Atlanta vacation

We met Jeremy's dad in Alabama to pick up the big kids at Aunt Zelan's farm, where the kids enjoyed seeing the new donkey (or donk-donk as Aidyn called her). Then we headed to Atlanta for five nights to catch up with friends there. Before the trip I posted on our yahoogroups so folks would know we would be in town and thus could meet up with us if possible. We got to see lots of our friends. We stayed with the Shaws and were blessed to spend lots of time holding baby Genton who was born in June. Kylie and Aidyn are week apart in age so it was fun to watch them interact.

On Wednesday we lunched with the Thomas family, who now lives in Florida. Mary Joyce is Aidyn's age and Katherine is Preston's age. Dusty posted some funny photos of the five kids at her website:
blog

Then we supped with the Osbornes; another loud meal as again we had five little ones, with Paxton being Spence's age and Lorelei and Aidyn being same age. Spencer really wanted to go to Paxton's house to play but we just didn't have enough time to fit in home visits. Thankfully many of our friends were willing to drive to us, since they are spread over six counties.

Then that night we visited Grace Chapel to see the teens and friends there. Spencer enjoyed visiting his old church.

On Thursday the kids and I attended playgroup on the farm where we dressed up for a redneck picnic at the deFelice home. The kids loved playing on the water slides and petting the chickens. And I enjoyed getting to see many of the moms from my weekly playgroup and seeing how much all of the Chinese kids have grown.

That night we went to China Pearl, our favorite chinese restaurant outside our old neighborhood. The Shaws joined us. Jay and Sarah met us there. And the Carey's got out to let us meet their newest little man, Liam. Thankfully the restaurant staff allowed us to sit in the raised room where we had Aidyn's gotchaversary party last September. So the kids had the stage for dancing and running and we didn't have to worry about the racket our crew made with 8 adults, 7 kids (Spencer and three 2 year olds, Preston, and two newborns). It was loud. But the food was wonderful and the company was perfect. Then we went by our old neighborhood and surprised Valarie and the Woodwards and were pleased to get some hugs before she leaves for Penn State.

On Friday Jeremy once again had an outing for work. Even though we were in Atlanta for family vacation time, Jeremy managed to fit in some work meetings and lunches on three of the days. Kimberly and I took the three big kids swimming. And then Brandon cooked supper for all of us and Jay joined us for a night of Wii and the Beijing Opening Ceremony. We took our game system to use on Brandon's new, huge tv wall in his new media room. The men enjoyed golf and the girls liked Boom Blox, but every game is fun on a huge wall screen. We all spent many hours playing over the weekend.

Saturday night, the Shaws and the Kiss family joined us for dinner at Bugaboo. Sean and Bridget are waiting to travel to China for their son, who is a couple of weeks older than Preston. So it was great to see them and hear all of their updates on their adoption. Again, another loud meal.

And Sunday we attended Grace Chapel, I visited with Angela, and then Jay and Sarah came up to send us off after another fun day of Wii. Our crew was tired when we pulled into town Sunday night about ten. But we are so blessed to have wonderful friends with which to make such great memories.

Summer of Flight

Once again, Spencer and Aidyn got to see fighter jets. Jeremy's parents came to visit us at the end of July and talked us into letting them take Spencer and Aidyn home with them to coast of Alabama for ten days into August. The kids enjoyed their time away from us, especially swimming. But their favorite part of the trip was a visit to the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola to see all of the planes and watch the IMAX movie on flight. Apparently the grandparents had to drag Spence out of the museum. Thanks to Poppa they came home with videos, books, t-shirts, and toy planes. Happy, happy kids. And exhausted grandparents.