Category — travel

As usual, I’m months behind on blogging.  We finally got a vacation 2 weeks ago and flew down to Florida to see our families – it was awesome – so I wanted to post a few iphone pictures and video clips.  The kids had a blast, we got to catch up with our parents and siblings, and Travis and I even got a date night.  Speaking of, we just realized our unofficial anniversary (our dating-versary) of 17 years just passed on Friday!!!  That’s craziness.  Anyway, a big highlight was that my brothers, Alex and Jeremy, were down there with us and got to meet Griff for the first time.  Jer took a job with an investment firm in Florida to be closer to family, so he lives about an hour from our parents “farm”, and Alex just flew in for the week from Louisiana, where he still works as an oil engineer (I forgot the fancy title).  Here are some good pictures / video highlights:

My brother, Jeremy, and an ice cream monster:

An epic light saber battle (Shane and George):

The “little” boys playing games at my dad’s new frozen yogurt shop (my dad has strange hobbies that all involve lots of work:):

Angela reading stories to the kids before bed:

Shane and his hero, Uncle George, at Playmobile:

My mom and Griffin:

Shane on Scribbles with Angela:

Jack’s favorite thing to do was collect the chicken eggs each day with Angela:

My dad and Finely, working around the stables:

Uncle Jeremy braids a goat’s goatee:

Uncle Alex and Aunt Nastia rockin’ out to JUST DANCE on the Wii, with Fin getting in on the moves in the background:

Uncle Jer reads a bedtime story:

Emilie already blogged about our weekend adventure, and I had to crack up when I read the part that likened it to a Griswald family vacation; it TOTALLY was!  We pulled a “yeah, it might be 40 degrees with 40 mph winds, but we’re going to the Dunes, and you’re gonna love it, dammit!”  It was an awesome weekend.

I can’t possible top Emilie’s recap, so I’ll just post some highlights.  We drove a few hours to Alamosa, where we stayed in the trashiest, dirt cheap, pet-friendly hotel with an indoor waterpark…and our kids LOVED it.  It was pretty perfect, especially since Henny got to come. 

My kids on Chris’ back.  He’s a baby whisperer.

All the kids, including Fin and Nova, went down this huge waterslide more than once:

We woke up on Saturday planning to spend the day hiking Great Sand Dunes National Park.  Last time we were there, it was the end of May (Mother’s Day weekend).  It was hot outside and Medano Creek was flowing and of ideal wading depth.  Turns out, that’s not so much the case the first weekend of April.  Who knew!  But that morning in Alamosa, Travis took Hen outside, came back upstairs and announced to all of us that it was plenty warm and I should just wear capris instead of pants because I’d be hot.  Big mistake…unless you like sand pelting your bare legs at 40mph (I’m not sure if I’m exaggerating, but that’s what it felt like).  We pushed through and hiked to the 1st big dune.  The kids were all whining and grumping that they were cold…or had sand in their eyes…or couldn’t feel their fingers or some bs like that;)  Seriously, it was torturous, but we were determined to LOVE IT, dammit!  It was pretty freaking comical, actually.  And in retrospect, when I’m no longer being blasted by a sandstorm with a kid in 1 arm, another in a backpack, and a puppy under my armpit, it’s totally hilarious.  I think Henny’s face here sums it all up the best:

Shane’s pained expression here is quite telling also:

Jack, Shane, and Juneau hiding from the wind and sand in Travis’ lap:

At the base of the dunes after sliding down on sleds:

Poor Henny made the mistake of sliding down a dune, only to have to work his way back up!  Can you imagine how hard that would be if you had a droopy gut AND legs that were only 5” long?!  Hahaha!  He’s a trooper of a dog.

Chris, Travis, and Emilie, each with a kid in a backpack, trekking through the sand:

Hen-dog assessing the situation (check out his beautiful Frenchie bat ears that now stand up!):

T-bone assessing the situation:

These are the tallest dunes in North America, and we learned, firsthand, exactly how they formed – by relentless wind blowing sand across the San Luis Valley, sand that doesn’t stop blowing until it reaches the base of the San Luis mountains.  It truly is an incredible natural landscape.

So after the Dunes, we headed to the MOST RANDOM, STRANGEST place in all of Colorado (or possibly the world): Colorado Gators Reptile Park.  Littered with tires, wood, and swamp trash, there are ponds with alligators at a family run reptile farm.  We fed some alligators and Finley held one (and proceeded to kiss it).  The employee was so surprised by her fearlessness, he awarded her a Certificate of Bravery, which made her cry for some unknown reason.  Seriously though, the gators mouth opened as a threat, and Fin was still trying to plant a kiss on it…until I told her it was going to bite her cute little face off!  That hardly scared her though.

The gang feeding gators over a fence:

Travis’ face was so frozen he didn’t sense that his nose was dripping…so I caught it on camera to show him;)  I’m just awesome like that.

We spent Easter Sunday at a gorgeous park with the breathtaking 14er, Mt. Blanca, in the background.  Chris & Travis dropped me and Em off so we could hide the eggs (and freeze to death for our vacation choice…I was kinda worried they weren’t coming back;) while they drove around with the kids.  Jack, Juneau, Shane, Fin, and Nova had a BLAST collecting eggs, but Finley got it in her paranoid little noggin that everyone was just out to steal hers.  She only trusted me and screamed whenever anyone came close; she wouldn’t even let Travis get within 5 feet of her!  It was HYSTERICAL.  Paranoia is an awful condition…sometimes I worry about this child!

The kids looked so cute in their Easter outfits, but it was so cold we had to bundle them.  By the time we were done with the layers, they sort of looked homeless.  Here they are, lined up and ready for the egg hunt:

Toddlers are a strange breed of human being.  Here’s Shane shooting bubbles into Finley’s mouth:

Nova looking adorable:

Finley, keeping a suspicious, watchful eye around her while bending down to pick up an egg:

We took our time coming home on Sunday afternoon.  We stopped to eat along the way and Jack made the grossest concoction ever, but he proudly ate it.  It was ice cream topped with, not nuts, not oreos, not sprinkles, but PEAS…and then olives and mushrooms.  I told you the boy loves his veggies.  I had to put a finger over my closed mouth to prevent my own ice cream from coming back up as I watched him gulp a mouth full.

Travis and I stopped at a few parks along the way home too.  It was the most gorgeous day and the kids, Henny, Travis and I loved enjoying it outside.

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend!

Just kidding, but seriously?  Hands down the most beautiful state in the country.  And the nicest people to boot.  Today we went to Canyonlands National Park, which was, um, AWESOME.  Check out our views from this arch we hiked to at Islands in the Sky:

Aunt Heather and her favorite niece:

But the most amazing part of our day was the hike to Delicate Arch, back at Arches National Park (which we visited again today because it was simply amazing yesterday).  I CANNOT believe we almost missed this hike.  Delicate Arch is probably the most incredible natural structure I’ve ever seen.  Actually, the entire hike was unbelievably gorgeous; it was one of the neatest hikes I’ve EVER done in this country (only competing with the ones we did in Grand Teton National Park).  The best part was that you had to hike 1.5 miles up steep rock to finally see why you were hiking…Delicate Arch.  It’s not that it was a particularly challenging hike, but add 3 toddlers to the mix and a walk from a parking lot to a trailhead could become challenging;)  It’s all relative!  After climbing the snowy, thin part of the trail, you turn a corner and see this:

Freaking incredible.  Our kids truly amaze us; the boys both hiked several miles of this trail, and almost the entire uphill portion!  Honestly, we screw up on a VERY regular basis as parents, but one thing I am really proud of is that we seem to be passing on our love for the outdoors, enthusiasm for exercise, and enjoyment of physical challenges.  I don’t know many 2 or 3 year olds that can hike 3 miles, but ours can.  It’s not our accomplishment, it’s theirs, but we’re really darn proud of them for it!  When we reached the top of the climb, Jack asked that our little family put our hands together (don’t ask me where he’s seen this; I’m pretty sure Saved By the Bell hasn’t entered our living room yet!).  [Note: these family pics are courtesy of Heather!  Thank you Aunt Heather, this is such a gift!]

Shane had a GREAT day today.  He’s such a good climber and hiker, and I think he feels satisfied with himself for that.  We make sure to give him tons of extra praise for this type of thing, since he usually relishes his time lounging around being the Golden Pig!

We’re so glad Aunt Heather could be here with us.  It was the perfect weekend getaway, and I think she enjoyed it a lot too!

As Jack said “When Shane’s happy, everyone’s happy.  When Shane’s grumpy, everyone’s grumpy!”  SO thankful he was a happy happy happy boy today!

What happened to my Finley?  I blame Fancy Nancy for some of it, though I know sass is just part of who this kid is:

Holy cow…only 9 days till I find out if I matched, and 12 days till Match Day!  I’m so glad we’re doing things to take my mind off all that!  There’s no place I’d rather be right now than out here enjoying my many blessings.  Tomorrow is another adventure…

Guess who’s 1 year closer to 21?  Happy 20th birthday Heather!!  We had an awesome day with Aunt Heather in Moab, UT.  We are staying in a GORGEOUS condo in a canyon (for the same price as the local hotels – feel free to ask me about it if you’re planning a trip and interested), which has 3 bedrooms.  On our drive from Colorado, we were telling Heather she’d have her own room, at which point she said “oh, I don’t mind if you want to put Finley in my room so you guys can have YOUR own room!”  Well, that little pisser overheard us (since she spies on EVERY conversation and never misses a thing) and interjected “No, I don’t want to sleep with Header.  I want my OWN room!”  Who the &$*K does she think she is?!  We all got a pretty good laugh out of that.  But she’s so damn cute when she’s sleeping!

We went hiking in Arches National Park today, which was breathtaking.  Here are my favorite pictures from today.  This is Balanced Rock:

This is Landscape Arch, one of the most famous natural structures:

Here’s Aunt Heather with her niece and nephews:

Daddy and his girl (btw, the other day, someone asked if Finley is a daddy’s girl.  I turned to her and said “Fin, are you a daddy’s girl, or a mommy’s girl?”  Of course she responded “DADDY’S GIRL!”  But then Jack jumped in and said “I’m a mama’s boy!”  I have a feeling he won’t readily admit that for too many more years to come, so I’m going to enjoy it while it lasts;)

I love this picture:

Heather offered to take a picture of me and Travis near Balanced Rock, so I attempted to leap into his arms…I wound up accidentally slugging him in the face on my graceful landing, causing him to drop me, and me to nearly pee in my pants.  And Heather caught it all on “film”

We had Heather’s birthday dinner at Moab Brewery tonight.  About 5 minutes into dinner, Jack rhetorically asks “is this place great or WHAT?!”  When Heather’s dessert came out, the whole wait staff sang to her, which the kids loved.  Jack asked “Aunt Header” for the candle, which I figured he’d just lick.  I forgot he had it, until a few minutes later when he yelled “yum, this candle is goooood!”  He had LITERALLY devoured everything but the wic.  I see constipation in his future (and hopefully nothing more than that!).

Shane, unfortunately, refused a nap today, so he was a WRECK at dinner.  He muttered and did the old man grumpage thing, and lost his ice cream because of it.  That part sucked.  But otherwise, he had a great day, hiking and riding in daddy’s pack.

We’re looking forward to another adventure-filled day with Aunt Heather tomorrow.  Happy 20th birthday Heather!!  We love you!

We are in Saint Augustine right now, but heading back to my parents’ farm tomorrow.  It has been awesome and totally relaxing to be out here the past few days.  The the kids’ favorite game here at the beach is to yell “birdie, birdie, birdie” like wild banchees…it’s anybody’s guess where seagull $hit will splatter next.  Fun stuff.

My kids are obsessed with pirates.  Actually, we play pirates quite often, per “Cap’n Jack’s” request. So we took the kids to the Castillo de San Marcos (the Spanish castle) and they got a huge kick out of that!

I have a little story about the Castillo to tell…hopefully this won’t land me in jail!  Way back in college, I did neuroscience research at a lab on the beach out here.  Travis pretty much lived with me in my single on the beach, and we had one heck of a summer.  WAY too much fun.  Anyway, one night, a friend of mine / teammate from Brown (women’s soccer team), and Travis’ best friend from high school, met up with us and we stumbled around St. Augustine altogether.  We hit up one bar called Scarlet O’Haras, where we had to learn why people there put napkins over their beer mugs…it’s a historic building and the deck is all wood.  Cockroaches were literally falling from the ceiling and one actually landed in Travis’ open-mug Guinness.  Gross, but apparently a very common occurrence.  Anyway, my point was that there was some scaffolding work going on at the Castillo and someone, ahem, thought it would be a good idea to scale the castle wall.  Can you imagine a group of 4 impaired college kids scaling 50-60ft scaffolding of what had been an impenetrable fort for 300 years, at 2am when no guards were on duty.  Good thing this is hypothetical because I’m 100% sure there would have been charges had they been caught.  And if that had really happened, they would have been darn lucky none of them fell off the scaffolding!  Oh, and because that would have had deleterious effects on a historic structure, the inspiration behind such a terrible scheme would have made donations to the castle for preservation efforts.  I omitted half the hypothetical story, but you get the point: kids have some dumb ideas!! 

Uncle Alex (my awesome brother who is 3 years younger than me) drove to meet us from Louisiana yesterday.  Fin, in particular, is THRILLED he’s here.  She’s all over him!  He’s kinda smitten too though!

Jack and Finley dancing in their sand hole:

This is what our kids call “fweet moves!”  (translation: sweet moves!)…

Winter Wonderland in Saint Augustine:

I have to tell a funny “birth order” type story.  The Wonderland had those giant blow-up decorations and as soon as Fin spotted the nutcracker, she immediately started saying “I ok.  I not scared.”  (Translation: holy crap, I’m about to piss myself; I’m terrified.”)  So her next move was to run behind her biggest brother, pushing HIM towards the giant nutcracker.  If you know Jack, you KNOW he’s afraid of everything.  So Finley starts shoving him forward saying “Jack, touch it!”  He’s getting pushed closer and closer and finally resists and rebuts “no Fin, YOU touch it!”  As they’re doing this wimpy thing, Shane buts in, squeezes right between the two of them, walks right up, and slaps the blow-up nutcraker!!!  Finley and Jack are just staring, wide-eyed, jaws-dropped.  Travis and I are DYING laughing and high-fiving Shane.  At that point, Finley walks up and touches every part of the nutcracker, since it’s power has been demystified.  Jack hangs back, pretending to be disinterested, and Shane moves on to the next curiosity.  I tell ya, never a dull moment when you have 3 close in age.  We are having a blast.

After Rachel and Mike’s wedding near Puerto Morales, we headed back to a 4 star hotel that we’d pricelined (the name your own price feature) for $50 a night in Cancun.  Sadly, not all-inclusive, but still a beautiful place for that price.  A few of you asked how we scored the $80 / night all-inclusive deal…there are TONS of specials right now in Mexico, so if you’re interested, I’d check out www.travelzoo.com or www.bookit.com deals.  If anyone has any specific questions for me, feel free to ask and I’ll share my honest opinions of the places we stayed (Oasis Grand, Ceiba Del Mar, and then the Omni). 

This is what happens when you stuff pounds of seashells in your pockets:

Finley was PISSED in the picture below because she wanted to nurse and remembered my boobs no longer make melted ice cream.  Yes, sadly my melted ice cream machine is nearly broken.  She was yelling at them, shaking her finger and saying “no more milk:”  She’s VERY angry at my no-so-fun bags:

This was our attempt at a family photo.  The Christmas card from Mexico just wasn’t meant to be for the Good family this year:

How funny is this…Shane passed out in our taxi and Fin and Jack laid on him and pretended to be sleeping too.  Our young comedians:

Fin’s imitation of sleeping Shane:

And just because he’s so darn handsome:

This picture cracks me up.  There was a movie on and Jack wanted Wall-E (on his underpants) to be able to watch it too:

I woke up feeling nauseous this morning and some H1N1 fears flew through my head.  Man oh man keep that crap out of my house, PLEASE!  Before you go thinking I might be pregnant or something, I’ll clear that up with a little TMI right here, right now.  Just a little clue: Travis nicknamed me “Pinata” on vacation (if you missed that joke, don’t worry about it; it’s gross).  It’s lovely to be in such tight quarters with your kids that you have to shower, change, and use the bathroom in their presence each and every time.  There is NO privacy when you’re stuck in a hotel room with 3 nosey toddlers and an immature husband.  If I had a nickel for every time I heard “mama, what that?” or “mama, can you open this popsicle?”  It’s NOT a popsicle!  And then there’s Travis with his pinata comments.  Good Lord!!!!  Anyway, it’s good to be home.  Oh, and like I was saying, I’m not pregnant and hopefully there’s no H1N1 creeping around here. 

I just can’t believe I was on the beach one morning, and woke up the next morning to white fluffy snow everywhere (and no sign of stoppage).  That’s pretty cool.  Have I said lately how much I love Colorado’s unpredictability?  Well, I do.  But even more than that, I love the fact that the 1 aspect of our weather that IS predictable is the sunshine.  I think I can survive anything if the sun is out 300 days a year, but Farmers Almanac is predicting scary stuff this winter!  Halloween should be interesting; a foot of snow on the ground will make trick or treating a little challenging, and puts a damper on our planned block party.  I’m sure it’ll just mean we’ll all be drinking a little extra spiked cider to keep warm! 

We are home after our Mexico adventure, and Jack couldn’t be happier about that.  He decided on day 2 that he didn’t like Mexico and wanted to come home.  What?!  This is our world traveler and he’s a total homebody. 

We are EXHAUSTED and I can’t believe we’ve come home from sunny Mexico to an insane snowstorm here in Colorado.  Welcome back to us!  Since I have nothing remotely intelligent to say at the moment, I’ll just post some pics from Rachel and Mike’s GORGEOUS wedding.  The whole wedding weekend was absolutely amazing, but the best part was hearing Rach and Mike say the wedding vows they’d written to each other.  That was beautiful. 

Here’s Rach saying the vows she’d written to Mike:

Check out the setting for the cocktail hour following the ceremony, before the reception:

Lollipops…the secret to a well-behaved child during any ceremony;) 

But all good things must come to an end at some point, right? 

Wow, um, wow.  Just wanted to check in and drop off some pictures since Part I of our Mexico adventure is over.  We did the whole mass produced, all-inclusive gig down in Cancun for a few days for $80 per night.  We didn’t get much sleep, but it was fun…and pretty darn cheap considering all our meals, drinks, etc were included and our kids were free.  And if I haven’t mentioned it in awhile, our kids CAN EAT!  As an example, Shane’s breakfast would include 5 sausage links, 2 pieces of French toast, 10 strawberries, 2 strips of bacon, 3 bowls of cereal, and an apple.  If you think I’m kidding, I’m honestly not.  It’s totally disgusting to watch him in action; you’d think you were sitting across from a 400 pound, sweaty, morbidly obese grown man.  But then you’d look again, only to see a 23 pound, stick-SKINNY, Vietnamese toddler.  Shane would put that hotdog chowing, pride of Japan to shame if we entered him in a competitive eating contest.  I think we’d be depriving the world of something amazing if we deny our Bug that opportunity in the future. The kid is something to behold at the dinner table.  And the grossest part is that he can stuff a piece of bacon in his mouth and chase it with a chocolate-covered pastry as if they go together like peas and carrots.  Travis and I just sit and stare for 45 minutes while he does his thing, wondering where the F all that food goes.  He’s definitely our “Golden Pig,” and most certainly the “all-inclusive” type.  Shane enjoys eating, being served, and lounging in hammocks;)  Funny kid.

The kids LOVED watching this local artist make pictures out of spray paint.  I think they inhaled enough fumes each night to help us get them to bed.  The high must’ve only lasted so long though, as we didn’t have a single full night’s sleep.  I should’ve bought a can to-go from the guy.

Shane wanted a better look at the artwork:

But then there’s the grouching…Shane hasn’t held back just because we’re on vacation or anything.  Unfortunately, there’s no vacay from the grumpin.  I know I never seem to capture it on film/video because I’m usually covering my ears, or trying to bargain with a 2 year old, but here’s a little glimpse (and I’m sparing you the worse-than-nails-on-a-chalkboard sound)…I swear, you have not seen a tantrum until you’ve seen Shane throw it:

And here’s Fin’s “holy-shit, make-it-stop” face:

He’s super cute though when he turns it off:

We’re now at a resort outside a tiny town called Puerto Morales, which is absolutely amazing.  This is where Rachel is getting married, and I can’t imagine a more gorgeous setting for a wedding.  It’s a very small, exclusive, previously quiet;) resort with the most ridiculous amenities.  Oh, and Rach HOOKED US UP with the most insane room upgrade.  We’re in a master suite that has 2 balconies overlooking the ocean, 2 full bathrooms, including a beautiful bathtub with bamboo shudders that open for a view of the ocean, a bar, a huge wall-mounted plasma tv, and 2 large sitting areas, 1 of which is in a room off the bedroom.  RI.DIC.U.LOUS.

Here are a few blurry, but hilarious pictures of a little something we call Good MMA..toddler style:

And then they pause for a ringside kiss:

And then the big boy enters the ring:

So I ran the Denver Half Marathon today…sort of a spontaneous, last minute decision, but I loved it and am SO glad I did it.  I wasn’t really in shape to run it, which is why I’ll be limping around for a few days now, but I did run it at an overall pace I was happy with.

The course was awesome and the weather today could not have been more perfect.  It was 50 when we started and 64 when I finished!  A couple funny things happened along the way – a guy running RIGHT in front of me tooted SO loudly I couldn’t hide my laughter.  Then I laughed again when I thought of what Finley’s reaction would have been, had she been there for that; she would have run right up and poked his behind yelling “a caca, a caca!  Eww, gross!  That’s stinky!”  I taught her to say all that in response to her dad’s audible gas;)  The funniest thing is that Travis thought she was enough of little parrot that he could tell her to announce “mama fart,” just to try to humiliate me or something, but as soon as he instructed her to say that, she yelled “no, daddy big fart!”  Smart girl.  Too smart for daddy, thankfully. 

I now see the appeal to running half marathons.  Travis’ philosophy is “if you’re going to bother, just run the whole damn thing.”  I get it though; it’s a manageable distance - long enough to feel like you worked your body hard, short enough you don’t do serious damage to your joints.  Also, training for a 13.1 mile run is not that time consuming and it doesn’t have to dominate your free-time the same way training for a 26.2 mile run does.  Still, I’m looking forward to running the Disney Marathon this winter.  I am still considering trying to run it in a Boston qualifying time (3:40), which would be VERY challenging for me.  I always like to finish a race barely able to stand-up because it makes me feel like I worked really hard, and there’s a strange (and according to Travis, pathologic) sense of satisfaction in that.  At the Mardi Gras Marathon a few years ago, I finished with a blood pressure of 80/50 and wound up in the medic tent getting 1.5L of fluid through an IV.  Today I literally dry heaved as I crossed the finish line, so that was pretty sweet too. 

Here’s my thought process during a marathon:

Miles 1-2: “This is CAKE, I could run for days.  My next race is going to be an ultra marathon (52 miles); this just isn’t challenging enough.” 

Miles 3-5: “Well, I guess I could run 2 marathons on back-to-back days.”

Miles 5-10: “I think 1 marathon a year oughta do.”

Mile 11: “WTF?!  I’m only at mile 11?!”

Miles 12-17: “This. Freakin. Sucks.”

Mile 18: “Why the hell do I do this?!”

Mile 19: “THEY should pay ME to run this $hit!  I can’t believe I paid MONEY to feel this kind of pain and torture.”

Mile 20: “Ok, I’m in the 20’s.  Now I just have to go out for a little 6.2 mile jog.  That’s all I gotta do.  Come on Laur.”

Mile 21-23: “Bacon, bacon, bacon. Cheeseburger. Burrito. BEER.”

Mile 24: “I’m going to die out here.”

Mile 25-26.2: I have no idea what I am thinking at this point.  I’ve entered complete delirium.  I think my main thoughts are trying to maintain control of bodily functions.

Anyway, we are leaving for a big trip tomorrow morning, so the next time I blog, it’ll probably be from Mexico.  We booked our flights and made these plans ~1 year ago when we thought I’d be a resident (with a salary) right now, but oh well.  The real reason for the trip is my friend, Rachel, is getting married down there.  I can’t wait to see her as a beautiful bride, and I’m excited to see friends, take the kids to the beach, and have all our meals and drinks pre-paid!!  We’ll be crammed into 1 hotel room, as usual, so I’m sure it won’t be restful, but hey…we’ll sleep when we’re dead, or however that saying goes.  If anyone needs to reach me, I’ll be checking email.  Have a great week everyone!

Yeah, we’re crazy.  But we’d have to be crazy AND rich to have done it any other way, since flying now requires 4 plane tickets because Shane and Jack are both over 2.  So we drove 13 hours to Minnesota and 13 hours back, and the car rides were LONG.  But, it was totally worth it!  Our primary reason for the trip was to be part of Tomas’ baptism.  Tomas is the son of our really close friends, Dominique and Kevin, and we are thrilled and honored to be asked to baptize their gorgeous “little” guy.  While there, I also had the opportunity to meet with the pediatrician who sees the majority of the patients coming through MN’s international adoption clinic, which is the largest in the country, about collaborating on a Derm related research project.  That is something I’m really pumped about and will probably write more about in the future.  And as ANOTHER awesome bonus of the trip, I got to meet up with a bunch of adoption & blogging buddies at the Bluegrass Festival.  Waaaay too much to catch up on in one post, so I’ll just give very brief rundowns and show you the best parts in pictures.  I’ll start with a few pictures of the adorable reason for the season, our Godson:

Finley was obsessed with “Mas,” as she calls Tomas.  I just have to post this next picture because it makes me laugh out loud.  Dom, I know you’ll appreciate this one too.  Look at these thighs; I just want to squeeze them!  “Mas” is 7 months old, and Finley is 17 months old, but he’s already got 2lbs on her and a couple inches too I think!

Here is Dominique and her daughter, Catalina, cracking up together and having a really sweet mom & daughter moment.  Are these not the cutest glasses ever, btw?! 

Next up in photos is the Minnesota State Fair…and I think these pics sum up the experience (but Kev, it’s only because I didn’t see the dude wearing the shirt that read“contents under pressure.” Because THAT would have made the greatest picture of all.)…

Here’s Fin eating meat off a bone (I believe it belonged to an ostrich, but don’t quote me on that…either way, it was about as long as both of Finley’s femurs stacked on top of each other;):

Our little carnivore, proud of her take-down:

Kevin and Travis with their “beer on a stick:”

We had such an awesome trip, but one of the best parts was meeting up with another couple from our DC days.  Sarah, Dom, and I know each other through medical school and the 3 of us and our husbands, plus Melanie and Brad, who didn’t make it to our reunion this weekend, spent a lot of time together in DC.  We were all in the minority of our med school classes to start families when we did, which has made us an even closer group.  It’s hard to describe, but med school is a uniquely hellish, yet an incredibly rewarding and emotionally intense experience.  To add on top of that the challenges of marriage and kids, it’s hard to find people who can understand or relate to it the way friends like Dom, Sarah, and Mel can for me.  Anyway, my point was that Sarah and Dave made it out to MN too with their 2 beautiful little boys, a 3 year old and a 6 week old, and it was really good to see them.  Finley was ENAMORED with Bryson.  MOVE OVER ASHLYN!  Mel, hold onto your hat, because Finley is NOT going to let her “Brices” go without a fight…

Here’s their “Old Married Couple” pose (couldn’t resist giving this one an antique look):

Are we in trouble or what?  Look at the sly look on her little face here:

And then she got “Brices” to pull her around in the wagon in his underwear:

This part was my favorite though.  Bryson started dumping fists full of dirt, sticks, grass, etc. on Finley’s head.  And only because it was “Brices” doing it, Finley thought it was the funniest thing in the world.  Ahhh, young love!  She looked (and smelled) like Pigpen afterwards.

I also FINALLY got to meet my friend, Nora, who has 2 little girls from Guatemala followed closely in age by a bio daughter (they were 3 under 3)!  She and I met through the blogosphere awhile ago and I introduced her to Dominique via email when I realized they were both in MN and were going through similar things at the time.  They and their husbands became fast friends and it’s been an awesome friendship ever since for all of them, which makes me really happy.  How cool is the internet?!  Here’s a blurry pic of some of our kids playing together at Dom & Kev’s (I can’t believe I didn’t get any good pictures with the Tycast Team!):

I got to spend time with Nora and her family throughout the weekend, and they also came to the Bluegrass Festival on Monday, as did our friends Dom & Kev, Dom’s older sister and her cutie-pie daughter, and Kevin’s parents.  It was at that event that I also got to meet up with my friend Cindy, who Travis and I know from Vietnam when we were in country adopting Shane and she was adopting Trey, Stacy (who adopted the famous Delaney, domestically), Lina (mom to 2 amazingly helpful, awesome daughters and ~G from VN), and Heather & Ryan (who adopted Elia from VN).  It was a total blast to see all our kids together, and equally amazing to get to spend time with their awesome parents.  I loved it.  I wish I’d gotten better pics, but it was hard to keep up with this group!  I’m hoping to see them all again next time I make it out that way.

This is Elia with my boys. She and Jack had a BLAST together.  Look at that pose!

Here’s Jack feeding Delaney:

The adorable Trey:

Check out this dance party:

Ring-around-the-rosie:

Little ~G and his mama:

A few other cute photos from our trip:

Hope you all had a wonderful long weekend too.  And now I’m off to bed!!  It’s good to be home…