The Ending ...

... is FINALLY here!

Bought it! Read it (in a matter of 8 hours)! LOVED it! I won't say any more about it because I don't want to ruin it for anyone else who is reading it, except that Collins does a fabulous job of wrapping up the story of Katniss Everdeen, girl on fire!

... visit from Kaobe & Adaora ...

The day after we flew in from NY, Kaobe & Adalou flew in from PA to spend a few weeks with my parents! We, of course, took advantage of their presence and spent every moment we could hanging out with them!

We went to Bear Lake to celebrate my dad's birthday!






We sang A LOT of Karaoke!!



We made silly hats for the kids to wear to a family reunion they went to with my parents:



We played A LOT, A LOT, A LOT of games! Palace, Speed, Golf, Hand & Foot! Apples to Apples, Scrabble, Payday, Clue!





We had a ceremonial burning of Kaobe's Fire Hat after the reunion:




And we had SOOOOO MUCH FUN with them! It was weird to have them here without the rest of their family and their mom - I kept waiting for Amanda to come out and tell them it was time to go to bed and it was so fun when she didn't! :)




Thanks for coming to visit Kaobe & Ada! We already miss you!

New York - Day 10 - Final Day

Our last day in NY was spent shopping at the Tanger Outlets in Deer Park! It was a fun way to spend our final day with Carl & Lynnette! After shopping, they took us to "Cheeburger, Cheeburger" for dinner (a tasty little diner with the worst magician ever)!



You may be sick of hearing it, but we had such a wonderful trip! It was so nice to spend so much time with Carl & Lynnette! We were able to relax, sight see, see family and have a great time, and we are so grateful for the opportunity that we had to go!

New York - Day 9 - The B E A C H

Since we got home from our trip, we both have agreed that our day at the Beach was one of our favorite days! We woke up, packed up, and headed over to Smith's Point Beach for the day!







We spent a good 8 hours at the beach that day! Nate & I pulled our chairs up right along the edge of the water and talked, literally, all day! Carl & Lynnette sat back a little ways under their massive beach umbrella (thank you Sky Mall :) and chatted and read! The waves were huge and the weather was absolutely perfect! It was such beautiful day and a great way to relax!

New York - Day 8!!

We headed back from PA around 10:30 in the morning! It was hard to say goodbye to the kiddos, but we are grateful that we got to spend time with them!

Our drive was quick and uneventful and before we knew it we were back at Carl & Lynnette's! We relaxed that day and through the evening and geared up for the next day at the beach!

New York - Day 7 - The OSOLU Family!!

On our full day withe Amanda's family, we headed to the Promenade to do a little shopping and to play in the splash pad! It was a very humid day, so it felt good to get wet! We came back to Amanda's and a little fashion show! Her girls are very girly and dramatic and they put on fabulous fashion shows!! I got to play photographer and "ooh" and "aah" er! After we put the kids to bed we headed to the hot tub and had a nice time relaxing and chatting with Obeta!





















Some things that made us laugh:

- the girls and their incessant TEASING of their Uncle Nate!
- Nate throwing Ada & Kaobe in the hot tub (fully clothed - with their mom's permission) as a result of some of that teasing!
- Snuggling with Leiah!
- Indy asking where Nate's mohawk went after he woke up in the morning!
- Popovers filled with chocolate & caramel!
- Getting soaked by Kaobe at the Splash Pad!
- Our marker tattoos from Leiah!

We had such a great time with the Osolu Family and we are so grateful that we were able to go and visit them during our trip!