of clothing and work on getting them really clean.  I try to send old junky clothes but sometimes they bring a few good things too.

I have missed them a little but honestly it has been pretty nice around here.  I like having the one on one time with Kate and more time with Dave too.  We have accomplished so much. We did a MAJOR purge and organization.  We even cleaned out the garage a bit and unpacked boxes that have been in there since we moved back almost 6 years ago (I know, awful!)  I think the guys at the donation centers and the paint recycling center recognize us and our cars now.

I also wanted to update about Kate's camp experience.  She went for just a week at the beginning of June.  The first thing Kate said when she got off the bus (besides, "Mama!") was "Can I go for 2 weeks next year?!"  She absolutely LOVED it!  I mean LOVED it.  And she grew up a bit too which is one of the things I love about sleep away camp for kids.  Kate needed more independence.  The boys tend to parent her a bit and so she needed to venture out and find her voice. And she did!

Our camp only gives out two awards and they are very special character awards.  Kate won one of them.  I saw the special wristband on her and recognized it immediately (because Harry has won it as well).  I am proud of who all of my kids are inside but it is also nice when other people notice their values and character as well.  If you win these awards 3 times, you get your name on a plaque in the dining hall.  Harry has won both of them twice:)

Kate's counselors also gave her recognition for having integrity and respect.  They also wrote me a letter telling me what a joy she was, how wise she was for her age and that she definitely won the award for the most mail received.  That made me laugh.  She was there for her birthday so lots of friends and family sent cards.  One of my friends was sweet enough to send Kate a letter for each day at camp.  I have good friends.

Even though her first letter indicated that maybe horse back riding was not her favorite thing, she ended up loving it.  Her horse was named "Shorty" and she talks about him all the time.  She really bonded with him.

She also loved her hip hop class.  She came home and showed us the dance she learned.  I love that it was paired a fun Christian rap song.  I did not even know there was Christian rap:)  Kate also LOVED the cooking class.  She was by far the youngest in it but she loves to cook.  They made spaghetti squash and kale chips and my fussy, unhealthy eater enjoyed them all.  Somehow, her cookbook did not make it home so I called the camp and asked them to send another so she can cook us some of these healthy meals.

Kate has changed since camp.  She is more apt to try new things.  She has always been afraid to go on the water slides at our pools.  Just this week, she has tried 2 water slides, done a flip off the diving board and she jumped off the high dive.  That is HUGE for Kate.   

(phone pics)

There is something about going away from home and meeting new people and doing things on your own that is so good for our kids.  I sincerely wish every kid had this opportunity.  I know our kids are blessed and fortunate to be able to do this.  In fact, one of the things I love about our camp is that the last session is for kids who cannot afford camp.  It is funded completely on donations and kids who would never get to go to camp, get to experience all of this too.  And the counselors volunteer their time that week! BTW ---I never went to sleep away camp as a kid.

And the boys were so happy to see Kate when she got back.

I got the first hug and then tried to get pictures but they are blurry:)

Another little update.  Kate's garden is doing well.  Our first tomato did not make it (fell to ground) but there are two more going strong now.  We are still waiting on cucumbers and peppers but the plants look good. We have had a small harvest of green beans.

I am most surprised that no critters have gotten anything yet because we don't have any fencing or netting around it.  This is our first garden with Kate so it is all a learning experience for sure.  But we enjoy checking on it daily and we get so excited when we see veggies.  The lettuces are VERY slow growers!

And finally, the last few weeks, I have been surprised to meet some readers out and about.  Last night we were walking the dog and I heard someone yell "Scout!"  I asked her if her dog was named Scout too.  She said yes and added, "I love your blog."  We started talking and she has been a reader for a long time.  How funny. I don't know her IRL but she recognized Kate and Dave once too.  She was so sweet and cute.  I had been cleaning all day and had not even taken a shower so I was looking pretty bad. Oh well.

Then at our 4th of July neighborhood gathering, a woman said , "Kim!"  I hugged her thinking I must know her but I did think my early onset Alzheimer's was kicking in again because I could not place how I knew her.  She saved me by saying, "Oh you don't know me but I read your blog." I apologized for hugging this virtual stranger but she was sweet and said I seem like I am nice and would hug people anyway!  We talked for a while and I really enjoyed meeting her (Hi E!).

And finally in Seaside we often meet other adoptive families.  One night it was storming but we had run into the Seaside circle for something. Kate was playing with the sweetest girl (also adopted from China) in Seaside Kids.  As we were leaving the store another adoptive family was coming in. The woman looked at me and said, "I know you."  We stood talking for a long time. She and her husband were so nice.  We talked about Harry's migraines and they briefly met Harry.  Kate and their daughter hit it off so well and they played and played in Seaside Kids. The girls had an instant bond and Kate wanted to see them again:)  I am not going to name names from privacy (for them) but they did say I could post these photos..

With their son as well.  These children were SO sweet and well mannered.

I have LOVED meeting random readers the last few weeks.  Blogging has changed SO much.  Most of the big blogs now are a business with people making money off links and advertisers.  There is not as much community as there used to be in blogging. People rarely comment anymore and have moved onto facebook and instagram and twitter.  I honestly wonder most days if anyone reads anymore.  And that is okay too because I do this mostly for our family and friends.  However, it was so nice to meet really kind people who enjoy reading the blog too.  I kind of miss the supportive blogging community of the early days.

And finally, in a few days, our good friends are coming to visit!  I am so excited!  Stacy was my first childhood friend.  I have known her my whole life and we re-connected last summer at the beach.  I cannot wait to spend time with their whole family again!!!

Seaside Memories

 Our family loves a beach vacation where we can all relax and just have fun together.  For years, we went to Hilton Head and loved it there but then we switched to the Seaside area about 5-6 years ago and we have made so many fun memories there.  My sister and her family always come with us and last year my friend Stacy (who was my first friend--we met around 4)  and her fun, sweet and beautiful daughters came and spent time with us.  I had not seen Stacy in many many years and our kids had not seen one another since they were babies.

Luckily, every year we have a good vacation but some have definitely been better than others.  There was the year we went to Hilton Head the week before we moved here.  That was not our best vacation. We had a lot on our minds that year but we still made the best of our vacation. Then there was the year that Will scratched himself with a bird feather as we were leaving our driveway and by the time we arrived in HH he had a raging staph infection.  He was told to stay out of the sun for the week (due to antibiotics).  It's hard to stay out of the sun at the beach!  Some years we've had more rain than we'd like but still we always have fun.   Last year, for me anyway, was really, really special.  The kids were all at an age where it was effortless.  No one fought.  No one was grumpy.  We laughed and had SO much fun. It was truly one of our best family vacations.

I invited my friend, Stacy and her family to come spend a day or two with us as she lives in Florida.  We had such a blast they ended up staying with us until check out!  It was fun having a house full of kids.  I cannot say exactly what it was but it was a stand out fun vacation for me last year.  I loved it so much.

Also, the last 2 years we have coincidentally been there the same time as this kind, fun family.  I had only known Paige through blogging but she and Dan and her girls are just as wonderful in real life as they are on the blog. Paige and Dan are really fabulous parents and people.  I adore each of their girls.  They are all unique but extraordinary too.  LOVE them.  And we love Trevor too.  My boys look up to him.  Emily actually rode her bike over and spent a day with us at the beach last year and I loved spending time with her.  She has a heart of gold.  Wish I saw them all more often.

This year as we prepare to go again, I am really sad.  My sister and her family cannot come this year.  Paige and her family won't be there.  And I am not sure if Stacy will be able to come visit either (although I am still hoping they will ALL come at the last minute (denial much?))  I know we will have fun as a family.  The boys have a fishing trip planned and we are going on a dolphin/shell island boat trip.  We have our little traditions and things we love to do there. But it will be different too.

I wanted to make a little video of our trip last year but never felt totally motivated to do it until Tuesday.  It was Kate's birthday and I was missing her and needed to occupy my mind.  These take a long time to make. I worked on this on for 4 hours straight. It was a great distraction. My good friend, Shana inspired me to do this as she made an incredible one last year.

Anyway, have a look.  My favorite part is when Kate is doing my brother in law's hair in the pool and my nephew and Kate are just laughing and laughing!

a story of friendship

I have mentioned my friend Stacy before (I have a few friends named Stacy actually).  But this Stacy was my first friend. Her Mom knocked on our door when we were just a few years old asking if our family had someone Stacy's age to play with. Stacy and I became best childhood friends. We slept over each others houses all the time, did gymnastics and swimming together.  We had a pool in our backyard and I recall hours and hours of fun.  We used to make up water shows and do tricks on rafts and the diving board. We played house and barbies and school and manhunt and kickball together with the rest of the neighborhood friends. We were grade school cheerleaders together. We were like family.

Stacy and I remained very close friends all through childhood, high school and even college.  In fact, every summer during college, my childhood friends (Michael, Trish and Stacy) and I worked together at Merrill Lynch.  We had a long commute back and forth everyday and some of those carpool drives were the most I have ever laughed in my life!!!  I was so blessed with the most amazing childhood friends.  We all stayed close for so long.  After college, we lived in different states and although we stayed in touch through Christmas cards and occasional phone calls, we definitely drifted.  It was probably my fault as I was the one who moved the farthest away and I rarely went home.  We were all getting married and having kids and it was hard to maintain long distance friendships.  That is something I am not the best at.

Fast forward to this year.  I had not seen Stacy in 15 years.  We visited their family in FL when Will was a toddler.  Here are a few photos from that visit.  Kylie and Will were babies!!!

When I told Stacy we were going to Seaside again this summer, she said she would like to come see us with her girls (who are Will's and Harry's ages).  We share a beach house with my sister and her family and I was not sure how we'd all fit since it was a house we had never rented before but I really wanted to see Stacy.  Will agreed to give up his room for a night so they could stay with us one night.


Stacy and her girls arrived on Wednesday of our vacation and they never left!  Everyone hit it off so well and we had so much fun that they stayed until check out on Saturday!  And we are all so glad they did.  We really had the best time.  And our kids did too.  Will and Kylie became great friends and so did Harry and Kassi.  They still talk and text all the time. In fact, some people might have texted a little too much but I am not going to name names. It was so nice to see our kids become such good friends.  And of course, Kate idolized the beautiful girls!

As soon as they got there our kids acted as if they had been friends all of their lives.  Stacy said it was like her girls had known us all their lives because they did read our blog those years we did not see one another.  Each day, the kids all took off down the beach and stayed out in the ocean for hours!!!

Stacy's girls are so sweet.  I adore them.

We played games and just hung out and laughed.  It was so much fun.

Yes, Harry is holding Dave's Corona;)  He wasn't drinking it.  I promise;)

This was a spontaneous last night walk on the beach.  We did not color coordinate on purpose on anything.  No one even spruced up but they all look so cute together!




We even dragged the kids shopping:)

and to Lilly Pultizer no less!

We really had the BEST time.  In fact, we tried to get one decent photo of the two of us togther but we kept laughing...I treasure these photos even if they are not the most flattering becuase we were having so much fun....

Thank you Dawn for taking them:)

Thank you Stacy and girls (her hubby was away on business so he could not join us) for coming to vacation with us.  We are SO glad you did!!!

So, if you made it this far...the reason I FINALLY got around to posting these fun vacation photos from JULY is that today is Stacy's birthday and I wanted to wish her a

VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY !!!!

We all love you all and hope you have a great day and wonderful year.  Stacy is funny and spontaneous and generous and has a huge heart. She is beautiful inside and out. Her girls are just the same.  They were so sweet and polite and helpful and loving.

We hope we get to see you all again very soon.

P.S. Doing this post reminded me that I still never posted a lot of our vacation and I need to still do that!