Indian River Wrap-Up and Visiting the Brooks

Jess and Kristen reading and looking way too cool!
Cam, Wayne, Anna and Kenzie enjoying the pool.
Me and Shelly...MINUS the thighs. :-)

Julia hanging out.
Cam
Anna
Waynie and Me
Anna's feet?

Isaac and Julia
Dr. Julia Wagner and her rocks (Hey Dr. Kerr, she's following after you!)
Cam being sandy.
Julia taking a picture of me at the beach today.
Julia and Isaac

So, let's wrap up our week long vacation to Indian River. We all had a great time! The kids were pretty good, Wayne and I didn't fight (although I did call him a few names, does that count?) and the dogs were pretty well behaved as well. My brother in law Jeff wants to go for 10 days next week. YAY! What a blast that will be. I guess we have plans to go to the same campground. I really liked it there. Thanks Nancy and Don for the great experience at Indian River RV Resort we all had a wonderful time.

About today....we went to Orchard Park State Park in Manistee to visit the Brooks family. As many of you recall, they are the family that we traveled to China with and their son Isaac is from the same orphanage as Julia. Isaac is actually one day younger that Julia too. How cool?! Anyways, today the kids played at beach and enjoyed seeing each other again. Of course Liz and I talked of our next adoption trips. :-) Maybe we'll end up in Ethiopia together. I'd love to travel to Africa. Although a China trip wouldn't be too bad either!!

Well, back to watching SHARK WEEK on Discovery Channel. :-) Have a great night!

Just pictures

Sissy and Me when she stopped on her way back to Minnesota
The Hayride
Anna's afternoon position

Ju at the beach at Burt Lake State Park
Me and Chang
More Ju, on the river this time
Cam, the paddler
Me and Wayne

Anna
Our group
A bigger shot of the rafters
Lori and Tracy
Shelly

Uncle Bruce in the kayak
Julia and Benjamin
Our clan
Anna Elizabeth
Anna and Ju after the beach

Cameron
Max, Mackenzie, and Cam
Kathy, Gabby and Greg getting a little wild with the pinata pieces
Kristen and Julia
The men by the jet-ski

Sophia...

I loved watching the Golden Girls with my grandma when I was younger and today I read that Estelle Getty who played the beloved Sophia passed away. She was 84. Here's the intro to the Golden Girls that I love so much!

Indian River 2008: Camp Out

Well, as I predicted in the Vacation Message post, here I am blogging from my campsite in Indian River, Michigan. :-) Yes, there is a heaven when you have a great wireless connection in a little slice of woodland peace. Anyways...so far, we attended a super cool craft show, watched my nephew Eric compete in a biathlon (kayak and bike), survived a horrible thunderstorm while trying to do a fish dry and hit the beach to catch a few summer rays. Here are some of the pictures that most of you would rather see. :-) Oh yeah...our kids love the Michigan Chiller books by Jonathan Rand (aka Christopher Knight). He has a store right here in Indian River and we love checking out his work. On Saturday we stopped on the way into town and he HAPPENED TO BE THERE AT HIS STORE!! EEEYYYEEAAHHHH!! He's super nice and very cool. I got to take a picture with 10 of our camp kids with him. YAY! Anyways...enjoy the pictures!

This is the outside of Chillermania in Indian River where we get our Michigan Chiller books at. Pretty neat place inside and out.

Here are most of our kiddos, minus a few with the author Jonathan Rand!

Wayne, Me and Julia after the HUGE RAIN STORM that drenched everything....

Weird picture that Julia took of the lights under the tarp

This is my lovely niece Shelly...she's got a fish ball in her mouth and didn't want me to post this. GOTCHA!

Here is brother Greg, friend Dave and brother Jeff enjoying their adult beverages

brother John and nephew Adam making home made potato chips

Jess, Lori and Cindy waiting for dinner to be ready

Part of our fish fry party

Fish balls....take a little piece of good fish, wrap it in bacon...cook on a grill, once done, move to pan with BBQ sauce.

Just a quick prayer request

As many of you know North Carolina is one of my favorite places to visit and I keep tabs on the goings on via different websites. This past week, I've been following a story very closely. A SAHM named Nancy Cooper was murdered near her home in the city Cary (just outside of my beloved Raleigh). She apparently went out for a jog and didn't return. For some reason this story has just really touched me and I'm asking all my friends to just say a small prayer for her 2 young daughters and for her family in Canada. There are no suspects at this time and no one is sure as to what happened. Well, I assume the Cary police have a good idea, but they can't confirm or deny a lot if things. So we are now left wonder what happened. WRAL is reporting that Nancy's husband had some "emotional issues" and that has caused her parents to seek custody of her kids. Here are links to WRAL and to the News & Observer articles. Thanks!

As of July 18th...I'm...

But if you know me at all, you know I'm still going to post pictures of our trip while we're gone.

Sally says it best!

I'm having one of THOSE days where the kids want to fight and argue everything with me and with each other. I left a load of clothes in the washer (AGAIN!) and they smell like, well, like towels that have been left in the washer overnight. I'm working on getting everything we need packed for the trip to Indian River. I haven't had a decent night's sleep in months. Yep, I'm taking a 10 minute blog break to let you all know that I've lost my mind and I'm fairly certain I'm not going to look for it. Ever! lol!