Sunday Snapshot: {sand, surf and sun}

On our last day of vacation in Maine we had the opportunity to meet and hang out with Stefanie and her kiddos.  Stefanie is the new Director of An Orphan's Wish and I have had the pleasure of working with her while volunteering as their Financial Coordinator.  It was wonderful to actually be able to meet her and her amazing kids.

We had lunch first and then headed down to the beach with all of the kids, 9 total.  Yes, you can totally question our sanity now.  Totally.

We had mostly happy campers...except for Aiden.  Thankfully, he cheered up and was off having fun with his new friends in no time.

This is Sophie.  An absolutely beautiful girl.  She just finished kindergarden.  She spent the day collecting shells for her momma.  Isn't she lovely?

Here is Isabelle.  She just finished pre-kindergarden.  I don't think there is a shy bone in this girl's body.  She was very outgoing.  I loved that about her.  There is just something about a girl who can hold a conversation.  She spent part of the day building a very nice rock wall.  The other part was spent surfing or tugging her brothers around on the boogie board.

Mr. Jude.  A lean, mean eating-machine.  Well maybe not so much on the mean.  Or the eating-machine.  He is a bit of a picky eater from what I've been told but oh what a handsome guy!  And he's pretty cool too.

Oh Shepherd.  How I love you.  Stefanie says he can be a bit of a sourpuss at times.  He tends to think he is too little to do most things.  I just couldn't get enough of him.  I seriously wanted to steal him and take him home with me.  I don't think Stefanie would have noticed.

Miss Vivienne.  She is the newest member of Stefanie's clan.  She just came home in January.  I couldn't get over how the littlest member of their family seemed to have the most power.  She didn't take any nonsense from any of the others.  And man does this girl move fast.  Nothing is going to stop her.

Sweet Dalton.  He was such a great helper.  He was very good about helping his momma with all the little ones.  And he was seriously great at entertaining the heck out of Aiden.

 

I didn't really get any good individual shots of Zach and Asher because they were insane in the cold water all day.  When they finally came out, their bodies were a nice bright shade of red from the cold water.  I am quite sure they were probably numb for the rest of the evening.  Brrrr...

Here are some group shots of all of the kids before Aiden got a little silly. 

And then Aiden was off and on a mission to entertain as usual.

Even Grampy couldn't corral this guy.  The photo session was officially over.

Stefanie and I were able to chat almost the entire afternoon while constantly doing head counts every few minutes.  She is quite an amazing woman.  She volunteers her time as the Director of An Orphan's Wish, blogs daily on Ni Hao Y'all, blogs and advocates frequently on No Hands But Ours which is a fantastic website to learn more about adopting children with special needs from China, helps run a fabulous tee-shirt company, Wild Olive, where they design and make some very pretty and powerful tee-shirts and she has 9 kids to raise in her spare time.  I'm probably not even mentioning half of what she juggles daily.  Anyone who can drag themselves out of bed and accomplish all of that each and every day and not lose her marbles, has my undying respect.  She is a saint.  And oh yeah, she rocks.

It was truly a fun day and I hope we get a chance to do it again some day!

And once again, I am extremely late in posting these pictures.  I am so not Super Woman...like Stefanie.  She had her pictures up weeks ago.  I am a bit behind.  Now where are those July 4th pictures?

To see more great Sunday Snapshots, head on over to Stefanie's blog at Ni Hao Y'all:

praying

for a speedy recovery for this little guy.

He had a very serious surgery yesterday.  Everything went well.

Wishing you a very speedy recovery buddy.

vacation fun!

The beach is just a short walk from my parent's house in Maine.  The weather was warm and actually so was the water by Maine's standards.  We had a fabulous time at the beach and we were able to go several times.

Aiden thoroughly enjoyed the sand and water.

Aiden was even able to make some new friends at the beach.  He was able to play a little football with his new friend Matt.  Really he was a bit of a ball hog.  Thankfully Matt didn't mind.

We also spent a day at the Maine Wildlife Park or as I used to know it - the Grey Animal Farm.

 

We spent lazy days sitting in the swing on the front porch.

Swang in the swings at the park in our jammies.

Ate ice cream sundaes every night.

Even got a little silly after the sugar rush.

We had a great time and our vacation got even better with a visit to the beach with our new friends, Stefanie and eight of her kids!  Pics to come soon!

flight 606 to Manchester: ready for departure

Aiden and I were able to head up to Maine for vacation on June 15th.  Angelo stayed behind to work - poor guy seems like he is always missing out on all the fun!  Although I am assuming it was a little vacation for him too - you know, without the 2 year old and all.

Angelo dropped us off at the airport fairly early.  This allowed me some extra time to get our bags checked and make it through security without getting too frazzled since this was my first time traveling alone.  And I tend to over pack a little.  Anyone who knows me, knows I can't even go for a night or two with a small bag.  I mean really...you just never know what you might want to wear need!  So at the last minute I pulled quite a few things out of our suitcases to make them more manageable.  I think I did pretty well however it would have been even nicer had my mom notified me that she had borrowed a car seat before I struggled lugging that awkward sucker through the airport.  Thanks mom!

Here's the pilot blowing off some steam before the flight:

Boarding has now begun.

Almost ready for take-off!

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At least now the pilot is facing the right direction now!

 

Ready for take-off and all clear for departure!

Listening to music air traffic control during the flight:

Sleeping after the flight.  You know piloting a plane is exhausting!