Summer Fun

What's that?  It's fall??  Yes, but I haven't gotten to share how we spent the hours of our summer yet.

 At the beginning of the summer I wrote a post about letting my kids be bored.  I thought I should share some of what came of keeping things simple.  I'm not sure how simple we would have really kept things had we not traveled to China and brought Elie home.  But our life had to be simple for the month of August, because even simple was at times very hard.  Although I think we will replicate this philosophy next summer because it was just awesome bonding time as a family.  It was hot but we could not stay inside.  Behavior was not fabulous outside, but inside it quickly spiraled out of control.  And so we figured out how to make that work...  and we also sweat... a lot.

I cannot even begin to speculate how many human chalk drawings I made down the entire length of our sidewalk the month of August.  Faith and Elie wanted me to draw them again and again.

First ride in the trailer.  This was still during their phase of trying to figure out who was boss.  It is a miracle that they made it to the park in one piece.

This picture still catches my breath.  The healing that God has done and is doing in Eliana's body is a beautiful thing to witness.  When we left for China we did not expect that she would be climbing ladders at the park.

We all loved having Daddy home for two whole weeks after we returned from China.  I think we will try to do this again next summer.  Keep Daddy home from work but don't travel anywhere.

We spent time with friends.  This is our dear friend Mei.  She and her family have been an incredible blessing to us this past year.  The boys call her, "Elie's special Chinese friend."  I call her an angel.

After having to keep such a close eye on Elie in China, it was a breath of fresh air to just let her run.

These two pictures are from pre-China, but I love them so they got added in.  I am a big fan of letting my kids get head to toe dirty.  And who can resist Tyler meeting a friend at the zoo?

Our first family hike.  It was filled with a few meltdowns and lots of tears, but we meet another amazing adoptive family for the first time on the trail and we also made some good memories too.

My boys are lego lovers.  And they love battles.  Combine the two and it equals a perfect afternoon.  We had a lego village spanning our living room for the month of August.  The girls also got in on the fun.  Turns out Elie also likes to build with legos.... again just so amazing what she is able to do.

This is our normal everyday life.  To some it may not seem very exciting, but I am cherishing these simple times.