Summer Fun!

We've been having a fun summer!  We are so happy to have our neighborhood pool to play in this year.  Last year we'd just moved into our house when school started, so we missed pool season, but we're making up for it now!  We go several mornings a week.  

My cutie girls, Tessa and Caylie.

Caylie with our friends Bryanna and Brynn.

Tessa and Brynn.

We renewed our season pass to the Denver Zoo, and have been there several times.  This time with our friend Bryanna and her cuties.  Brittany isn't up to walking the zoo anymore, since it's almost time for baby!

Samuel's favorite thing is the elephant show.

Tessa and her penguin friends.

This little giraffe guy was born with little fanfare while the world was waiting for that other giraffe baby to be born. 

 Isn't he cute?

There are so many peacock walking around the zoo this year.  This one was proudly guarding the Northern Shores exhibits.

My sweet girls, Tessa and Caylie!

Benji is enjoying his summer days.

Caylie went to Vacation Bible School at Calvary Aurora.  I didn't think to take her picture with her teacher, but here's one before we left!

We went out for Mexican on Brittany's birthday, June 23.  Here's the only picture I have from that day, while we were waiting outside for a table, ha!

June 29 is "Samuel Day".  We celebrated two years of Samuel being in our family!  He chose to go to HuHot Mongolian Grill.

Samuel on the Fourth of July.  

Me on my birthday.  Getting ready to eat some yummy strawberry shortcake!

Justin, Caylie, and Samuel making some birthday banners for Daddy's birthday.  

Jim was out of town for work on his birthday, but the rest of us celebrated with free 7-11 Slurpies!

We like to go to Pacific Ocean Marketplace to buy Chinese snacks.  That store is amazing. Huge, has everything imaginable, and smells just like China.

Samuel learned to mow the yard.

Justin was baptized on July 12 at Calvary Aurora.  Can't wait to see how God uses him!

Samuel went to an FCA basketball camp and had a great time.  I think he learned a lot!

He got a new Bible and won a new basketball!  And now this shirt is his new favorite.

We went to the Rockies game last Sunday.  Lots of fun and they won, but very hot.  We used to go to lots of Rockies games years ago, but now we only get to one or two a year.

Sometimes you get really tired from all the summer activities.

Our dear friends Dan and Patti Maurer came to visit last week.  It was so good to see them and catch up on life.  They were the first people we met when we moved to Colorado almost 21 years ago.  They were our neighbors and Dan became our pastor, but we've lived far away for many years.  We love them a lot!

Justin had his second band camp this past week.  His band is very big, with over 160 kids.  They learned an awesome show!  I will get video when they perform at their first football game.  So proud of Justin!

Eaglecrest High School Band

We are coming to the end of our summer.  Justin will have band practice a couple of days a week till school starts.  Keelan has been doing landscaping all summer, but will resume his classes at Pickens Tech in a couple of weeks.  Samuel and Caylie will be transferring to a different Global Village Academy, and we're going to meet their teacher this week.  Jim will be starting football officiating again, for his 18th year.  Both Samuel and Justin have church youth group activities going on, and are learning a lot.  Brittany will have her baby any day now!  God is good and is faithful in our lives.  We're excited to see what all He has in store.

AAC Adoption Annual Picnic

Our adoption agency, AAC, is in Berthoud, Colorado, about an hour north of us.  They have family events throughout the year, but the biggest is the annual summer picnic.  We love seeing old friends and their sweet kiddos, and meeting new friends who are in process for their adoptions.  We love the AAC staff, too.  It's always a fun time!

As soon as we got there, we saw our friend Judy, who was visiting from Guangzhou, China!  She is AAC's in-country rep, and was one of our guides for our Samuel trip.  It was great to see her again.  Samuel didn't want to speak Chinese with Judy, but Caylie was happy to.  (The usual scenario with our Chinese-speaking friends.  Haha.)

Then we saw the fabulous Nicole, AAC's China coordinator.

  And a good friend.  :)

First on the agenda of activities was face painting, as usual.  This year the girls went with arms, though.

The finished products. 

 Tessa decided not to go sparkly, haha.

Samuel, of course, went with Spider Man.

There were awesome Chinese dragon dancers with this group of percussionists.

Our friend Gloria with her sweet little Hailey.

Samuel with his former foster sister, Piper.  They lived together at House of Grace in Yangchun, Guangdong.  We are so blessed to live close to Piper's family, the Ainsworths, and are actually TWICE family with them.  They have five daughters from China, including LiLi, who is from the same city and orphanage as Caylie (Fuzhou, Jiangxi), and now Piper and Samuel, as well.  I think this is so awesome and amazing of God to have put in place.

Piper's mama Juleanne is on the left end beside me.  I'm happy that some of our kids will be at the same school together again this year.  These other beautiful ladies are amazing China mamas, as well.  

 Our friend Jessica and her cutie boy Emerson. 

 Jessica and her husband were in our AAC adoption training class in the fall of 2012.

Our friend Jodi and her daughters Maylee and Kylin.

Heather and her cutie boy Kai.  They are welcoming two more China boys into their family soon!  So excited for them!

The AAC staff, who have worked so hard and always have time for our family.  Love them!

Nicole, Regina, Alexa, Judy (and son Ethan), Karen, and Christie.

 Tessa and Caylie in one of the bounce houses.  Caylie's always been afraid of them, but this day she had lots of fun!

My cutie girls!

Caylie, Tessa, and me with our friends Vickie and Willow.

Daddy/Papa with his girls.  :)

End of May

We were busy the last weeks of May with end-of-school activities and beginning-of-summer ones!

Caylie had a fun field day at her school. 

 She's the second one in line.  

Jim got back into softball.  

In between warm, sunny days, we had more snowy ones.

Justin had his last middle school band concert. 

 (Hmm, I have video somewhere.  I will have to find it.)

Justin also had his 8th Grade Continuation. 

 Here we are waiting for it to start.

And when it did start, I wished I'd brought my good camera!

My hubby gave me roses for our anniversary, and Keelan gave me roses for Mothers' Day.

Justin and Keelan were recognized at Meadowood Church for completing 8th grade and 12th grade.  There was a time of prayer over Keelan as he begins his new season of life.

 We made our first summer visit to the zoo!

(Yes, our new grandbaby is coming soon!)

Sometimes I get pics of things we don't see often. 

 Like this pose.  Ha!

Everybody's got a water buffalo.

This is through the glass, but this little baby is so cute!

Peacocks are all over the zoo, but they rarely look like this!

This poor guy is bored.

We have a backyard to play in!

Our neighborhood pool is fun!  

We'll be there a lot this summer.