tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57136125720949005642024-02-18T23:59:27.337-07:00montana mooresnaomihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18089599000852688355noreply@blogger.comBlogger290125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5713612572094900564.post-87862448777590537242013-09-28T14:35:00.000-06:002013-09-28T14:35:13.009-06:00Good news and a set backHello! Remember how a few weeks ago I was writing to you to tell
you we were still short on funds for our final trip? Quite a bit short,
if my memory holds correct. Well, guess what. He did it. God
provided all we need for our final trip to travel and pick up Wren! We
are blown.a.way. So humbled and so grateful. Thank you, to all of
you. For praying. For giving. For praying some more. What a weight
this has lifted from our shoulders! Thank you all for being part of
this story. We are grateful beyond measure.<br />
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If you remember from my <a href="http://montana-moores.blogspot.com/2013/09/another-step.html" target="_blank">last post</a>, we had a pretty sweet plan as to how and when we were going to travel. We even had the funds and woke up at 4:45 Wednesday morning to check and hope for an email from the US Embassy with the news we had cleared. The email did not come but a call from our agency did later that afternoon and it was not the news we were hoping for. The person who was supposed to show up for the final interview Wednesday had missed the appointment. She is apparently on a religious pilgrimage. And that's all we know. Where she is or when she'll be back, a mystery. How this happened, no idea. We have about a million and a half questions and zero answers at this point. We hope to hear more on Monday but that is just a hope. We feel frustrated and angry and sad and confused. I have shed many tears and as I was working to process it all and not blame myself for not praying enough, etc., my dear friend asked me the perfect question. <br />
<b><i>"What is God saying to you in this?"</i></b><br />
This brought on more tears as I hadn't thought about that yet. I was too busy being angry and blaming myself and thinking God was punishing me for...something! As I cried and tried to clear my mind to hear the Lord, I remembered He is on our side. I feel like He didn't want this to happen and He hasn't given up on me or us or this process! I also felt Him asking me not to waste this. Not to waste this time but also not to waste this pain/struggle. Instead of wallowing in my sadness/bitterness/anger/confusion, turn to Him and let Him change me in this. Let it not be for nothing. This may sound cliche or trite but to me it was so comforting and for the first time, I accepted it and believed it. Did the pain and sadness immediately disappear? No. Do I feel like God is saying that my feelings aren't real or justified? No. I think He is asking me to not get stuck there. To invite Him into the feelings and situation. <br />
Even though I didn't really want a scripture thrown at me to try to make everything right, (sorry, speaking truth here), someone posted a verse from <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalm%2062&version=NLT" target="_blank">Psalm 62</a> on Facebook. It was random that this person posted this but it spoke to me and meant something to me. As I read the whole passage, these verses particularly stuck out to me:<br />
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<span class="text Ps-62-5" id="en-NLT-14809"><sup class="versenum">5 </sup>Let all that I am wait quietly before God,</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text Ps-62-5">for my hope is in him.</span></span><br /><span class="text Ps-62-6" id="en-NLT-14810"><sup class="versenum">6 </sup>He alone is my rock and my salvation,</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text Ps-62-6">my fortress where I will not be shaken.</span></span><br /><span class="text Ps-62-7" id="en-NLT-14811"><sup class="versenum">7 </sup>My victory and honor come from God alone.</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text Ps-62-7">He is my refuge, a rock where no enemy can reach me.</span></span><br /><span class="text Ps-62-8" id="en-NLT-14812"><sup class="versenum">8 </sup><b>O my people, trust in him at all times.</b></span><b><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text Ps-62-8">Pour out your heart to him,</span></span></b><span class="indent-1"><b><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span></b><span class="text Ps-62-8"><b>for God is our refuge.</b> </span></span></div>
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<span class="indent-1"><span class="text Ps-62-8"><span class="selah"> He is our refuge in this confusion and sadness. And He is good. I don't know what news we will get next week, if any, but I'm choosing not to waste this setback and invite Jesus in. We'll keep you posted.</span></span></span></div>
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naomihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18089599000852688355noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5713612572094900564.post-27544275938659090592013-09-11T20:54:00.000-06:002013-09-11T20:54:18.271-06:00Another step<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Hello friends! We just wanted to update you on some of the progress we
have seen in the last few days. First we want to thank all of you for
your support. We are so humbled and grateful. Every prayer, penny and
question of how we're doing means so much to us. It is hard for us to
humble ourselves but we have realized that when we do, God does his
biggest work. Thank you for being part of that.</span></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />Earlier this week, we found out that the final interview needed for
Embassy to clear our case is scheduled for September 25th. Hopefully,
we will clear that day or the next and then we are ready to go pick up
our girl! We hope to travel over to Ethiopia October 4th. Will you
please pray with us that everything lines up (air fare routes,
costs, work schedules for Peter and his mom who’s coming to watch the
boys)? If all goes well, leaving the 4<sup>th</sup> puts us in
Ethiopia the morning of my birthday
and I can't think of a better gift than picking up our daughter and not
having to leave her again. What a sweet day that will be! </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We are also still short on our needed funds. We are $1500 closer to our
goal and we are so grateful! If you would like to give, here is some
information on how to do so:<br /> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Three more days to shop! A friend of mine has generously offered to host a Thirty-One Gifts party and <b>donate 100%</b>
of the profits to bringing our Wren girl home! It is an online party
so you can shop from the comfort of your home. Here is the link to her
site: <a href="http://www.mythirtyone.com/scheel" target="_blank"><i>http://www.mythirtyone.com/<wbr></wbr>scheel</i></a><br />
</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Once here, click
on "parties" and you will see our fundraiser listed there under
"Moore". Here is a link to a pdf catalog as well: <br /><a href="http://assets.thirtyonetoday.com.s3.amazonaws.com/products/Catalogs/fall2013/Catalog.pdf" target="_blank">http://assets.thirtyonetoday.<wbr></wbr>com.s3.amazonaws.com/products/<wbr></wbr>Catalogs/fall2013/Catalog.pdf</a></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This fundraiser will last for 2 weeks and close <b>September 14th</b>. Let me know if you have any questions around this.
</span></span></div>
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<br />
If shopping isn't your thing, it is very easy to make a tax deductible donation through our church's <a href="http://journeyweb.net/give/" target="_blank">website</a>. In the comments, simply put "Moore adoption" and it will go into our account there. <span style="color: #ad3e00;"><i>Disclaimer: </i></span><i>In doing so, you understand that, in accordance with IRS rules
and regulations, the use of the gift is subject to the discretion and control
of the Journey Church Adoption Fund, notwithstanding any preference that we may
express in this form, or on any check.</i><br />
</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i>Basically,
if there is money left in our account that we don't need, it will be
given to the general fund in the Encompass Orphan Care Ministry. </i></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br clear="all" />Thank you, again, for being part of our journey in all this. We are so thankful.</span></span>naomihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18089599000852688355noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5713612572094900564.post-50333908168820843392013-09-03T17:00:00.000-06:002013-09-03T17:00:27.637-06:00Moving along<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Exciting news today! We found out that the US Embassy has now started reviewing our case! Essentially that means we could be traveling in the next couple weeks! While this is EXTREMELY exciting news, we are still about $5500 short of paying for our next trip to actually pick up Wren and bring her home. Thankfully we won't have to purchase a plane ticket for Wren but our plane tickets alone will cost around $2000 each. Then there are guest house fees, driver fees, and food. We have applied for multiple grants since returning home in July but we have yet to hear back and nothing is guaranteed. While donating to our adoption account at our church, (directions below) is a great way to financially support us (tax deductible), we also have another fun and creative way you could support us-while getting a head start on your holiday shopping.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">A friend of mine has generously offered to host a Thirty-One Gifts party and <b>donate 100%</b> of the profits to bringing our Wren girl home! It is an online party so you can shop from the comfort of your home. Here is the link to her site: <span style="font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://www.mythirtyone.com/scheel" target="_blank"><i>http://www.mythirtyone.com/<wbr></wbr>scheel</i></a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"></span><div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Once here, click on "parties" and you will see our fundraiser listed there under "Moore". Here is a link to a pdf catalog as well: <br /><a href="http://assets.thirtyonetoday.com.s3.amazonaws.com/products/Catalogs/fall2013/Catalog.pdf" target="_blank">http://assets.thirtyonetoday.<wbr></wbr>com.s3.amazonaws.com/products/<wbr></wbr>Catalogs/fall2013/Catalog.pdf</a></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This fundraiser will last for 2 weeks and close <b>September 14th</b>. Let me know if you have any questions around this.
</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">If shopping isn't your thing, it is very easy to make a tax deductible donation through our church's <a href="http://journeyweb.net/give/" target="_blank">website</a>. In the comments, simply put "Moore adoption" and it will go into our account there. </span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="color: #ad3e00; font-size: large;"><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Disclaimer: </span></i></span><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span>In doing so, you understand that, in accordance with IRS rules
and regulations, the use of the gift is subject to the discretion and control
of the Journey Church Adoption Fund, notwithstanding any preference that we may
express in this form, or on any check.</span></span></i></span><br />
<div style="text-indent: 0px;">
<i><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span>Basically, if there is money left in our account that we don't need, it will be given to the general fund in the Encompass Orphan Care Ministry. </span></span></span></i></div>
<div style="text-indent: 0px;">
<i><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span><br /></span></span></span></i></div>
<div style="text-indent: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span><span style="font-size: small;">Thank you all for your support and prayers throughout this entire process. We know that God will provide what we need to bring Wren home and we look forward to sharing the stories with you! Oh, and also for you to meet her! She's pretty awesome. :)</span></span></span></span></div>
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naomihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18089599000852688355noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5713612572094900564.post-46176435996069255482013-08-08T22:41:00.002-06:002013-08-08T22:43:49.395-06:00Photo dump<br />
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As we've been home from our awesome trip for 2 weeks now, I figure I should update the blog. Get ready for a lot of pictures and a few words. Maybe the words will come later but for now, here is a small glimpse of our trip meeting our little bird Wren Hidase Ann. She's about 18 months and just a punkin.</div>
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This is the first picture taken after we met her. Lovely, I know. It was so, just...right, meeting her. My first thought was, "Yep, that's the right child". It wasn't a super high or super low feeling, it was just normal. Which was perfect for me. I had prayed God would help me feel whatever He wanted me to feel and I believe He did. We bonded right away and she preferred me to everyone else the whole trip. Filled my mama heart.<br />
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Pete feeding his daughter a bottle.</div>
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Love that profile. Yummy.</div>
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If you bring toys to your daughter in a 3rd world country, don't bring bowl toys. Very confusing. </div>
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Sweet giggles</div>
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One of the views from our room at our guest house. It was a lovely home and my husband quickly charmed the staff and we look forward to seeing them again when we travel back to pick up Miss Wren! When will that be? Good question. We're hoping for sometime in September but as we know in the adoption world, nothing is a guarantee. </div>
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Pete made some friends across the street through the universal language of soccer.</div>
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She had us convinced she couldn't walk until a specific toy across the room caught her attention. Not only can she walk, she can run. She's pretty wobbly but she gets the job done.</div>
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We traveled 280 kilometers south of Addis to Awassa where Hidase/Wren was born and lived until 4 days before we go to Addis. After we cleared the congestion and traffic of Addis, we saw Africa as I had always imagined. This picture makes me think of the Lion King. Cliche, I know. </div>
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Just a random monkey on the side of the road. </div>
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Awassa is located on Lake Awassa and is a smaller, higher end city. Although the lake is lined with resorts, there are still 12 orphanages in the city of roughly 100,000 people.<br />
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Just a random monkey trying to steal some fries. There was a guy walking around with a sling shot shooing them away.</div>
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We visited the orphanage Wren spent the majority of her life in. To explain it, here is an email I wrote right after: "I'm not sure what I was expecting but since the foster home here in
Addis is so well stocked, in my ignorance, I thought that was what every
orphanage was like. It is not the case. We walked into a room with
about 15 babies sitting on a mat on the floor. A few cried and a few
smiled when they saw us. It took me a bit to realize that none of them
were wearing diapers. Just shirts wrapped around as a diaper. And not
very tightly. One baby crawled over to me as he dragged his soiled
shirt/diaper. There were about 2 workers for the 15 babies. As our
driver explained that we were Hidasse's parents, the workers were
thrilled and spoke of how she was a quiet girl just as we have seen.
Other than the babies there was a girl about 12? And a boy maybe 7. It
was more to process than I can write or explain. We have seen Wren try
to lay back as we are feeding her a bottle and now we know why. The
orphanage is just as I've been told. Babies in cribs with bottles and
that's how they fall asleep. I know it could be worse but I am so sad
that she spent nearly a year of her life here. When we have been with
her at the foster home she has wanted to go outside a lot. We now know
it is because she has never been outside. At the orphanage they don't
take the babies outside. We saw her crib and from the number of children
compared to the number of beds, it is clear they all share. As ugly as
this sounds, I was ready to leave quickly. Watching the little boy watch
us drive away was more than I could take. I kept imagining Kale
standing there, wanting someone to love him.<br />
<br />
As I thought about how it
all made God feel I was comforted that He was sad and sorry that this
happened to our precious girl. I am thankful she is out and as I think
about the enormous responsibility of raising this broken girl, I am
comforted by what my friend Stephanie told me before I left. All I have to do
right now is love and hug and kiss this baby girl and tuck her in at
night. That doesn't scare me. And I am reminded it isn't my job to heal
her or make her whole. Jesus is here for that and I get to witness it.<br />
<br />
So as I get ready to go visit her this afternoon I am not anxious or
worried as I was this morning. I get to love her where she's at and
trust God to meet us all there."<br />
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Showing some of the staff pictures of Hidase/Wren.</div>
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Our driver Eshetu making Peter laugh. This was a common occurrence and he is someone we are so excited to see when we travel back. </div>
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Just a monkey in a park. We also saw a hippo's eyes come out of the lake while we were at the lake. I have just been telling people we have seen a hippo and leave out the part it was just his eyes.</div>
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These kids loved having their pictures taken.</div>
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Wren was hesitant to open up to Peter but she knew we wanted her to go to him. This was a rare occurrence and she made it into a game. She would get close to him and turn around and walk away. Tricky little girl.</div>
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Gotcha! Can't wait to go back and scoop this girl up! </div>
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naomihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18089599000852688355noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5713612572094900564.post-10705078914263837652013-07-01T21:27:00.002-06:002013-07-01T21:28:31.827-06:00Waiting....and waiting...and waiting some moreWhen I was in labor with Kale and it came time to push, the nurse, who was just trying to help, I'm sure, told me he was right there and would be out quickly. So, after one push, I was surprised that he had not popped out. (This was my first delivery mind you.) FOUR HOURS and some suction later, we got to meet our cone headed boy.<br />
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Right now in this adoption, we need some suction. Or forceps. Or a c-section. An initial court date, that we didn't need to be there for, happened June 6th. We were told we would hear our court date shortly after, maybe up to 2 weeks after. And when we heard about our court date, we might need to leave in a hurry. And then a friend with our same agency got a call Tuesday that she needed to leave Friday. And we heard of another family getting an even shorter notice. So, to me, it felt like the nurse saying, "he'll be out in a jiffy". We expected that call any minute and began to prepare accordingly. Immunizations, lists, documents notarized, directions for grandmas, more lists. Having a small heart attack every time the phone rang. And then a week passed. And then another week. And then another. And here we are in the middle of week 4. And there are no forceps! Or pitocin. There is absolutely nothing I can do but wait.<br />
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Why is it taking so long you ask? We finally got somewhat of an answer today. First, everything is different in Ethiopia. I'm told it is a different time system over there that we will be surprised to see when we finally get to visit. Also, the region our little miss is from is aways away from Addis and can be slow to work with apparently. They also had some turn around with the MOWCYA director in that region so that slowed things down as well. That is as well as I can explain it without overwhelming everyone with adoption terms and the like. In a nutshell-ish, we have been waiting on the edge of our seat to leave, for the last 3 weeks. It is exhausting. Mentally and emotionally. Add to that the fact that we have yet to receive an updated picture of sweet girl, it is mentally confusing! The questions that flood my mind. Is she real? How old is she now? Can she walk? Can she crawl? Can she even sit up? Has she been sick? How big is she? And on and on. I go between cussing and hitting pillows in frustration to asking the Lord to move and trying to trust Him. But mostly it is a lot of cussing. I know the next wait, after we meet her and have to leave her, will be even worse. We'll have pictures of her, with us in them! We'll know some of her personality. We'll know where she is developmentally and what kind of help she needs. We knew this would be overwhelming and hard when we went into it but I also thought, "Oh, ours won't be like that. It will be a breeze." It was for awhile, which I am very grateful for. Apparently I'm not so great at this handling of the hard stuff. But, much like the end of a pregnancy, I'm ready to be done with the waiting. I know the next part will be hard and exhausting and overwhelming but I'm just done with this chunk of the process. Obviously, it isn't done with me yet...naomihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18089599000852688355noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5713612572094900564.post-47135133212271170362013-03-14T22:38:00.001-06:002013-03-14T22:38:34.079-06:00Whoop!Last Friday night I was sitting in a seminar at church when my phone rang. As I walked out of the room and answered the call, I heard the words we've been waiting for since we started this process last year.<br />
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<i><b><span style="font-size: small;">It<span style="font-size: small;">'s a g<span style="font-size: small;">irl and she's 12 months old</span></span></span></b></i> <br />
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I fell to my knees and couldn't stop the tears. It was actually happening. The call actually came. God did it and it was perfect. I picked myself up off the floor and broke every speed limit on my way home to tell Peter. I knocked on the door and when he answered, I held out my phone with the picture and said "Happy Birthday". You see a few weeks previous I had started praying for a bit of a miracle. Well, actually a pretty big miracle. That we would receive our referral on Pete's birthday and his birthday just happened to be the following day. Or, as a friend later pointed out, it already was his birthday in Ethiopia. Oh the beauty and sweetness of this gift overwhelms me. That He answered my specific prayer and chose to bless us in this way means so much to me. Not only with our daughter (I can say that now!!!), but also with the answer to my prayer.<br />
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Now we wait for a court date in Ethiopia which will take 4-5 months but we'll pray for another miracle for it to happen sooner. At that time Peter and I will both travel over and meet baby girl (we're still deciding on a name) and appear in court. Then we'll drag ourselves back to the US and away from that sweet face and wait another 6-8 weeks for an Embassy appointment. After that we can bring her home. In the mean time, we wait. Wait by buying clothes and decorating a room and praying and thinking of a name and staring at her picture 2657 times a day (we can't share her picture until we pass court in Ethiopia) and trying not to snuggle every 12 month old baby I see around town.<br />
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Thank you to every single one of you for praying and asking questions and generously giving to our adoption costs. We are blessed to be surrounded by love and support and now our little girl is surrounded by that too. Thank you.<br />
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<br />naomihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18089599000852688355noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5713612572094900564.post-4767723954622521422012-12-13T19:00:00.000-07:002012-12-13T23:27:17.844-07:00He showed UP!I have been working on this post for over a month now and before anything else changes, I better just get it out there. I really wanted to document how God has shown up during this adoption process and just give all of you an update. We started this process in faith that God would open doors as He saw to open or close them. We went into this trusting God to be in control and holding it in open hands. Easier said than done. Many times I have tried to clutch this process and journey tight and do it in my time and control all of it. Oh, how I have tried to do this my way. And many times I've thought I was in control and taking care of everything. Then I discovered the last piece of paper we had been waiting for in the mail had actually been on my desk for 2 weeks. Boy, was I mad about that. Why did we have that paper here for 2 weeks longer than necessary? No clue. But I was mad. At myself and really, kind of at God. Then I heard Him ask me, "Why do you ask me to take control of this and then get mad at me when I do?" Ah yes, that. Even when I have little faith, He is still faithful. I still don't know why that paper sat there for 2 weeks or why our last notary took an extra week to get notarized. I do know that God knows and for this moment, that's enough for me.<br />
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With that said, here are some of the big ways God has shown up for us and I can't wait to tell you more as they continue to happen. We started this journey, thinking and praying, just over a year ago and here is how we've seen God move...<br />
<ul>
<li> Right around the time we officially decided to pursue our adoption, God started blessing us through my business. A year later, He has continually blessed us month after month with just what we need and I honestly cannot wait for the day when I can hand someone a check and say, "Your adoption is covered."</li>
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<li>As we were looking at agencies, we had it narrowed down to 2 that we liked. We were working on a few things to get started when the coordinator of our orphan care ministry at our church called and said another agency had come across her radar. This agency kept a shorter waiting list and had recently just cleared it. We did some research and were very interested but there was an upfront fee of almost $5000. As we thought and prayed about how to cover this, we sold Peter's car (which we had been trying to sell for a couple months.) This gave us nearly exactly what we needed for that upfront fee. Three days later, we got the biggest tax return we have ever received. I honestly have no idea why we did but I also do know. :)</li>
<li>In June we started our home study and also had a garage sale that people generously donated to. The day before the garage sale, I was at a park and met a woman who I ended up chatting with for almost 45 minutes. In that time I told her about our adoption and also later mentioned we were having a garage sale the next day and pointed in the general direction of our house. The next morning I was bustling about doing garage sale stuff and as I came out of the house, Peter told me my friend Karen had brought me a coffee. In my head I was thinking, "Who is Karen?" I was so moved when I saw my friend from the park the day before. It was such a blessing that she had taken the time to bless me. She looked around a bit and found about $5 worth of stuff to buy. She handed over a $100 bill and said, "I don't need any change." I teared up then and I do now. I don't know this woman's last name or even the name of the town in Idaho she was visiting from. I do know that we were blessed more than just monetarily that day. I know that God loved us through that woman and her generous giving that day and every time we remember it. </li>
<li>You know how when you have a garage sale you kind of keep a running total in your head? Well, during ours, the total in my head was around $400. When we added up our total at the end of the day, God more than doubled that. Thank you to the generosity of our friends who donated and those who bought treasures.</li>
<li>Later that summer I was talking to my friends about my fears and insecurities about sending a letter to friends and family asking for financial support. It was going to take me laying down my pride to admit that I couldn't do this on my own. The whole idea was a big step of faith for me. Peter brought a new perspective to it though. He felt we should give our friends and family the opportunity to help and that they would want to help. Well, God proved to me that they do indeed want to help. Later that same afternoon, before we had even started the letter, let alone sent it to anyone, our neighbors knocked on our door. They wanted to know if we were accepting donations for our adoption. Are you kidding me? It was just what I needed to know that people do indeed want to help.</li>
<li>Because of that letter, we were able to do the following...As we were getting ready to send our dossier about a month ago, we also needed to send a big chunk of change along with it. We were about $1600 short in our account at our church. We had $450 in a paypal account from other donations and as we were working out getting a grant from our church, the church secretary called to let me know that a donation had JUST come in the mail for $500. I had heard about this sort of thing happening to other people but of course thought that wouldn't need to happen for us because I would have it all figured out. Ahem. </li>
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<ul>We are humbled and so grateful for everyone's support, financially and prayerfully and just kind words. We are thankful for how God is working through us and if you'd like to be a part of this, there is a link on the right to donate through. If you'd like to contribute a tax deductible donation, contact me at naomi.rae.8 at gmail dot com and I'll get you the necessary information. Thank you, so much. </ul>
naomihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18089599000852688355noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5713612572094900564.post-49187606026255646782012-11-17T19:09:00.004-07:002012-11-18T13:35:08.198-07:00Message in a Bottle<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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We have officially sent our adoption dossier. After all the hard work
gathering paperwork and signatures and notaries and State
certifications, Home-studies, garage sales, fingerprints, background
checks and interviews, now.... we wait - wait for a referral - wait for
our next for-ever child(ren). Now we continue to pray in faith that God
reminds us He's in control.<br />
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And so while we begin our
journey of waiting, tonight we celebrated this milestone in our adoption
with a bottle of wine that I brought home from South Africa last July - the
closest anyone in our family's been to our child(ren) in Ethiopia so
far. Without reading the description of the wine until tonight, it was
to our surprise and with much delight, God sent us a little message of
encouragement for the trials and journey ahead. <i>Buitenverwachting</i> (the
name of our bottle) in Dutch means "<b>Beyond Expectation</b>." <br />
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Cheers to all our friends and family who have prayed for and supported us. We love you all.<br />
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naomihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18089599000852688355noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5713612572094900564.post-48134151499188993692012-11-12T08:34:00.000-07:002012-11-12T08:45:28.739-07:00Shop at Amazon. Help our Adoption!Did you know that through your regular shopping at Amazon you can
also help support our Adoption? YES! Any and all Amazon purchases made
through our Affilate Link will provide a percentage of the sale to our
Adoption Fund. IT’S LIKE THE EASIEST THING EVER! Shop for all your usual
stuff AND contribute to our fund at the same time. Buy anything, in any
department, and still get free Prime Shipping, case discounts,
reoccurring delivery, or Amazon Mom deals. That includes utilizing the
convenience of the entire Amazon Marketplace for everything they have-
books, food, diapers, music, clothing, electronics… the list goes on. It
couldn’t be easier. Here’s 3 easy steps to setting up quick shopping
links through our Amazon affilate to support us:<br />
<div style="padding-left: 30px;">
1.) Copy (or click on) our Affilate Link: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/?_encoding=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&linkCode=ur2&tag=montanamoores-20" target="_blank">montana-moores</a></div>
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There is also a convenient link to the right of this post;<br />
When you get to the Amazon site, the url should have the phrase,
‘montanamoores-20’ in it, that way you know a portion of your purchase will
get credited to our account.</div>
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2.) Save this url to your bookmarks bar in your browser under your quick links which appear right under the url box.</div>
<div style="padding-left: 30px;">
3.) Every time you need something on Amazon, use our link by clicking the bookmark you just saved.</div>
If you are anything like me, you do a large portion of your Christmas shopping on Amazon. Maybe you do some of your shopping for every day items here as well. For every purchase made from our link, we get a percentage
once the item(s) ship. The more you shop at Amazon, the higher our
percentage will get. And you have to do NOTHING other than what you
normally do. Isn’t that easy? <br />
A few common questions:<br />
<div style="padding-left: 30px; text-align: left;">
<i>Really, I just click on the link? How do I know you will get credited?</i><br />
Yup, you just click on the link. There will be no prompting when you
check out or confirmation that anything is being sent to us. It’s just
like regular shopping. To double check, when you click that original
link or bookmark to get to the Amazon Marketplace homepage, there should
be the word ‘montanamoores-20’ in the url.</div>
<div style="padding-left: 30px; text-align: left;">
<i>Do you see that I have made a purchase?</i><br />
Yes and No. We can see WHAT was bought, but not WHO bought what. Your
name doesn’t appear anywhere on our summary. </div>
<div style="padding-left: 30px; text-align: left;">
<i>Can anyone use the link?</i><br />
YES!!! Absolutely feel free to share our link with your friends and
family for when they do their shopping. This is not limited to just
people we know. Anyone can use it, anytime, anywhere, for anything.
Spread the link on Facebook, Twitter, email, wherever!</div>
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Have any other questions? Hit us up in the
Comments. Interested in setting up your own Amazon Affiliate account?
Great step-by-step instructions are available over on <a href="http://juliegumm.com/2012/07/how-you-can-use-amazon-to-earn-1000-for-your-adoption-fund/" target="_blank" title="Adopt without debt - amazon affiliate">Adopt Without Debt</a>.</div>
naomihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18089599000852688355noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5713612572094900564.post-79616460056641728002012-10-31T14:13:00.002-06:002012-10-31T14:13:34.740-06:00It has been so long, blogger is completely different now<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Okay, so we can all agree I am not a pro at the blogging thing and move on. Here is a quick synopsis of the last few months... <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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We didn't get a free weekend to go camping until August and it was the first time we had gone as a family of 4. Actually, as sad as this is, it was the first time as a family at all! Needless to say, the boys loved every aspect of it and we can't wait to go next year, hopefully as a family of 5 (or 6!)! </div>
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K turned 5 and we celebrated all weekend with Aunt Emily and Uncle Johnny. This boy loves riding his bike, coloring, legos, reading books and trucks. </div>
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He also loves school! He started preschool a few days after his birthday. He loves to go every day and his teachers praise his ability to make friends with anyone. Ask him the friends' names though...that's another story.</div>
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A month later this daredevil turned 3. At the beginning of the summer we had to push him on his bike with training wheels because he didn't know how to pedal. Now he's showing us all up. He is always full of energy and for his birthday we got him a mini-trampoline, a punching bag and gymnastics classes. They still don't wear him out though!</div>
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Each boy got to go to a Bobcat game with Peter for their birthday but I couldn't find the picture of K. Its too bad too because then you could have seen the progression of that stellar beard he has...</div>
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I turned 30 this month and was gifted by my friends and family a trip down to Denver to see my dear friend Sara. We shopped and talked and I took she and Emily to an Ethiopian restaurant for lunch. Here we are drinking Ethiopian beer and honey wine. Beer was good, wine tasted like dandelions. The food was fun but it probably isn't something I want to eat everyday.</div>
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And here's the beard now. He started growing it in August and when I asked when he was going to trim it, he declared it would be shaved after he killed an elk. So, who knows where the elk are because this beard has got to go!</div>
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So, that's a snapshot or two of our life from the last few months. Stay tuned for an update on our adoption!!</div>
naomihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18089599000852688355noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5713612572094900564.post-82320477326216671162012-08-18T11:48:00.004-06:002012-08-18T11:48:55.691-06:00The Scramble<div class="entry-excerpt">
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Ethiopia is one of Africa’s poorest countries: over 80 percent
of the nation’s 77 million people live below the poverty line, 10
million of whom are at risk of starvation. The current global rise in
food prices and failed seasonal rains have left this country on the
brink of famine.<br />
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Health indicators in Ethiopia are among the worst in the
world. Preventable disease counts for at least 60 percent of health
problems in the country. One of the main causes of serious illnesses and
death is malaria, as many people do not have access to effective
treatment and prevention care.<br />
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Ethiopia also faces severe shortages of clean water and poor
sanitation. In some areas, only 17 percent of people
have access to clean water. Diarrheal diseases are common as people are
forced to use contaminated water supplies and do not have access to
toilets and washing facilities.<br />
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One of my co-workers at LexisNexis has done an amazing job over the past three years with putting on a running event here in Bozeman called <a href="http://www.scrambleforethiopia.com/" target="_blank">"Scramble for Ethiopia." </a>It's a fund-raiser of sorts in an effort to support the construction of sustainable drinking wells in particular city/town/villages in Ethiopia. The boys and I decided to participate this year. I volunteered some time to help with the preparation of the race yesteday, and the boys ran the Kids Race this morning. Boy did they do awesome. Both of them ran in the 3 to 5 year old race...a race around a hay field about a quarter of a mile long. They were so serious during the race, and enjoyed the sweet victory of the finish line, a "gold medal" and a popsicle. I was so proud of them, and it was a great way to show our support for a country in such need of our help.<br />
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They were so pumped for the race...talking about trophies and gold medals all the way to The Commons. It was good that a couple of the older kids raced first so we could talk about the importance of not quitting vs. being the first to cross the finish line. <br />
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Finally, their race was up. Listening to the race coordinator instructions. </div>
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Run Kalen! Run!</div>
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Run Joel! Run! </div>
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So focused - so determined!</div>
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Can't talk to you right now Dad. I've gotta run!</div>
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Great job Kalen. You did it!</div>
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Way to go Joel. You did it!</div>
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Just like the Olympics. I got a gold medal !</div>
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<br />naomihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18089599000852688355noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5713612572094900564.post-48901543407744113392012-07-18T15:33:00.002-06:002012-07-18T15:33:45.697-06:00As we complete our home study and all the paperwork that entails (tax returns, credit reports, employment verification, dr. appointments, marriage license, birth certificates, driving records, criminal records, and a 38 question autobiography, just to name a few), we've also been asked, "Why are you adopting?" As I struggled to put into words what I felt and wanted more of an answer than, "I cry when I think of orphans", I came across this <a href="http://www.youremylastfrenchfry.blogspot.com/">blog</a> of a family also on an adoption journey. She writes so beautifully and also, very real. Many of her posts brought me to tears but what had me bawling on our couch at 10pm was this <a href="http://www.youremylastfrenchfry.blogspot.com/2011/10/dont-tell-me-babies-dont-have.html">post</a>, more specifically this paragraph:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>But to be honest, what REALLY made me cry was the fact that my thoughts
immediately flew to my other babies. The ones who at most likely already
alive, living in Ethiopia. The ones that don't have their mommy there
to run into their rooms, scoop them up, and cuddle them when they have
bad dreams. The ones that are alone and abandoned. The ones that don't
have someone to comfort them when they are sad, laugh with them when
they do something silly and allow them to be kids instead of fighters
for their lives. They don't know their mommy yet and its already killing
me. They have me, they just don't know it. </i></blockquote>
A lot of things scare me about adoption. I have a lot of "what ifs?" in my mind but when I come back to this, this idea that with God's help, (which I need hourly), I can be the comfort for someone, the safe place for someone, it is all worth it. It doesn't make the unknowns go away but it does make them doable.naomihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18089599000852688355noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5713612572094900564.post-61563850651642819062012-06-10T18:42:00.003-06:002012-06-10T18:49:17.779-06:00Operation Ethiopia<br />
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<i>In response to Jesus healing a small boy who had been
demon-possessed, Jesus’ disciples begged to know, “Why couldn’t we drive it(the
demon) out ourselves?” Jesus replied, “
Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as
small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’
and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you – <b>Matthew 17:19&20</b></i></div>
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I’ve never tried to move a mountain.</div>
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I’ve hiked them, fished on them, hunted on them, even built forts
on the sides of a few of them but, I’ve never tried and moved one. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Would be cool though, wouldn’t it? To ask, “God – move that mountain for me, if
you’re not too busy?” And poof – it just
moved – heck I’d be impressed if it moved just an inch. </div>
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<br /></div>
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According to Jesus, it would require a few simple things
though first: </div>
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1. A mountain. Check.
Montana has plenty of those. Heck, I’m looking at one right now. </div>
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<br /></div>
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2. Faith the size of
a mustard seed. Che…Now a mustard seed is small. According to Wikipedia, a
mustard seed is around 1 mm. If I were
to quantify my faith, surely it would be bigger than the thickness of a dime. </div>
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Right?
</div>
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<br /></div>
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I’ll admit; if a mustard seed of faith is all it takes to move
a mountain, than I’m far from having enough.
</div>
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<br /></div>
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It’s growing though, and I’m excited to tell you why. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Last November, on a trip with the family to Famous Footwear,
our 4 year old begs, “Mom..Dad, I want a
new pair of shoes…please I need them so bad.”
We of course futilely attempted to reason with him while trying to explain
that we were going to buy a pair of shoes for a young boy living in Ethiopia
who truly <u>needed</u> a pair of shoes. He of course couldn’t understand. Why
does this boy get a pair of shoes, and he didn’t? </div>
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<br /></div>
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Now, rewind just one hour.</div>
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Our pastor had just held “Adoption Sunday,” where he had
spent the entire sermon hour sharing his passion to see the church grow in
compassion and action for the oppressed, the abandoned and the forgotten. The children who are desperately in <u>need</u>;
not want, for a home and a forever father and mother. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Okay – now back to the car.</div>
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<br /></div>
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We were already talking about Christmas at this point. Our
boys already had their “list.” </div>
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<br /></div>
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Naomi and I were struggling so much with trying to share
with our two kids, the meaning behind Christmas and the difference between “Need”
and “Want.” What a helpless feeling we had with every attempt to explain. We
realized that this culture of consumerism, selfishness and other worldly “wants”
had already taken a tight grip on our boys’ hearts. They’re only 2 and 4 for
crying out loud!</div>
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<br /></div>
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So here we are. Our children talking about what they <u>want</u>,
telling each other what they think they’re going to get for Christmas…what they
want for lunch…what they’re going to play with when they get home etc,etc, ETC! Naomi and I; on the other hand, quietly
staring out the windshield while trying to block out “the noise.” </div>
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“What do you think about adoption?” I asked. </div>
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“What do you mean?” she replied. </div>
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<br /></div>
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I know. A loaded question that one could take multiple
angles at answering. She knew of course what
I </div>
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meant, and she was just as scared at answering the question she and I
both were trying to answer silently in our own minds. </div>
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“Would you ever want to adopt?” I rephrased softly. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Her answer came as a shock, not because I’ve ever doubted my
wife’s enormous and generous heart, but
because when she said “yes,” I quickly was ashamed that I had never asked
before or can remember such a conversation (not anyone's fault but my own). As if finding out something new
about your wife as large as the idea of adoption after almost 7 years of
marriage was something we should have discussed a long time ago. </div>
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I love my boys – don’t get me wrong. I love them to pieces,
but I am ashamed to admit that Naomi and I never really talked about “how” we
were to grow our family…until then…in a mini-van, “family” already in
tow. What would it look like if the Moores decided to adopt?</div>
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“Really? Interesting,
me too,” I shared. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Now what? The tiger has leapt out of the bag and there’s no way
now we can ignore it.</div>
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<br /></div>
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We talked, prayed, read, talked and talked some more, and this
is what we’ve discovered thus far – God hasn’t really given us a clear sign to
adopt or try and grow our family the ol’ natural way, but since March, the
Montana Moores have stepped out in faith to be part of God’s plan “E” to adopt
an orphaned child from Ethiopia. We continue to pray that God will open and
close doors according to his plan for our family. He is beginning to reveal to
us a beautiful picture of His promise of love and redemption, and it’s allowed
Naomi and I to use this as a way to teach this to K and J. </div>
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What a process to adopt though! </div>
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<br /></div>
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The paper-work, the work to fill out said paper-work, the
cost, the expected waiting time for a referral, all can be physically paralyzing
if dwelt upon too long. We have to
consciously decide; each day, to walk forward in faith and ask God, God is this
a door you want us to close? God is this
a door that is open? </div>
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<br /></div>
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We’ll be sharing more about “Operation Ethiopia” on this
blog: why we chose Ethiopia, what we're currently working on and the little miracles we've witnessed thus far, so stay tuned. </div>
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<br /></div>
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For now, would you consider praying with us? Here are some
specific things you can join us in prayer for:</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span>For all the orphans in this world. Specifically
in Ethiopia, where 5 million or 16% of all children are orphaned. 1 in 13
children in Ethiopia, die before their first birthday. </li>
<li><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span>For our child’s physical well-being. More than
1/3 of all children under age 5 are malnourished. </li>
<li><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span>For our child’s emotional well-being. Every orphaned child, whether 18 months old or
8 years old will deal with issues of abandonment. We specifically pray for hope and peace be
instilled in our child’s heart, both short term and long term. </li>
<li><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span>For K and J. That they would grow in
understanding of what “adoption” means, and that their hearts would be opened
and prepared for their new brother or sister. </li>
<li><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span>For Naomi
and I. That our faith in our all-mighty and loving God would continue to grow.
That we would continue to rest in His will. That while our own patience and
understanding will continue to be tested, we would above all, persevere. </li>
</ul>
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If you’ve said yes, and you’re praying with us and our
future son/daughter, it would be a huge encouragement to us if you somehow let
us know. </div>naomihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18089599000852688355noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5713612572094900564.post-5711752492860730512012-02-25T15:45:00.004-07:002012-02-25T16:07:58.081-07:00So many faces<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2w-IWF7QP3cLWOySGoLhFARGmGFoDiZ-hz9w4xHg74AUJr4pJwX9K8GdvwEn84cUbosMDqIyQlg6q1eHUha7DY2qf3QwiOK9rF5ijama1Ynv_ppg5KDmBel5LhunPgohlLClIP5oOO_WC/s1600/IMG_8834.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 359px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2w-IWF7QP3cLWOySGoLhFARGmGFoDiZ-hz9w4xHg74AUJr4pJwX9K8GdvwEn84cUbosMDqIyQlg6q1eHUha7DY2qf3QwiOK9rF5ijama1Ynv_ppg5KDmBel5LhunPgohlLClIP5oOO_WC/s400/IMG_8834.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5713210424126515298" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiMFFRRz_gpjfhWFSB4-qLY_glZUR93WTDW4e2OW65gImnriZI0QkYNwFXKUpFkhMLmTH-ngsQle1bUCFUjCk6ZIOd5exRu3RvWjbSD4Q2ChuDZosErpB28KviB3ZN8oAbeP5hQmuqr2xO/s1600/IMG_8833.JPG"><img style="display:block; 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margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 370px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdZd5-vELzvmnGo4GMSLgOVzOZ_vbLqdeGWWj1z_jl58BGelh48FdrNFydbYovrElnwrda-JrPu0BYnDOMmShRQIbWTgPqeUlROtR1IUj0C07ITGO9ZGRmsP6J-DKIyQ-oXx8v3ty_DJrf/s400/IMG_8828.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5713209137620192770" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhka8AOEFbiMvV0qmZdaXK31EnJUqEWnAPXCi0CGbTqPJwRJAnFCL19K0X8O2Z4YIR8N7EiqUFD9dJJVumi_XM2eo22qk8ctYH_gaZL3kegMwRLdLnEZzaK8rWwYfPri1VmeimR3AFXyYAJ/s1600/IMG_8820.JPG"></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXFOBxWVvKWHZmw8wFV1AERxWrDPTAqqdovrKC_4RFvSHCycrpmSorbp46VdYsaTilhP-mHTXx0Y2FD7nit75MNzghmyOc5BTXLWI0ZFyuQnXahUUgJ7n_oBZcAV4qq4uzhLtJfVl_cPTi/s1600/IMG_8831.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXFOBxWVvKWHZmw8wFV1AERxWrDPTAqqdovrKC_4RFvSHCycrpmSorbp46VdYsaTilhP-mHTXx0Y2FD7nit75MNzghmyOc5BTXLWI0ZFyuQnXahUUgJ7n_oBZcAV4qq4uzhLtJfVl_cPTi/s400/IMG_8831.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5713209189123300386" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYdd2pyt0B6gtYpU4T-tuKw-IWVxwRADMUwBVUaoCTvEZlMBCmBY1KUC9tcvpm9WP3xsq7DOzG5vZRs1Gfk5-ZWKgMVG3vmng4xA-_hjVjgch-KVG3Vt7i1z8497nfgjz-JLce2lVOSybY/s1600/IMG_8830.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 382px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYdd2pyt0B6gtYpU4T-tuKw-IWVxwRADMUwBVUaoCTvEZlMBCmBY1KUC9tcvpm9WP3xsq7DOzG5vZRs1Gfk5-ZWKgMVG3vmng4xA-_hjVjgch-KVG3Vt7i1z8497nfgjz-JLce2lVOSybY/s400/IMG_8830.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5713209179040897090" border="0" /></a>naomihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18089599000852688355noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5713612572094900564.post-9231241563611184472012-02-10T13:53:00.005-07:002012-02-10T14:19:05.240-07:00AmazingLet me just start by saying I am not proud of how my couch looked and I wish I wasn't about to post the pictures on the Internet. But I am because this cleaning method is so amazing. <br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">:: Before ::<br /></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP8Xc44zoweaXKEoS9Jtut6f1cqg44gOXz2vjJ2NCF_aTUA9vBztQFiyUtWNBrGORR8sRKgGoHJk_sPDq1CjD5Gobzc1CT7-oI94x34WAub0FwwQpBp9Ss11jA1kkp_3BMTLO4D78AqfED/s1600/IMG_8810.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP8Xc44zoweaXKEoS9Jtut6f1cqg44gOXz2vjJ2NCF_aTUA9vBztQFiyUtWNBrGORR8sRKgGoHJk_sPDq1CjD5Gobzc1CT7-oI94x34WAub0FwwQpBp9Ss11jA1kkp_3BMTLO4D78AqfED/s400/IMG_8810.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5707614567818933378" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb2r_4DoNUEr9euD5GN0ZlPrPsWkf81dcAlfodkxMJqSTRBaqxiiQeBBftXM0gavMgYtFC449uMPKpGkDQhtGYa5nJBKBkd-GvMRprhuHfvcs6CVtz0UF5xnthjTdqX8M29NDzd1FUEAoU/s1600/IMG_8811.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 267px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb2r_4DoNUEr9euD5GN0ZlPrPsWkf81dcAlfodkxMJqSTRBaqxiiQeBBftXM0gavMgYtFC449uMPKpGkDQhtGYa5nJBKBkd-GvMRprhuHfvcs6CVtz0UF5xnthjTdqX8M29NDzd1FUEAoU/s400/IMG_8811.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5707614565336778242" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsgSrtMunXp4nGIKj6dYtahy8uaRImb6ZEgrAbE-TM4Z49jIUHC81Cv99LQW0XT5Odz0X6sHRlFfaIycBbxdveH_Cd-OIfBLC92st9l5qIQEArnxn_6AbPQg8OqWo5mgruxIljg3t4jGnT/s1600/IMG_8809.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsgSrtMunXp4nGIKj6dYtahy8uaRImb6ZEgrAbE-TM4Z49jIUHC81Cv99LQW0XT5Odz0X6sHRlFfaIycBbxdveH_Cd-OIfBLC92st9l5qIQEArnxn_6AbPQg8OqWo5mgruxIljg3t4jGnT/s400/IMG_8809.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5707614575347487490" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp-NQiZQGJg0BxkflKQlzuqHEIpcWQQ88ARhlha32ay2MKwA5_VICZgpr8lC5GuNCQCUnfmaMcWi8y2IXyH7O8eFs0Cu2rKoYVkIqu2RLaODVA3MxQlzBYC4ZOyLZr4Dj8SemRXZOcoo4n/s1600/IMG_8812.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp-NQiZQGJg0BxkflKQlzuqHEIpcWQQ88ARhlha32ay2MKwA5_VICZgpr8lC5GuNCQCUnfmaMcWi8y2IXyH7O8eFs0Cu2rKoYVkIqu2RLaODVA3MxQlzBYC4ZOyLZr4Dj8SemRXZOcoo4n/s400/IMG_8812.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5707613891376386770" border="0" /></a>:: After ::<br /></div><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvtdSbsKInfnu5F3Jk69orNmxBg6Td2WqO-mRjEDz6qe-aa484kwH8DjH9yBWUHpoTWb60EHMvNhmVEz6jPef5EI2RkBgLOSs8ujRpU4JQASrsUT6HRtSo2a1ElAVvVuTauPu_-IotIfMu/s1600/IMG_8815.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvtdSbsKInfnu5F3Jk69orNmxBg6Td2WqO-mRjEDz6qe-aa484kwH8DjH9yBWUHpoTWb60EHMvNhmVEz6jPef5EI2RkBgLOSs8ujRpU4JQASrsUT6HRtSo2a1ElAVvVuTauPu_-IotIfMu/s400/IMG_8815.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5707613877248154994" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7WYXg2zGSGcaC_qSDWTlLbwsnQ22aZmfRYC0iaJnxmlvi40_1zMGjgGKvx5KzuOIknF5Hh-p0pUEAEy8KzwHH-EO7hnY8jMKf26i7W2OaMw8TpyTpU-_EY7hQDPZ5WHyrNUcOWnDTKHLU/s1600/IMG_8817.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7WYXg2zGSGcaC_qSDWTlLbwsnQ22aZmfRYC0iaJnxmlvi40_1zMGjgGKvx5KzuOIknF5Hh-p0pUEAEy8KzwHH-EO7hnY8jMKf26i7W2OaMw8TpyTpU-_EY7hQDPZ5WHyrNUcOWnDTKHLU/s400/IMG_8817.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5707613869890832162" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB41HOCs6Foa0d2vM7VwCB4UrqpU8jIomaloI649IhZWIwKyqGHX2juQKjbms6geA49TPbJOLV1uLNGzVP30dSuT_GHMKZExl-ZUevfZ2SOb-n7BA7BK2OQK2Wimcbgdflexw_PdnjldaG/s1600/IMG_8819.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB41HOCs6Foa0d2vM7VwCB4UrqpU8jIomaloI649IhZWIwKyqGHX2juQKjbms6geA49TPbJOLV1uLNGzVP30dSuT_GHMKZExl-ZUevfZ2SOb-n7BA7BK2OQK2Wimcbgdflexw_PdnjldaG/s400/IMG_8819.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5707613863980919490" border="0" /></a>I was shocked by the results. How did I do it? By using a method I discovered on <a href="http://pinterest.com/montanamoores/">Pinterest</a>, found <a href="http://chrisandrobinsnest.blogspot.com/2010/09/how-to-clean-microfiber-furniture.html">here</a>. We missed a few spots but, even now with a strict no eating in the living room rule, the couch will be a mess again soon. For now though, I'm not embarrassed to have people over for awhile.naomihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18089599000852688355noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5713612572094900564.post-63027855055332780572012-01-30T16:48:00.003-07:002012-01-30T19:31:07.169-07:00Forgot oneSeems I forgot a big event in my last post. We had our 1st broken bone. According to the 4 year old witnesses, Joel was jumping off the couch at a friend's house. All I heard from the kitchen was, "Emergency! Emergency!" After examination of the bent arm by the rational husband of the house we were visiting, we headed to the doctor. This tough little guy stopped crying by the time we left the neighborhood. He was a champ.<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWu6h5MFTdAJ6c-cokCsuXJo7a2t3v78o2d8Vc_-SUQaPXYb1-cwmKmofXF29-jiFarzL_Er2p43ucqaOvKT7ELb2P8-64fqEAp2wb1pMus3BVE1dh3sapDzgj2qHahgnasiZuzwXpKSL4/s1600/IMG-20111121-00003.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 295px; height: 233px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWu6h5MFTdAJ6c-cokCsuXJo7a2t3v78o2d8Vc_-SUQaPXYb1-cwmKmofXF29-jiFarzL_Er2p43ucqaOvKT7ELb2P8-64fqEAp2wb1pMus3BVE1dh3sapDzgj2qHahgnasiZuzwXpKSL4/s400/IMG-20111121-00003.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5703576484632255986" border="0" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">He wore a soft splint for about a week.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2sQ-pKv7l6UDu0nD8jsidkorjV5CM4oypKMKSeSbYWIQrbg6gWeIk3_-NCEVFn7g0aM2d8RcvmwsKxR51A9klBSq85N4ycu5O7jFaHbHrZ1ToXQNQQkSk_l-U_bw3JQvUbHUE-nC0EASK/s1600/IMG-20111121-00005.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 398px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2sQ-pKv7l6UDu0nD8jsidkorjV5CM4oypKMKSeSbYWIQrbg6gWeIk3_-NCEVFn7g0aM2d8RcvmwsKxR51A9klBSq85N4ycu5O7jFaHbHrZ1ToXQNQQkSk_l-U_bw3JQvUbHUE-nC0EASK/s400/IMG-20111121-00005.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5703576483105928578" border="0" /></a>The sling lasted about 20 minutes. And the broken bone didn't slow him down at all. He ran down the hall leaving the doctor. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2sQ-pKv7l6UDu0nD8jsidkorjV5CM4oypKMKSeSbYWIQrbg6gWeIk3_-NCEVFn7g0aM2d8RcvmwsKxR51A9klBSq85N4ycu5O7jFaHbHrZ1ToXQNQQkSk_l-U_bw3JQvUbHUE-nC0EASK/s1600/IMG-20111121-00005.jpg"><br /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1iD0hNehJ2DeAJ7BnjL8zUzo8Y3bUjdhmK6_ocvWomcM466TeUvW9IdiwvAC-jMi-N3BFHOV5Qz8m1d66dCfkb653OdcbWk8ueHSwdE4WKYNRUfZbT74xhyphenhyphengNMfvILvX0Uzq3vH-l2CJR/s1600/IMG-20111128-00007.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 262px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1iD0hNehJ2DeAJ7BnjL8zUzo8Y3bUjdhmK6_ocvWomcM466TeUvW9IdiwvAC-jMi-N3BFHOV5Qz8m1d66dCfkb653OdcbWk8ueHSwdE4WKYNRUfZbT74xhyphenhyphengNMfvILvX0Uzq3vH-l2CJR/s400/IMG-20111128-00007.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5703576479833230962" border="0" /></a>He was thrilled to get an orange cast and proceeded to tell EVERYONE he had an owie. In fact, 4 weeks after he got it off, he still tells people about it.<br /></div>naomihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18089599000852688355noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5713612572094900564.post-50119935756811870902012-01-23T21:49:00.002-07:002012-01-23T22:38:23.030-07:00Catch upSo, if I wait to do individual posts about everything we've done the last 4-5 months, I'll never get this thing updated again. So, here is a mass update. Then I'll update more. At least in theory. :)<br /><ol><li>Kale turned 4 in September. And the Transformer craze kicked into high gear at our house.</li><li>Kale went to his 1st MSU football game. He is a big bobcat fan and apparently Joel is a grizzly fan. At least he counters all our bobcat cheers with a grizzly cheer. Stinker.<br /></li><li>We took a trip to San Francisco/Oakland. I went early for a Convention for my business and then my awesome husband followed with the kiddos a couple days later. We visited Pete's family in Oakland and enjoyed the California weather. We packed about 4 activities into every day. There is just so much to do there! Oakland Zoo, 3D movie, apples from the backyard, walks, parks, the beach, San Francisco Giants game, ice cream at Fentons (the kids didn't understand why we kept referring to the movie <a href="http://www.disneyfoodblog.com/2011/06/23/up-in-oakland-at-fentons-creamery/">UP</a>) , a joint birthday party and lots of fun in between. </li><li>Joel turned 2 in October and thoroughly enjoyed having toys all his own. Kale wasn't a big fan of that.</li><li>Peter shot 2 deer. Joel now asks if everything he is eating is deer. <br /></li><li>We went to Hingham for Thanksgiving. My brother joined us and the house was filled with requests for "Uncle Jonny Muscles" to play monster downstairs. All.the.time. He definitely got his fill of nephew time.<br /></li><li>We hosted Christmas. My parents and sister joined us, as well as Peter's brothers, John and Alex. We had lots of fun and played lots of Settler's of Catan. <br /></li><li>We moved a week after New Year's. Yes, again. We finally found a place that really works for our family and we appreciate it so much more since we had a 6 month stay in a 2 bedroom basement apartment. Every day I feel like I appreciate something new. <br /></li></ol><p>So that's what has been happening! I probably forgot something important but if I don't publish this now, it might now happen for another 2 weeks. Here's to more updates in 2012!<br /></p>naomihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18089599000852688355noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5713612572094900564.post-41146056547796636202011-10-02T15:29:00.003-06:002011-10-02T18:50:51.295-06:00AlaskaApparently, blogging is not my specialty. Instead of trying to catch you up completely, I'll just hit the highlights. And only one highlight at this time.<br />We were blessed to spend almost 3 weeks in Alaska this August. I am so thankful to be married into a family where we can be around each other that long and still like one another. Well, mostly. :) Here is a slide show of a handful of our nearly 400 pictures. Enjoy! *Now with comments! :)<embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="https://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf" flashvars="host=picasaweb.google.com&captions=1&hl=en_US&feat=flashalbum&RGB=0x000000&feed=https%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fdata%2Ffeed%2Fapi%2Fuser%2Fnaomi.rae.8%2Falbumid%2F5654553182766414977%3Falt%3Drss%26kind%3Dphoto%26authkey%3DGv1sRgCL39nYWT-7-DngE%26hl%3Den_US" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" height="267" width="400"></embed>naomihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18089599000852688355noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5713612572094900564.post-74960405139941371962011-07-18T22:02:00.004-06:002011-07-18T23:06:42.922-06:00JuneHere is a re-cap of the last month in a few pictures. We tried to spend as much time as possible outside while we packed up our house to move across town. More on that soon!<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgATyPgRwfPpkM7jAUny1uv_AKdWNmqdL-lhbFb961vsAE-ia7h7JaLgg4O5BDJ8Uc9farGoIgcMoPdL0PHGXXVQAcBD1Uq29Ros0vTF2RkWRsKeBhYX7rfuJshyCjbMN_EWeZtE086nFHG/s1600/IMG_6016.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 201px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgATyPgRwfPpkM7jAUny1uv_AKdWNmqdL-lhbFb961vsAE-ia7h7JaLgg4O5BDJ8Uc9farGoIgcMoPdL0PHGXXVQAcBD1Uq29Ros0vTF2RkWRsKeBhYX7rfuJshyCjbMN_EWeZtE086nFHG/s320/IMG_6016.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5630916493951277954" border="0" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2KmH4lcmYwAzduwmi9V4R9qUrmjlui_K3HJ5kx-OKDtVKFaiW-tBsZEm-XRINp5nih9nmwjzmgYltXvN2kkbVFiJM7aFMWH1YgBCXPs56yIyljeWyacgnVk9ZfGUAGTZ2CMg0V8KnEq2C/s1600/IMG_6012.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 226px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2KmH4lcmYwAzduwmi9V4R9qUrmjlui_K3HJ5kx-OKDtVKFaiW-tBsZEm-XRINp5nih9nmwjzmgYltXvN2kkbVFiJM7aFMWH1YgBCXPs56yIyljeWyacgnVk9ZfGUAGTZ2CMg0V8KnEq2C/s320/IMG_6012.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5630916501166944562" border="0" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggb6eOCmmOEtIluOE66m_-R1vNFJf2rl63MkZdoz389dN2pAN25E-vHYNSUAJGlBADTF1xBK1qU88y7t5ciE4WafXR88wjPKgZeBrCTI7BR_mfylKegoHRmLu9NbH_5z1gUZS3610V4Z_6/s1600/IMG_6010.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 209px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggb6eOCmmOEtIluOE66m_-R1vNFJf2rl63MkZdoz389dN2pAN25E-vHYNSUAJGlBADTF1xBK1qU88y7t5ciE4WafXR88wjPKgZeBrCTI7BR_mfylKegoHRmLu9NbH_5z1gUZS3610V4Z_6/s320/IMG_6010.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5630916495690365666" border="0" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha0ajTWkgFB1QY3_dwLsFWC8fNVhH7D0-7hEtrR9mTd8F-_n-y9aoXAKsdld8d-hhN7vtOY3sD9YpJyuv772z33SvOVQvp8KLmeokNbqPCNgGeVq0eOd1fUIuVgKSZqycca3oLlOesX9hq/s1600/IMG_6034.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 275px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha0ajTWkgFB1QY3_dwLsFWC8fNVhH7D0-7hEtrR9mTd8F-_n-y9aoXAKsdld8d-hhN7vtOY3sD9YpJyuv772z33SvOVQvp8KLmeokNbqPCNgGeVq0eOd1fUIuVgKSZqycca3oLlOesX9hq/s320/IMG_6034.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5630912033369550450" border="0" /></a><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd7BCK3v06VBHi3T0S4b9Gjg73GS2YkuXCg0UUr-LTi9bOHj4Vknme_Wqmxoq7UpbVCVM88X8zJOjualcj9euCv7ZXAFYYXNntNEKQXxHKg8xL2cmtVFzlWzBHVlU9TP8VbHzOLfJkRcds/s1600/IMG_6050.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd7BCK3v06VBHi3T0S4b9Gjg73GS2YkuXCg0UUr-LTi9bOHj4Vknme_Wqmxoq7UpbVCVM88X8zJOjualcj9euCv7ZXAFYYXNntNEKQXxHKg8xL2cmtVFzlWzBHVlU9TP8VbHzOLfJkRcds/s320/IMG_6050.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5630912030913587154" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilqwwKhZUNmyaQeQN1MJWVA9jM3b2HqTrf1p1D6LfNhJVrvQ4tu5TCVurzyZ5rX07u5k77Do_BRZPwR3vV1LVNOUkD7_gbPxowTpzYoZ_GMDHizzNr-1pYfq8KDwHZw-c8X4jaofgLbnox/s1600/IMG_6074.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 234px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilqwwKhZUNmyaQeQN1MJWVA9jM3b2HqTrf1p1D6LfNhJVrvQ4tu5TCVurzyZ5rX07u5k77Do_BRZPwR3vV1LVNOUkD7_gbPxowTpzYoZ_GMDHizzNr-1pYfq8KDwHZw-c8X4jaofgLbnox/s320/IMG_6074.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5630912020042607554" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVoV0uiUbjM3z5d521TTFUgU8Y7sYK89fMqez_RobpV6paM2rYS7HNanWhhOcJViUdrwCJrNV5C6I6HngRwnNlcUuzmtMaZB_4Y9uKvH_8yklKtdh3r_1Z7J_-6PQDDIkzCARja56VI7Cj/s1600/IMG_6090.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVoV0uiUbjM3z5d521TTFUgU8Y7sYK89fMqez_RobpV6paM2rYS7HNanWhhOcJViUdrwCJrNV5C6I6HngRwnNlcUuzmtMaZB_4Y9uKvH_8yklKtdh3r_1Z7J_-6PQDDIkzCARja56VI7Cj/s320/IMG_6090.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5630912015089521554" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyLYeyPJRq6uRmh7cNagDL7joinAPaudsXy65dgkZrNEkDd2jylRODH1IJAglB8J9mZvxlT__wi6FmYrEjzg9z06ffApm6WEDsUbL-ZN-xK6bCOmbI5VnMWGPP5W0fSmXu0kkFnGVSR_Bq/s1600/IMG_6027.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 298px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyLYeyPJRq6uRmh7cNagDL7joinAPaudsXy65dgkZrNEkDd2jylRODH1IJAglB8J9mZvxlT__wi6FmYrEjzg9z06ffApm6WEDsUbL-ZN-xK6bCOmbI5VnMWGPP5W0fSmXu0kkFnGVSR_Bq/s320/IMG_6027.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5630912045337551026" border="0" /></a>naomihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18089599000852688355noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5713612572094900564.post-73185537174536712282011-06-18T17:16:00.000-06:002011-06-18T17:34:59.989-06:00Curls!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisfZkpdNJPWMq9p7HkWAlGZCVZaxJpvW_Hdk4lEvjvN-XFXSP7-KEJiaoSaMPacya_Obu3W51XDYc2cvZ0hto0DA4v-JpSGt1wMMflEi8xALcpaZyU78hhcFRASfCE0YVM_DytE3Aw5IhZ/s1600/IMG_5954.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 279px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisfZkpdNJPWMq9p7HkWAlGZCVZaxJpvW_Hdk4lEvjvN-XFXSP7-KEJiaoSaMPacya_Obu3W51XDYc2cvZ0hto0DA4v-JpSGt1wMMflEi8xALcpaZyU78hhcFRASfCE0YVM_DytE3Aw5IhZ/s320/IMG_5954.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5619707193101384706" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzgaT4Yg9AbR1WqYwynBhvk5DlL0HwyzItkrq8UlxKEavjIhFe_YGMUQ3foziWMke7UaawjG-uP9z4NlYUbNkMDQ0mZxfpohzI9cDP60pqAWn9uveOPUlYevVQHl6Praf03d-BVCDZ_c-4/s1600/IMG_5956.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 267px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzgaT4Yg9AbR1WqYwynBhvk5DlL0HwyzItkrq8UlxKEavjIhFe_YGMUQ3foziWMke7UaawjG-uP9z4NlYUbNkMDQ0mZxfpohzI9cDP60pqAWn9uveOPUlYevVQHl6Praf03d-BVCDZ_c-4/s320/IMG_5956.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5619707185658522034" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDCVUCJXomcmwYhBZ0bEGObTpkIOZmroJtyy0Z6nLBMBRhVJUkiXJ82jnBMxHBBazVyfT5kdyZr_ohpLfzXXX7Y0R0ysgn8vmZAx2nO-Vo5z7JZf1NGFp6N1h89R5wTiYS1AKWOi8Pve0J/s1600/IMG_5958.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 292px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDCVUCJXomcmwYhBZ0bEGObTpkIOZmroJtyy0Z6nLBMBRhVJUkiXJ82jnBMxHBBazVyfT5kdyZr_ohpLfzXXX7Y0R0ysgn8vmZAx2nO-Vo5z7JZf1NGFp6N1h89R5wTiYS1AKWOi8Pve0J/s320/IMG_5958.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5619707184318799922" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiogueFn-3FE5xdn6pkXaqnmKzqwSc5zGRL7CpTBD1MvP9u0ZhT0rUR-BJqYsKDXu0_lb6LJvpmrkF3eF_Xil4S5SowLHUhFDj3MeUS0wPBcqOQzli1zuXOccTWMjd_pVWrqvh0krmeIPFV/s1600/IMG_5959.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 299px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiogueFn-3FE5xdn6pkXaqnmKzqwSc5zGRL7CpTBD1MvP9u0ZhT0rUR-BJqYsKDXu0_lb6LJvpmrkF3eF_Xil4S5SowLHUhFDj3MeUS0wPBcqOQzli1zuXOccTWMjd_pVWrqvh0krmeIPFV/s320/IMG_5959.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5619707175108971458" border="0" /></a>naomihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18089599000852688355noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5713612572094900564.post-39995154322126951562011-06-15T16:13:00.009-06:002011-06-15T17:37:35.137-06:00Catch up<div style="text-align: center;">I feel like I am constantly doing that in this space. Catching up. I just downloaded pictures to our computer and we had some all the way back from April. So prepare for some picture madness.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWrdiuR6RHyH1H_x925Y5Mpf2RxNC_YtpjBzXnF-I5JCScjZzwzJYQCmHbq-ABdwxzlV2Kvo5WGcMClX-X0d7yzVGNw2RDlf_agHM1oe7cUZ4oT-slPtOhSW0A4m4YWH4Ag5dNsxmoAPbf/s1600/IMG_5489.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 233px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWrdiuR6RHyH1H_x925Y5Mpf2RxNC_YtpjBzXnF-I5JCScjZzwzJYQCmHbq-ABdwxzlV2Kvo5WGcMClX-X0d7yzVGNw2RDlf_agHM1oe7cUZ4oT-slPtOhSW0A4m4YWH4Ag5dNsxmoAPbf/s320/IMG_5489.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5618586780904022194" border="0" /></a>Peter's mom blessed us by staying a few days after we returned from Hawaii and celebrating Easter with us. We tried to get a family picture...<br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjze2D0-vpkHBIM41l9_HaZDBgWQGebRBUvCKvJ4effnBq27K6c_so0qjGRZ-caERaAvEkR48wOVa-Voib6QfLZKp21Ki2J6KwAsfoXOSyGlItd9ZQRnRWOwVF7osJTwPTLPg6W416ICDUA/s1600/IMG_5533.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 252px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjze2D0-vpkHBIM41l9_HaZDBgWQGebRBUvCKvJ4effnBq27K6c_so0qjGRZ-caERaAvEkR48wOVa-Voib6QfLZKp21Ki2J6KwAsfoXOSyGlItd9ZQRnRWOwVF7osJTwPTLPg6W416ICDUA/s320/IMG_5533.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5618586771388350914" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuhGDf2AJKTFKifTeL-QUdbO8kpekE-fDyL70Qj8Czrn0j83y04_YTPxf4kOmMuF17XDLnon9UjD8dJuSAlL7ZOLbnELDn0J2fJc-9U8q9SF4G4HuwpDa99NEtsLxsb2jch1Ys8R8wQccA/s1600/IMG_5524.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 230px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuhGDf2AJKTFKifTeL-QUdbO8kpekE-fDyL70Qj8Czrn0j83y04_YTPxf4kOmMuF17XDLnon9UjD8dJuSAlL7ZOLbnELDn0J2fJc-9U8q9SF4G4HuwpDa99NEtsLxsb2jch1Ys8R8wQccA/s320/IMG_5524.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5618586764300760386" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8feJMqYu5B0KOe-nAHFpOPmizEQvmZD_r6bstBD5PadMm0nyF-Ey0OVsSLW4G799_PGEIMgc7ytTID7j3CBrBuKqKC6XhdubI-IDOuh5qF5gRrI_0q3SLGqnAkKPdmN-15VYSt89xN8sb/s1600/IMG_5491.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 202px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8feJMqYu5B0KOe-nAHFpOPmizEQvmZD_r6bstBD5PadMm0nyF-Ey0OVsSLW4G799_PGEIMgc7ytTID7j3CBrBuKqKC6XhdubI-IDOuh5qF5gRrI_0q3SLGqnAkKPdmN-15VYSt89xN8sb/s320/IMG_5491.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5618586790391541410" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0_vjoNTrip7dKUAId5SXoPnk1iKtBUITj3Q19hZ5_gE_Lr3azVY-OGnWpNJCh7aXTf3gwCBK4uP_q4fjYSCyTu_2A4g7QUapDGHXpaxpfQPDm5epgPs9Jt748jfxpahd2SJS0o1FLgDPK/s1600/IMG_5499.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 217px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0_vjoNTrip7dKUAId5SXoPnk1iKtBUITj3Q19hZ5_gE_Lr3azVY-OGnWpNJCh7aXTf3gwCBK4uP_q4fjYSCyTu_2A4g7QUapDGHXpaxpfQPDm5epgPs9Jt748jfxpahd2SJS0o1FLgDPK/s320/IMG_5499.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5618584917191123218" border="0" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">This was the best one we got.<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfj2inFFRPTSYAYG0z7nrUNLeqNeZonPYP62jOrCsLKcQXkrVqSdnb1PqBlmZDjuMde9g_swR7gsTICnezg4EphIeth5E2P4EItErT4DfKYq7ODxzNzHuGhghX_2k-1e-xq05O5od23N0B/s1600/IMG_5547.JPG"><br /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi97wt5a4uRKgU0GAQVD2r4TiAMkEFYGIDxI4eJqREpLGeNBxEmZqcyRDFcP7WJnB9p9fGvk5fGMvVuVN4GZH3UVwwGTL9xHsSSEsggBp6UoUSZQ57pyfrj4oHUoY3u8TAwdm6Pk1DmFHHW/s1600/IMG_5576.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 220px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi97wt5a4uRKgU0GAQVD2r4TiAMkEFYGIDxI4eJqREpLGeNBxEmZqcyRDFcP7WJnB9p9fGvk5fGMvVuVN4GZH3UVwwGTL9xHsSSEsggBp6UoUSZQ57pyfrj4oHUoY3u8TAwdm6Pk1DmFHHW/s320/IMG_5576.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5618584899916293858" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCRM9g_dQW0H4VL_kjPMZbPbK4WX-5R6DOtEXvM2YjFzTv18ozL72kL7QUFnwgSYfkqQhoZc3HNvWB8C2_sx8Ulnh5Jt6NCPp6jE3MTawaWND9pBeYsMUcqgMc_OJCNaK7EiShuNz1JEuc/s1600/IMG_5607.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCRM9g_dQW0H4VL_kjPMZbPbK4WX-5R6DOtEXvM2YjFzTv18ozL72kL7QUFnwgSYfkqQhoZc3HNvWB8C2_sx8Ulnh5Jt6NCPp6jE3MTawaWND9pBeYsMUcqgMc_OJCNaK7EiShuNz1JEuc/s320/IMG_5607.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5618584884863257250" border="0" /></a>Then we had our very own personal Easter egg hunt. Joel made Kale do all the work then enjoyed the harvest.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjScQq1sNBF4E79LL3fBx5Y0akrWNs9HUrjigwYwNo7aQ9sru05pfi3KOTfN7BkEDWTG96aqLDa_8EnqTX3uo3oTXUOBNvlSAfQWLNGkpn2g0kzCrhbC8P8iFnIUegbrfWQOAGPusauRqc0/s1600/IMG_5649.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 214px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjScQq1sNBF4E79LL3fBx5Y0akrWNs9HUrjigwYwNo7aQ9sru05pfi3KOTfN7BkEDWTG96aqLDa_8EnqTX3uo3oTXUOBNvlSAfQWLNGkpn2g0kzCrhbC8P8iFnIUegbrfWQOAGPusauRqc0/s320/IMG_5649.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5618584876476212930" border="0" /></a>After Easter, we zoomed up to Hingham for a weekend. Kale loves looking for the water tower on our way there. Even starts asking where it is before we hit Belgrade...<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><br />The rest of our time lately has just been spent living life.<br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO8KPJRKmuzZX2YtQrkFGhx6U8ltTScmPtXMqgMv8PwGXdoLHfWRJkQsFp-IobuHUfykZsT6uufooqqFclfwPalDSBAvvSwQvXQwAQ756uuvKTq1iWO8NnjIt2S9PVPBwAoir1rK-FwupH/s1600/IMG_5671.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 228px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO8KPJRKmuzZX2YtQrkFGhx6U8ltTScmPtXMqgMv8PwGXdoLHfWRJkQsFp-IobuHUfykZsT6uufooqqFclfwPalDSBAvvSwQvXQwAQ756uuvKTq1iWO8NnjIt2S9PVPBwAoir1rK-FwupH/s320/IMG_5671.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5618580108895446674" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw_4GpPoaZ2lCmwF9zdTzpr1hp72ut8G64jt_jdr7N_m3sZGr7CzHqUiXUscfK9ySo9wklxREB4ic3WH2O_sB9SR3GBaPdy1Bce_wddW8e_HJL2aWeXOneVbYHoZG6TYrRFnQXUfcKhAe9/s1600/IMG_5708.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw_4GpPoaZ2lCmwF9zdTzpr1hp72ut8G64jt_jdr7N_m3sZGr7CzHqUiXUscfK9ySo9wklxREB4ic3WH2O_sB9SR3GBaPdy1Bce_wddW8e_HJL2aWeXOneVbYHoZG6TYrRFnQXUfcKhAe9/s320/IMG_5708.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5618580103943657234" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYOScFf76HZ22BxLMYaFAteZRG9e3vauKNhE1BImD2AKXD3BdkalP3R3yY6x6l1lvaPTA7Lcn3wh0HDTg4qR6mDDQVpR1PKppK2bc_KoFGlGIMX7-Oums21L_1Q3XptVWgJ_TaXUlZVjbU/s1600/IMG_5724.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYOScFf76HZ22BxLMYaFAteZRG9e3vauKNhE1BImD2AKXD3BdkalP3R3yY6x6l1lvaPTA7Lcn3wh0HDTg4qR6mDDQVpR1PKppK2bc_KoFGlGIMX7-Oums21L_1Q3XptVWgJ_TaXUlZVjbU/s320/IMG_5724.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5618580101804858834" border="0" /></a><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpaTOHar3jTOud6RrOel1TMK73dETCBR4_Kz5X31H2cbTkRu0Sx_BNpmUHPW3tflDExNAbuXUzjP5QBrpLTDiLsTzOkFP5ukFGK8rn-K5jX0VZlcGbt94tzmDhGbOIqC7FLkGDn33K2mKt/s1600/IMG_5766.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 234px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpaTOHar3jTOud6RrOel1TMK73dETCBR4_Kz5X31H2cbTkRu0Sx_BNpmUHPW3tflDExNAbuXUzjP5QBrpLTDiLsTzOkFP5ukFGK8rn-K5jX0VZlcGbt94tzmDhGbOIqC7FLkGDn33K2mKt/s320/IMG_5766.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5618577584775707586" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZZXYY6t1Dz4r6i-EBDngd5zLCzbzmHnz5_cMGNIVjaZMqdmjOHyW2wb6jtkRAJ1YQgiixKr9elerYGP1XcUa74bCr_XyFupiPSORPkNy5Q0nBbZ8GY1BoPXmkOUE3PoHdiThAAcF4NAze/s1600/IMG_5796.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 212px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZZXYY6t1Dz4r6i-EBDngd5zLCzbzmHnz5_cMGNIVjaZMqdmjOHyW2wb6jtkRAJ1YQgiixKr9elerYGP1XcUa74bCr_XyFupiPSORPkNy5Q0nBbZ8GY1BoPXmkOUE3PoHdiThAAcF4NAze/s320/IMG_5796.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5618577574806713282" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_2kmLDLXq4EUP8Vs-JN7CBwzwoi45LyCzgylxchq9s9OI17rKYJBRSNYqJJRkw_fOJMx4a-tg8GjAvlSJuC8Qr80MamCji3_Gsma40cLz9WzVxt6nLrvWyKaU6I1oUMJ1HtOJEYpmooqJ/s1600/IMG_5812.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_2kmLDLXq4EUP8Vs-JN7CBwzwoi45LyCzgylxchq9s9OI17rKYJBRSNYqJJRkw_fOJMx4a-tg8GjAvlSJuC8Qr80MamCji3_Gsma40cLz9WzVxt6nLrvWyKaU6I1oUMJ1HtOJEYpmooqJ/s320/IMG_5812.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5618577568936204386" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXvZ3vP00Z_J1iowqqo_OZ9qJFr92Z6qpzAo3hhQqFTBonGrOsMItNvDw4GcineyUsyKg6vZNWWHPgiDiEftxCNL0xa76GDGXqCK6agB4M4y5p7bjhmXyBs6HcFfiJIq1BFDcX_bQOugc1/s1600/IMG_5836.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 249px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXvZ3vP00Z_J1iowqqo_OZ9qJFr92Z6qpzAo3hhQqFTBonGrOsMItNvDw4GcineyUsyKg6vZNWWHPgiDiEftxCNL0xa76GDGXqCK6agB4M4y5p7bjhmXyBs6HcFfiJIq1BFDcX_bQOugc1/s320/IMG_5836.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5618577546537267282" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbrQy2q895cCu0YCnbyy2pkTdG9vwIdd6_vc9z8bLaCO06qevsBfzFYMA1PGqgqZyTuW5H8GAOf99hrcglAclJJhteCiYl1GnX9lfC8wzBLbRDMFlFTgI0TnojzxbEwGbbZsOkKA9sbkFw/s1600/IMG_5760.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 204px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbrQy2q895cCu0YCnbyy2pkTdG9vwIdd6_vc9z8bLaCO06qevsBfzFYMA1PGqgqZyTuW5H8GAOf99hrcglAclJJhteCiYl1GnX9lfC8wzBLbRDMFlFTgI0TnojzxbEwGbbZsOkKA9sbkFw/s320/IMG_5760.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5618577591841875394" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB_XHc_K5pRvDypXsBOlgp2EC56sbDTABwTVzvU65X35UYA1-1PagTHdcUEDifRVXsuhAEOAsv4JjZlaiVZhHjzAewRCUM1ul24lNjSrAADf7ZNsqNtL-4IIDcziVXICG4G7nohPHnwElP/s1600/IMG_5902.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 318px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB_XHc_K5pRvDypXsBOlgp2EC56sbDTABwTVzvU65X35UYA1-1PagTHdcUEDifRVXsuhAEOAsv4JjZlaiVZhHjzAewRCUM1ul24lNjSrAADf7ZNsqNtL-4IIDcziVXICG4G7nohPHnwElP/s320/IMG_5902.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5618575186536663314" border="0" /></a><br /><br />For Memorial Day, we got a wild hair and booked a cheap hotel in Great Falls for 2 nights. My parents met us there and we lived in the pool. Except when we stopped to eat.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMMcmLUHaGNMN-nsjywk7_c2ZlVLhAnkWVgC9U4WepgAji636JD1t2L9dRXaYGIdOabOoTyiYv5F9zP8x_3pbV7uLcvj8FVukhNjXWg2EAMrxxVIcGcRSE5MCVqM2amuc9DKdhYMWkRf1k/s1600/IMG_5904.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMMcmLUHaGNMN-nsjywk7_c2ZlVLhAnkWVgC9U4WepgAji636JD1t2L9dRXaYGIdOabOoTyiYv5F9zP8x_3pbV7uLcvj8FVukhNjXWg2EAMrxxVIcGcRSE5MCVqM2amuc9DKdhYMWkRf1k/s320/IMG_5904.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5618575178181952114" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD5cgX9feEKl6uhoIXKCgRdFn4xwYLRH3fIR4hITWZebCpWJejWCHV83fsHc4uWEtrOVGev9ELy5kBTuJO6T5iP8_kUkNEvFfmX3Qq1sia0uBuFUj4ZBswheIMmDune5MFuw5B9og3zqjO/s1600/IMG_5910.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 296px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD5cgX9feEKl6uhoIXKCgRdFn4xwYLRH3fIR4hITWZebCpWJejWCHV83fsHc4uWEtrOVGev9ELy5kBTuJO6T5iP8_kUkNEvFfmX3Qq1sia0uBuFUj4ZBswheIMmDune5MFuw5B9og3zqjO/s320/IMG_5910.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5618575172580912946" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEili13MjSJzzmnMfma6BeLVO3lA_QmRiGsRAY4znwqAyJ9J3H0jwLIh1_gohMRxobi5XNSTUPhTVRffh3lKoMdiebZ-dSoLIlinnAp1JaW9olmfmHF7Y6pSoRhf6zHq6zx5NVpQw_f2hiTU/s1600/IMG_5919.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 302px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEili13MjSJzzmnMfma6BeLVO3lA_QmRiGsRAY4znwqAyJ9J3H0jwLIh1_gohMRxobi5XNSTUPhTVRffh3lKoMdiebZ-dSoLIlinnAp1JaW9olmfmHF7Y6pSoRhf6zHq6zx5NVpQw_f2hiTU/s320/IMG_5919.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5618575166339886018" border="0" /></a>By the end of our time, Kale wanted nothing to do with the water wings and Joel was "swimming" around by himself.<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPP6kBqMUZR3Vef0XLH5zeZYSahDvs6RpZL8NFykaADPa57o_nFa1K-Aesjvwc7ZV11DFB6W32vVRTD8SYf6dajI2vMmFeDCc7AQZ1clz6LFCQl907an1vKRf4cCx0spK_cXE2g_SCEqpc/s1600/IMG_5868.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 310px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPP6kBqMUZR3Vef0XLH5zeZYSahDvs6RpZL8NFykaADPa57o_nFa1K-Aesjvwc7ZV11DFB6W32vVRTD8SYf6dajI2vMmFeDCc7AQZ1clz6LFCQl907an1vKRf4cCx0spK_cXE2g_SCEqpc/s320/IMG_5868.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5618575193305954530" border="0" /></a>Strawberry season is here and we go through a Costco size package within 3 days. We enjoy every second we can outside because the weather has not caught on that it is almost summer so we soak up the sun when it peeks through. We're moving (I know, again!), the beginning of July and Kale has soccer and swimming lessons starting tomorrow. We get to spend a large amount of time in Alaska in August and more family is visiting the end of July after Peter spends a week in Atlanta. Phew! Summer better show up because it's going to be gone before we know it!<br /></div>naomihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18089599000852688355noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5713612572094900564.post-72154574884843956382011-05-14T21:31:00.006-06:002011-05-14T22:06:00.900-06:00Kauai 2.0<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmHDXYJ-hTVnRnCAFjCGCgVtJIn6AG4SmXIGi9_sqYay-K73Jv6xjwGUck7M9qSbA9G7ZauWkrN8Z2m3jLc6GKMG0sshBELd2Kiwl7NOsuOYfipvhaKuNEZ7Hm7lwnAhBpGVTk9v_sEADy/s1600/IMG_4559.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmHDXYJ-hTVnRnCAFjCGCgVtJIn6AG4SmXIGi9_sqYay-K73Jv6xjwGUck7M9qSbA9G7ZauWkrN8Z2m3jLc6GKMG0sshBELd2Kiwl7NOsuOYfipvhaKuNEZ7Hm7lwnAhBpGVTk9v_sEADy/s320/IMG_4559.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5606784220023786786" border="0" /></a>Coffee on our beach.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9GrU9vEZbv6AhNqdea-pGwgVk5YlM1Yi24D07uZvCXVoXxEcN7hyebnEfpTCmtAjP_pH_JFzwuSMMBrQaQSHaY4rn1qeYZkSI0n0FllRGIPngCkP9fQcgRBHZcymYO_KquNeXaRExB7-T/s1600/IMG_4564.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9GrU9vEZbv6AhNqdea-pGwgVk5YlM1Yi24D07uZvCXVoXxEcN7hyebnEfpTCmtAjP_pH_JFzwuSMMBrQaQSHaY4rn1qeYZkSI0n0FllRGIPngCkP9fQcgRBHZcymYO_KquNeXaRExB7-T/s320/IMG_4564.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5606784219908547698" border="0" /></a>Tunnels Beach. We went snorkeling here and saw lots of sea turtles and got lots of sun.<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXsDFvcrrxzXtyu9vDW_hhaL39DirzuS_QHCCvWShMx5qBznm2xuDX0KXc6nH-9Rs8xbcrBflJ0qej4QFoHDMe1S9uWs0Z-teEscGOA5gHZBaYX52mHZJwkPPZx-AY0996wYIdfdoKzJMy/s1600/IMG_4568.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXsDFvcrrxzXtyu9vDW_hhaL39DirzuS_QHCCvWShMx5qBznm2xuDX0KXc6nH-9Rs8xbcrBflJ0qej4QFoHDMe1S9uWs0Z-teEscGOA5gHZBaYX52mHZJwkPPZx-AY0996wYIdfdoKzJMy/s320/IMG_4568.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5606784214553207954" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0HZ_P9WA57mL5gLEvJfjDsZY0rnbxC95YdgDGToW_HEgyoXqv0tSZjyoOGaabHqv4v8DjS2kng1nW_XY-qinUM_sIXMbNPrs5T_3rEiD0EvDJaqXel2ByILz2hyphenhyphenMPOojoTGRdVMe7c1z5/s1600/IMG_4589.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 173px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0HZ_P9WA57mL5gLEvJfjDsZY0rnbxC95YdgDGToW_HEgyoXqv0tSZjyoOGaabHqv4v8DjS2kng1nW_XY-qinUM_sIXMbNPrs5T_3rEiD0EvDJaqXel2ByILz2hyphenhyphenMPOojoTGRdVMe7c1z5/s320/IMG_4589.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5606784216349996274" border="0" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Pete was more into the snorkeling than me. I loved it but wasn't as patient as he was.<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjFbkRd2kG5sK_we-qD2Ta0-risiu_JJMFRcQiVTeExG345ZivDsVhkypVYaoZFQMhc68OqH5BJ1l539EhQ_3SsrUwx9DL0NKduQzSUXyi2wrs4kDMcxT-8ocsussMe3rrWJ7PEBngdBGX/s1600/IMG_4593.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjFbkRd2kG5sK_we-qD2Ta0-risiu_JJMFRcQiVTeExG345ZivDsVhkypVYaoZFQMhc68OqH5BJ1l539EhQ_3SsrUwx9DL0NKduQzSUXyi2wrs4kDMcxT-8ocsussMe3rrWJ7PEBngdBGX/s320/IMG_4593.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5606784211239329762" border="0" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyqVnlmD8Ajx4Uv_4jxvGsfi4RX4hlrHK012wrh_F9nORIU53E_rFJ5ySLLaiWoMeq60V6m0PGMfJ2xSTwcqpt1fD2fpLj9mTpjHa2TUc9HaowcLbeqz3BLgc3vHTQN10qPBi8zNiJYnKb/s1600/IMG_4594.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyqVnlmD8Ajx4Uv_4jxvGsfi4RX4hlrHK012wrh_F9nORIU53E_rFJ5ySLLaiWoMeq60V6m0PGMfJ2xSTwcqpt1fD2fpLj9mTpjHa2TUc9HaowcLbeqz3BLgc3vHTQN10qPBi8zNiJYnKb/s320/IMG_4594.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5606782623678649026" border="0" /></a>This is a Farmer's Market where we saw a man from Bozeman who works at the Museum of the Rockies.<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimQkfQHpPklY3HSfQZ1wNHfqA8_VvRmIqnauK6jw_9YOBmd8zmhFI6SXFRwYT8ObMr0wNl4wUCwwE77aZGfMOjmwYRseTRgurKWjKqksXLdQwMAk541VXfJq6kEccDwc9YCl5bX5fWTveZ/s1600/IMG_4617.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimQkfQHpPklY3HSfQZ1wNHfqA8_VvRmIqnauK6jw_9YOBmd8zmhFI6SXFRwYT8ObMr0wNl4wUCwwE77aZGfMOjmwYRseTRgurKWjKqksXLdQwMAk541VXfJq6kEccDwc9YCl5bX5fWTveZ/s320/IMG_4617.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5606782619274549842" border="0" /></a>One of very few photos of us together. Beginning of Waimea Canyon.<br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo6Nix4As78lWyRgIOmgAsQf5gQhnS0BU6MTFJXTCuuB0CP2Yb_xEIc-OeLfLGlXjTHm5pIKIT18fc_SqJTX2QFuFQsYcIZtPj2AzZea0MnoFej55AVYq3-tujOgw8k8J0_yw6qfemZYM3/s1600/IMG_4618.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo6Nix4As78lWyRgIOmgAsQf5gQhnS0BU6MTFJXTCuuB0CP2Yb_xEIc-OeLfLGlXjTHm5pIKIT18fc_SqJTX2QFuFQsYcIZtPj2AzZea0MnoFej55AVYq3-tujOgw8k8J0_yw6qfemZYM3/s320/IMG_4618.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5606782618113335282" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDqMyruVDGAfqLGP2dBf2aNDkYkg98he4df9_ynBQe-wpO1PFo3q6Uhrt4vkH66Thp3oyrc-oduEL0AmQhk2-qsv19Y6-xdR9ZSEmXm7yPGFxdKjFUrsEJMQ1IRzjuOnINN5cr9fvD15SX/s1600/IMG_4624.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 214px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDqMyruVDGAfqLGP2dBf2aNDkYkg98he4df9_ynBQe-wpO1PFo3q6Uhrt4vkH66Thp3oyrc-oduEL0AmQhk2-qsv19Y6-xdR9ZSEmXm7yPGFxdKjFUrsEJMQ1IRzjuOnINN5cr9fvD15SX/s320/IMG_4624.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5606782611210860530" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3r0iRJTyAJM3hCJ-lQHxnoHyY3c2D0p_ToAwpzWoeObb5EJHv7H7VOtJgk2fjMuiqEtVTmg4iAs3L7gKhuPEAyu3aQh57ZWbjIssxB0e5U6Ibsvi1kNOIQIT_dnr5FFRma0HplvR-J-BU/s1600/IMG_4647.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3r0iRJTyAJM3hCJ-lQHxnoHyY3c2D0p_ToAwpzWoeObb5EJHv7H7VOtJgk2fjMuiqEtVTmg4iAs3L7gKhuPEAyu3aQh57ZWbjIssxB0e5U6Ibsvi1kNOIQIT_dnr5FFRma0HplvR-J-BU/s320/IMG_4647.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5606781003931484370" border="0" /></a>We tried to stay out of the sun our 2nd day due to some burn from our first. We explored the West shore and this was Peter's favorite tree.<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihdmXbi-Yni-5YWO7uUTFG9OVDsfmXAn2Zr5yiIzRz1lVFm9mNV1Jv0WvRftUL-PcLSfk6Qp584q-ayM2xzbjaaAHDhsaWB9GalKPTHOt_fdrox0vE2G3QBn8mwdnk5Q9rCKCPAD-scCMi/s1600/IMG_4721.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihdmXbi-Yni-5YWO7uUTFG9OVDsfmXAn2Zr5yiIzRz1lVFm9mNV1Jv0WvRftUL-PcLSfk6Qp584q-ayM2xzbjaaAHDhsaWB9GalKPTHOt_fdrox0vE2G3QBn8mwdnk5Q9rCKCPAD-scCMi/s320/IMG_4721.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5606781002654044674" border="0" /></a>We drove down a 5 mile pot hole filled road to the end of the road and the beginning of the Napali Coast. As you can see, the beach stretches for miles and is quite desserted.<br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMhAP_Hx8JDxRLPFyoe-Rh2Iz38I5hGt2kX1Oca7a6zUkewr2EERGowoHaW3Jksqsrj-t7YGFpkaajdauJC9SSTbz58mCB7FeqXGgRUeGgcgmBNh1gZMyctY-LKNh5UCZjvx2B2qFdT4TO/s1600/IMG_4726.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 214px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMhAP_Hx8JDxRLPFyoe-Rh2Iz38I5hGt2kX1Oca7a6zUkewr2EERGowoHaW3Jksqsrj-t7YGFpkaajdauJC9SSTbz58mCB7FeqXGgRUeGgcgmBNh1gZMyctY-LKNh5UCZjvx2B2qFdT4TO/s320/IMG_4726.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5606780997275480626" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVilvpw0PhEqpKmudj5nDxN4QUdpVKFDnsVBSUJhuaD_IWypIMR4x-zZNBBUSkRQZCCJrMtnmlD0WYpOV7qGHsvSw7pURMpJbJZfxOfYyWdLs2FyJoUMgod8SpqRoutlVeapeSGgv-dXYb/s1600/IMG_4738.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVilvpw0PhEqpKmudj5nDxN4QUdpVKFDnsVBSUJhuaD_IWypIMR4x-zZNBBUSkRQZCCJrMtnmlD0WYpOV7qGHsvSw7pURMpJbJZfxOfYyWdLs2FyJoUMgod8SpqRoutlVeapeSGgv-dXYb/s320/IMG_4738.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5606780999341691058" border="0" /></a>Beginning of Napali Coast<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;">I think this was our favorite beach but our sun burns made it not as enjoyable as it could have been. Next time!<br /></div>naomihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18089599000852688355noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5713612572094900564.post-62751183657308090632011-05-04T15:52:00.006-06:002011-05-04T16:24:53.559-06:00Kauai 1.0<div style="text-align: center;">Sorry for the flood of photos but we had such a great time on our trip I want to share it all with you! So enjoy!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGws-Fdiz6t-7uwex4-dbxwL6wEVW2WAvSzPro0wofcxNG2h1gWTi18aWp4mu7_koalLSnzuFqxJJ8ho_I6XkYSDYLYkHU_yIhM0B_vtaIpPKvW6I9zsqWvfCbN4tsNBVyJf98AkxFkIUj/s1600/IMG_4447.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 238px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGws-Fdiz6t-7uwex4-dbxwL6wEVW2WAvSzPro0wofcxNG2h1gWTi18aWp4mu7_koalLSnzuFqxJJ8ho_I6XkYSDYLYkHU_yIhM0B_vtaIpPKvW6I9zsqWvfCbN4tsNBVyJf98AkxFkIUj/s320/IMG_4447.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5602987782018434066" border="0" /></a>The main reason we were able to go on this trip was because a family friend gifted us with Delta buddy passes. We flew for much cheaper but on standby. Well, on the flight from L.A. to Kauai, we were put in first class! It was such a blessing and a special way to kick off our vacation. Mai Tais greeted us as well as just an awesome overall experience. This is a picture of the 1st of Peter's 6 drinks. :)<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqYPH3Bw6rOTTNcL8XaIrivN0LPE7GngkMWUbBFK7WxS0S1uQt6Ow_rfg-L9aGfq7D0811u7GX_G2sl-Q1R1DpaU8JrT3Rkwwm8OBjXkQVJgfi-_blfctAc7qag3Uk6W9e_mIuID-V3N5-/s1600/IMG_4458.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 182px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqYPH3Bw6rOTTNcL8XaIrivN0LPE7GngkMWUbBFK7WxS0S1uQt6Ow_rfg-L9aGfq7D0811u7GX_G2sl-Q1R1DpaU8JrT3Rkwwm8OBjXkQVJgfi-_blfctAc7qag3Uk6W9e_mIuID-V3N5-/s320/IMG_4458.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5602987767140506930" border="0" /></a>Can you find the lizard in the above picture?<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn7sgCILy6oqhhdYgpME1TA8TvPklljK316U_pSdVJTMKxpuwCIPETk_rHxGZVOQ5PPvgSXI__-W5HsFvlniGy481cZHsGoganbwIc9RldPAUPtdnPprZnzsu7ZKuOO2cFTHSvAJ6Z0NTI/s1600/IMG_4463.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 214px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn7sgCILy6oqhhdYgpME1TA8TvPklljK316U_pSdVJTMKxpuwCIPETk_rHxGZVOQ5PPvgSXI__-W5HsFvlniGy481cZHsGoganbwIc9RldPAUPtdnPprZnzsu7ZKuOO2cFTHSvAJ6Z0NTI/s320/IMG_4463.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5602987766999777234" border="0" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOkF6Jm6rOISS8y-3Jr00czABc1ZeoEnbe0RqO8lz2JCr_NXgHy8Y91RY_FFEb44Rh4_Dsz_1y2zDG9hZud_-E3qwJpYUyuozDM_ZqD_VOY-7tOPyXHmZyDcXnek5x712aSvSloXFROugu/s1600/IMG_4473.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOkF6Jm6rOISS8y-3Jr00czABc1ZeoEnbe0RqO8lz2JCr_NXgHy8Y91RY_FFEb44Rh4_Dsz_1y2zDG9hZud_-E3qwJpYUyuozDM_ZqD_VOY-7tOPyXHmZyDcXnek5x712aSvSloXFROugu/s320/IMG_4473.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5602987302337833138" border="0" /></a>Swim suits and sundresses 24/7!<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhGy5RVumULolXnUGUduBCS-hTMaqCWMNVZbn6sehjVkzz__lEOQB48YzYG2f8GAZSTK-ImgSoX01DqYHT-kJSVDQA9HGCt8l7cs8fa-arDc-yu35Cfg2tQW57Dc2uj_Fd2QiYCMhiiHsT/s1600/IMG_4508.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 214px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhGy5RVumULolXnUGUduBCS-hTMaqCWMNVZbn6sehjVkzz__lEOQB48YzYG2f8GAZSTK-ImgSoX01DqYHT-kJSVDQA9HGCt8l7cs8fa-arDc-yu35Cfg2tQW57Dc2uj_Fd2QiYCMhiiHsT/s320/IMG_4508.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5602987289707018946" border="0" /></a>Peter readying himself to jump off Kipu Falls<br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO0zWxt0jPMQwDs7Gh9AfYPh6C7O4jtTNxGOn_I4xak5vrKZpm8rXnjytF-j0lSZOWZSPfcki1ssabdyJIt51ipi4FeDwKJTdsy4WT4-IPZAQScQ6JEJdt8Zu_hoF3R_dxB2b3tXcWF4qS/s1600/IMG_4509.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 214px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO0zWxt0jPMQwDs7Gh9AfYPh6C7O4jtTNxGOn_I4xak5vrKZpm8rXnjytF-j0lSZOWZSPfcki1ssabdyJIt51ipi4FeDwKJTdsy4WT4-IPZAQScQ6JEJdt8Zu_hoF3R_dxB2b3tXcWF4qS/s320/IMG_4509.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5602987288793810338" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsTznDp95i_W8DAmXFAODZxM6AGd5djM1Adyw392fTN78qVNd4n6OztRGNcBe_1jxpaIjL7Gfx90iRTXNpvmcGFWpe8EGDNwt5tB-YPRCGmj93JCk9U89LGmevoUmCKoR_qRhhZD0VMCMR/s1600/IMG_4514.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsTznDp95i_W8DAmXFAODZxM6AGd5djM1Adyw392fTN78qVNd4n6OztRGNcBe_1jxpaIjL7Gfx90iRTXNpvmcGFWpe8EGDNwt5tB-YPRCGmj93JCk9U89LGmevoUmCKoR_qRhhZD0VMCMR/s320/IMG_4514.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5602987282545996546" border="0" /></a>I'm pretty sure I held my breath until he surfaced.<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0s2KlZag-eKl_qDJh84c1Faj19K-xxFw6P26WwIdJai46LDgMFkNKjtTY0gzAk42swKE8qwf0Aa15PMVqvLa9wUNKESqTZ0qZx0Drkxi64SQ1LLMXza_tf0do8UwmvHdbc3gx_E3yDdbX/s1600/IMG_4521.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 214px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0s2KlZag-eKl_qDJh84c1Faj19K-xxFw6P26WwIdJai46LDgMFkNKjtTY0gzAk42swKE8qwf0Aa15PMVqvLa9wUNKESqTZ0qZx0Drkxi64SQ1LLMXza_tf0do8UwmvHdbc3gx_E3yDdbX/s320/IMG_4521.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5602987280281832898" border="0" /></a>Then decided it was my turn!<br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPLhM9Of5TVw2a4jsY9dRUrpPRAGBqq_uzoRERifrhxebrInRg6R_NnwrCMp3q0GdCccq-USIzVxDf9deHDncYh-I3YyIe9eGP2k9iuD-4WFjQvh8bABcIX5b2vqr9IwAOeNPSJT2w_pvc/s1600/IMG_4522.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 214px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPLhM9Of5TVw2a4jsY9dRUrpPRAGBqq_uzoRERifrhxebrInRg6R_NnwrCMp3q0GdCccq-USIzVxDf9deHDncYh-I3YyIe9eGP2k9iuD-4WFjQvh8bABcIX5b2vqr9IwAOeNPSJT2w_pvc/s320/IMG_4522.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5602986954886307234" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr_1T_0JeV2IieLe2Yd2Ja9Clm5Z8EvHxqRxU0OSqzgDdeH_C2Hug3kxIPtYuuL7JtPEP4ftVdtLfP5r1MxK8AZKAWlm7sz-bSgnEht650nie5A8cZE-m0ZBhPLdsP6RoZVoqnLb5FTNZn/s1600/IMG_4523.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 214px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr_1T_0JeV2IieLe2Yd2Ja9Clm5Z8EvHxqRxU0OSqzgDdeH_C2Hug3kxIPtYuuL7JtPEP4ftVdtLfP5r1MxK8AZKAWlm7sz-bSgnEht650nie5A8cZE-m0ZBhPLdsP6RoZVoqnLb5FTNZn/s320/IMG_4523.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5602986952756539986" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ8M6BAPOpT9dqNjH7iUCsDkTGqcCVPH0hGWokS4F1zLE3_eQhuHSCEKskNlluVCJn17n1KFntTrfoOYhR1wtij8JFuDq0HLLIMrT3h1CX_Bs7kNKiplxeKyiXZ2ZcAhRyMuKdsYRrNcTt/s1600/IMG_4525.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 245px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ8M6BAPOpT9dqNjH7iUCsDkTGqcCVPH0hGWokS4F1zLE3_eQhuHSCEKskNlluVCJn17n1KFntTrfoOYhR1wtij8JFuDq0HLLIMrT3h1CX_Bs7kNKiplxeKyiXZ2ZcAhRyMuKdsYRrNcTt/s320/IMG_4525.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5602986939484693426" border="0" /></a>After I pulled my swimming suit down from around my neck.<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcLmHcZ15VcTzoPsfL8g4Qob8pKJGor7klAqnDvjliqDw1ka5_TvRHP4_fDhmpl2SIRgadxFuE7pg6PfNb3S0pC1Bc1P2wmjE_SfFYLpf_unRXCwH5WPJSe_LfDimLU5_AKD70l49TOfNP/s1600/IMG_4535.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcLmHcZ15VcTzoPsfL8g4Qob8pKJGor7klAqnDvjliqDw1ka5_TvRHP4_fDhmpl2SIRgadxFuE7pg6PfNb3S0pC1Bc1P2wmjE_SfFYLpf_unRXCwH5WPJSe_LfDimLU5_AKD70l49TOfNP/s320/IMG_4535.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5602986932156881970" border="0" /></a>The roots of the trees were amazing and just followed the rocks down to the water.<br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNVkz1Z-lxkbsw9mFe2B66hgLxXS3FX4TXKZd3dzK6Hx9LXDmgkQRfBobiDpIK_D6IhdXaDWcFRjqpe5TPbOnCPIGl4B4ATagJSqA6EKx5cjyn3J03t-uMuD9r4s4U6VQfUD3Aupv-vqi0/s1600/IMG_4540.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 297px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNVkz1Z-lxkbsw9mFe2B66hgLxXS3FX4TXKZd3dzK6Hx9LXDmgkQRfBobiDpIK_D6IhdXaDWcFRjqpe5TPbOnCPIGl4B4ATagJSqA6EKx5cjyn3J03t-uMuD9r4s4U6VQfUD3Aupv-vqi0/s320/IMG_4540.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5602986926197636338" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqiUIv_sheNEy36HPXeYhJcXBFwPujk7qmoHZ_oVh8PcaJ9MRVxa9_-JZZIftSlYEPzn9_mY11CGUHd-CrS-fEROuEP-T2UXuJ64WwiI7Pz4sQOvbKH48nGc922eTiMJ6cmkah5XJac5c2/s1600/IMG_4542.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 294px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqiUIv_sheNEy36HPXeYhJcXBFwPujk7qmoHZ_oVh8PcaJ9MRVxa9_-JZZIftSlYEPzn9_mY11CGUHd-CrS-fEROuEP-T2UXuJ64WwiI7Pz4sQOvbKH48nGc922eTiMJ6cmkah5XJac5c2/s320/IMG_4542.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5602986325610964226" border="0" /></a>An amazing gift basket awaited us in our condo from dear friends James and <a href="http://after-thought.blogspot.com/">Deea</a>. It meant so much to us that they made the extra effort to have this waiting for us!<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMADavd459bj0BPX8zBLLu0GM2SdY5LBLvF7aLJBlZWcjT-dBd4_8LdeaqKh1B5bYJCPiUuXiiUSIunF8DSMqPlCJQz32fGuZtmkVI0p_V6mIWnKmelrZSY60m6MD9VtKtJmZsODC4-_Zv/s1600/IMG_4543.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMADavd459bj0BPX8zBLLu0GM2SdY5LBLvF7aLJBlZWcjT-dBd4_8LdeaqKh1B5bYJCPiUuXiiUSIunF8DSMqPlCJQz32fGuZtmkVI0p_V6mIWnKmelrZSY60m6MD9VtKtJmZsODC4-_Zv/s320/IMG_4543.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5602986320550879682" border="0" /></a>View from our Lanai. <br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS6fQYRXZ5Xp9zzS0jAEFjoVoLIRV7K0v03K2TKVQioHDLJ7LoM1fnQ8fQuJQY5F3o8FbefVLum-V_RdHlod1xXSaug7ZAKyCKFZnS1GpsmspvBuAVcOJnpvn04NAUz33ohaifFBWAkWkj/s1600/IMG_4546.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 314px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS6fQYRXZ5Xp9zzS0jAEFjoVoLIRV7K0v03K2TKVQioHDLJ7LoM1fnQ8fQuJQY5F3o8FbefVLum-V_RdHlod1xXSaug7ZAKyCKFZnS1GpsmspvBuAVcOJnpvn04NAUz33ohaifFBWAkWkj/s320/IMG_4546.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5602986316865176882" border="0" /></a>Out to sushi for dinner.<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJWgz1-2MuYVmA0s7MrW6os3W3-oBCfvgxyXL5LDxzBuYTab6eOmkamLZCiFC8kA1EDwUFyNiKSPMQ1JOnuJrJ3znqOIAfeqU_xw5SgDh6Tjpxc7xNA-FzHochffP6bTcVHGTb77JkZ4LT/s1600/IMG_4551.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJWgz1-2MuYVmA0s7MrW6os3W3-oBCfvgxyXL5LDxzBuYTab6eOmkamLZCiFC8kA1EDwUFyNiKSPMQ1JOnuJrJ3znqOIAfeqU_xw5SgDh6Tjpxc7xNA-FzHochffP6bTcVHGTb77JkZ4LT/s320/IMG_4551.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5602986313464376130" border="0" /></a>Octopus<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhytfAl1_Zyc01cIF6tS3UXa8k_AnMR5UW_XxMgZhwyJQkPxZx26UMZjIFZ741OCvo1YkEzGL2q7zgVkuppL_zIatlgEsknVxSEOsc4eKPsG9mP1TzAFvTfyJET-1QZvl-QcIV3Rd_8FihZ/s1600/IMG_4555.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhytfAl1_Zyc01cIF6tS3UXa8k_AnMR5UW_XxMgZhwyJQkPxZx26UMZjIFZ741OCvo1YkEzGL2q7zgVkuppL_zIatlgEsknVxSEOsc4eKPsG9mP1TzAFvTfyJET-1QZvl-QcIV3Rd_8FihZ/s320/IMG_4555.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5602986308571798434" border="0" /></a>Eating said octopus.<br /><br />This was just our first day! We had a spectacular time and I'll do my best to post more pics soon. Like before we go back to Hawaii. :)<br /></div>naomihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18089599000852688355noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5713612572094900564.post-7568230120018056772011-04-03T16:24:00.003-06:002011-04-03T17:02:36.113-06:00Sick Day<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCEjn36EId0wl2Z_2Kl0x4-U6TNtep2b9zucwBi6S7YV35Pk-tppCPT2MFqWz_k7ChMrAlyCBWLwAo5l2r3pOYQJPxBTdt0khmE2NwM8x6BRHfcTD_8MTw_IPHyjf1nX7ME8Bi4HrlkxFV/s1600/IMG_4309.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 226px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCEjn36EId0wl2Z_2Kl0x4-U6TNtep2b9zucwBi6S7YV35Pk-tppCPT2MFqWz_k7ChMrAlyCBWLwAo5l2r3pOYQJPxBTdt0khmE2NwM8x6BRHfcTD_8MTw_IPHyjf1nX7ME8Bi4HrlkxFV/s320/IMG_4309.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5591492521891963026" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiveC20CeFIeGfxAUfU7AcxePgw7UjbkUK4Yc96uQ7_RQSdwsUrv0XEOj-8TQexR5ALI95JeuJ7cmYIa4Aq4Scd1V_rjiewapfIYuXkNh-FyHXgGN3yEkPkXRGZrJz0NlIyTCVWJE1jwNjn/s1600/IMG_4312.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 220px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiveC20CeFIeGfxAUfU7AcxePgw7UjbkUK4Yc96uQ7_RQSdwsUrv0XEOj-8TQexR5ALI95JeuJ7cmYIa4Aq4Scd1V_rjiewapfIYuXkNh-FyHXgGN3yEkPkXRGZrJz0NlIyTCVWJE1jwNjn/s320/IMG_4312.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5591492515194057650" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhytAdG1f0Xwe935X_v6EC30pe3vq9Sf4SHtXl36Y2w2E1yWjkTTHWh8a3ZcGynFSEyOtEmcoruEirFBybuA87S2ovixWrlM9y2PCUxEWa8K4YmEXXAGAhkLL3kIRvdReGaUSimokb4dTZj/s1600/IMG_4314.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 212px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhytAdG1f0Xwe935X_v6EC30pe3vq9Sf4SHtXl36Y2w2E1yWjkTTHWh8a3ZcGynFSEyOtEmcoruEirFBybuA87S2ovixWrlM9y2PCUxEWa8K4YmEXXAGAhkLL3kIRvdReGaUSimokb4dTZj/s320/IMG_4314.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5591492508145665954" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWHVJSeeENNfszaX6_ZLxc6JT_M1LZdWYHnx0id94ypKCCiYW9NOM_omTHa5WFogt-6uCOytgDHnIAijulyuwgeb01IF8TSOU-Udj0f2UJW3Zx10_uwfMGWabuTb_jZxIyLoTbRRotNE7b/s1600/IMG_4317.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 236px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWHVJSeeENNfszaX6_ZLxc6JT_M1LZdWYHnx0id94ypKCCiYW9NOM_omTHa5WFogt-6uCOytgDHnIAijulyuwgeb01IF8TSOU-Udj0f2UJW3Zx10_uwfMGWabuTb_jZxIyLoTbRRotNE7b/s320/IMG_4317.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5591492497042971586" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh4JrQLxtkavrY0RVxVvYwzT4FfF75VYlmvZRRldp7jaEV9VtZLUc3BMHqfr1C3wXxwrSPxdzqP-ewZt7fLRe8GcLVwtLJbLMu2ohyphenhyphen4JUhsJL0-UJAKAQpiow_KAAZdCpbv23OD8mLPbrx/s1600/IMG_4321.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 266px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh4JrQLxtkavrY0RVxVvYwzT4FfF75VYlmvZRRldp7jaEV9VtZLUc3BMHqfr1C3wXxwrSPxdzqP-ewZt7fLRe8GcLVwtLJbLMu2ohyphenhyphen4JUhsJL0-UJAKAQpiow_KAAZdCpbv23OD8mLPbrx/s320/IMG_4321.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5591488689408619186" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCr487pto3MempI6cVc75AO3e6Exz2jJqhrK2f2tjbjfUzs0QktbqoiVDCvFy5uiw7u4-ei0CkejrASrvcX2CO_QrkPe9KKJ_GHut0wC7884Fcu9WqqNB1MmtFhdOHvPNjYguIJ__Q9-G_/s1600/IMG_4331.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCr487pto3MempI6cVc75AO3e6Exz2jJqhrK2f2tjbjfUzs0QktbqoiVDCvFy5uiw7u4-ei0CkejrASrvcX2CO_QrkPe9KKJ_GHut0wC7884Fcu9WqqNB1MmtFhdOHvPNjYguIJ__Q9-G_/s320/IMG_4331.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5591488681846146850" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4RnOKIAMkBhyphenhyphenXr3PKjg4lAk2UwryhizXFw2uquREH63M2l7c1Z5EYwZnvuvFs2xsY6HBRSgP39GtVVEZWFXCrM0OB3RZAVPzw4X5vMo1EK0pQ2-XXPgsADMzmA9IKVn5HrX8So9i0lBZr/s1600/IMG_4332.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4RnOKIAMkBhyphenhyphenXr3PKjg4lAk2UwryhizXFw2uquREH63M2l7c1Z5EYwZnvuvFs2xsY6HBRSgP39GtVVEZWFXCrM0OB3RZAVPzw4X5vMo1EK0pQ2-XXPgsADMzmA9IKVn5HrX8So9i0lBZr/s320/IMG_4332.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5591488675592780626" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXyoZ3TPjnMDw-i_TD6H8Qkj-1NSmo_ktMNYqtZOV7bfrAvt-hPP25C2CB3ZqsfV3hD99mFFvPxsi1CUVfgLh0C64OziiU3VnPdW-7XR3WDjyUzUMb4503vEvPuy_Zx0KoZrGXErhYLNCM/s1600/IMG_4351.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 183px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXyoZ3TPjnMDw-i_TD6H8Qkj-1NSmo_ktMNYqtZOV7bfrAvt-hPP25C2CB3ZqsfV3hD99mFFvPxsi1CUVfgLh0C64OziiU3VnPdW-7XR3WDjyUzUMb4503vEvPuy_Zx0KoZrGXErhYLNCM/s320/IMG_4351.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5591488670002567266" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifHJ-HbwajYT9Pl-S7JGxvIDSGfhHl6q-f1ExYRv3A2RWNITpzsFVgjbein7DOWUnA8FtpXVELi36NTKv1OvsFKyEObA7azKOr1J5kvvB7s7EnxP1ToEzi-gs9wYh9Lm72L0Meq9jhnuqM/s1600/IMG_4348.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 253px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifHJ-HbwajYT9Pl-S7JGxvIDSGfhHl6q-f1ExYRv3A2RWNITpzsFVgjbein7DOWUnA8FtpXVELi36NTKv1OvsFKyEObA7azKOr1J5kvvB7s7EnxP1ToEzi-gs9wYh9Lm72L0Meq9jhnuqM/s320/IMG_4348.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5591488667356821954" border="0" /></a>A hacking cough invaded our house this week so we stayed extra close to home. Meaning we didn't leave the house for 3 days. Maybe that's why Kale was acting out so much at the end of the week? Anyway, it was a long 3 days. Lots of books were read, lots of tv was watched, toys were strewn about the house and lots of snacks were eaten. We've turned the corner sick wise although Kale did put himself down for a nap at 11:30 this morning... Here's to a new week and lots of outings!naomihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18089599000852688355noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5713612572094900564.post-24805451462200877732011-03-26T19:57:00.006-06:002011-03-27T21:09:00.182-06:00Playing catch upYes, it has been well over a month since my last post. I have a good excuse though! I just started my own business and my time that I usually use to update all my loyal readers is now being used to help people get great skin! For more info, check out my <a href="https://naomimoore.myrandf.com/">website</a>. I also promise to update more often. :)<br /><br />Okay, onto the cuteness. Joel has been walking for a good month now and using it to his every advantage. Counters we once thought were safe can now be reached by little fingers. It is amazing what he can reach even though he is still so little! He and Kale play more together and Joel copies his every move. I have even seen Joel sucking his fingers the same way Kale sucks his. More words are coming daily and I can tell this little guy is going to be a handful. How can I tell? Because he already is. It is like he has a radar for mischief.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">Kale is playing more independently and there seems to be a constant dialogue going between any 2 toys he has in his hands. He is learning the skill of negotiation and loves his friends to no end. We recently spent an extended amount of time with the family of one of his closest buddies and I felt like I didn't see Kale for a whole day! He's more into what dad's up to and if any animal is brought up in conversation he asks if someone shot it.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaT9oReFsszo9xF-wiQqFp5zWHunJPXwd_3OG0WS8YnwzLS1lDJ9fxmKbxScMHIrMecLp1LxUBwf1zrE1Fg7OaBu69yKeWSebU4A3spzQBEI3yPwD_YMLn_qIF36sxXe64MYI_jlLRcsw4/s1600/IMG_4183.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 290px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaT9oReFsszo9xF-wiQqFp5zWHunJPXwd_3OG0WS8YnwzLS1lDJ9fxmKbxScMHIrMecLp1LxUBwf1zrE1Fg7OaBu69yKeWSebU4A3spzQBEI3yPwD_YMLn_qIF36sxXe64MYI_jlLRcsw4/s320/IMG_4183.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5588579043190755938" border="0" /></a>The main reason Kale wants to help bake anything is for this final sweet moment.<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI_bmDqKLr4v0k6PyLzGy9ZxaqXNIQGl6hDUvAFVhh6z8APh785X8bA_diNSNGnh09CQrzhWnmI4hV6IlEPmOXMLed6jHhfcsGS555LG_jMkYvFP7cXt4bMicVr1fB_Nb9IaKVAmQSDz6c/s1600/IMG_4190.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI_bmDqKLr4v0k6PyLzGy9ZxaqXNIQGl6hDUvAFVhh6z8APh785X8bA_diNSNGnh09CQrzhWnmI4hV6IlEPmOXMLed6jHhfcsGS555LG_jMkYvFP7cXt4bMicVr1fB_Nb9IaKVAmQSDz6c/s320/IMG_4190.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5588579037209417890" border="0" /></a>I don't blame him, this <a href="http://www.melskitchencafe.com/2010/09/the-best-chocolate-cake.html">cake</a> is good!<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj79zofNJQiXZbOxtqfWJSqT6R87FEGNEw00r2KdPWR3wZkfCqe4qPAwEZecohFuhDFrLZCpx9RmEHFE6oeSuJljqv_S-1lLWn7QjKw2oEDqvJT_Wxe5wCPGyjIYVbXNjUVV8DeKGNjKnzX/s1600/IMG_4198.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 245px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj79zofNJQiXZbOxtqfWJSqT6R87FEGNEw00r2KdPWR3wZkfCqe4qPAwEZecohFuhDFrLZCpx9RmEHFE6oeSuJljqv_S-1lLWn7QjKw2oEDqvJT_Wxe5wCPGyjIYVbXNjUVV8DeKGNjKnzX/s320/IMG_4198.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5588576540134211778" border="0" /></a>This is from later in February and Kale was swimming.<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYs0VHu2W5Xu94D8ixklpuBYxmz6bjxqMa2uyUT6g2Ez5Pus6eb91TeTZg1qHa_5-MkALDoTVaGDP2VTOOR7PMCEg43cCtvlr9CpwB9o7p3bU8g98v_bNljDGK97eaJkJEizCPj7Bbc8wx/s1600/IMG_4201.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 214px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYs0VHu2W5Xu94D8ixklpuBYxmz6bjxqMa2uyUT6g2Ez5Pus6eb91TeTZg1qHa_5-MkALDoTVaGDP2VTOOR7PMCEg43cCtvlr9CpwB9o7p3bU8g98v_bNljDGK97eaJkJEizCPj7Bbc8wx/s320/IMG_4201.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5588576535201474018" border="0" /></a>Joel's snow boots are about 2 sizes too big for him this year and since he just started walking, I didn't bother to buy him any new ones. So mom got a good workout while shoveling and Joel didn't just sit on the <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoAxXMhDQAFq4DWHmVAnFBVK5NOvUCIpe_37lqy6ht6CgBIMYgIELZ0K3b6ATyM91oFv6LV3bjwyFm3FOQcKVnhTN6yXkkp8JfZRrLsqkjSxVYl9bPWNv75yaT_87_n7VEtECfjlHoyQmn/s1600/IMG_3379.JPG">ground and cry. </a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVERfolSyxUTJi7-4qsZr7GQ237DR1070BDTmNuGqRmwtapdKyPGEI1bIWIUHyU34OWG9xT13a9qSMb1lbMtNJc9QoOyrXkXJC2pVRsWAHu2H4z8s3_Iz5QhVdV8ybX0t5N011LLzBR0lK/s1600/IMG_4235.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 213px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVERfolSyxUTJi7-4qsZr7GQ237DR1070BDTmNuGqRmwtapdKyPGEI1bIWIUHyU34OWG9xT13a9qSMb1lbMtNJc9QoOyrXkXJC2pVRsWAHu2H4z8s3_Iz5QhVdV8ybX0t5N011LLzBR0lK/s320/IMG_4235.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5588576523829360722" border="0" /></a>Joel sees Kale pushing chairs over to help in the kitchen and uses the same technique to try to escape this prison we keep him in. The one where we only serve food every 3 hours instead of non-stop as he would prefer.<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKyS_lTyFbXEn32218JRTesbwywyPS9tJUjyi_fWO5IfTBkEWxba7PetShOTP-DYTiwLr9TUn5BoUT6F9Riokm9WME5_njGtMmmmNkRCjsjQc2zsgnzZY81_nVHlEV9-hfJ5T0lUIzm6wZ/s1600/IMG_4239.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 313px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKyS_lTyFbXEn32218JRTesbwywyPS9tJUjyi_fWO5IfTBkEWxba7PetShOTP-DYTiwLr9TUn5BoUT6F9Riokm9WME5_njGtMmmmNkRCjsjQc2zsgnzZY81_nVHlEV9-hfJ5T0lUIzm6wZ/s320/IMG_4239.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5588576516207424530" border="0" /></a>Seriously, this kid will eat anything.<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYRwkObwLs6ErIoSDaagZ12IsOMP4cGZaXmS4o0a8cJ-5p672Z1WAhJQ8Dhhhu7K45u77Ml5H7XqeS4VXgl0u96ph-jLMjkEjUt-22KTN79cGVDjyiR2mj7Dx8Ei94561P7NXShyxxNXF-/s1600/IMG_4241.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 165px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYRwkObwLs6ErIoSDaagZ12IsOMP4cGZaXmS4o0a8cJ-5p672Z1WAhJQ8Dhhhu7K45u77Ml5H7XqeS4VXgl0u96ph-jLMjkEjUt-22KTN79cGVDjyiR2mj7Dx8Ei94561P7NXShyxxNXF-/s320/IMG_4241.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5588576512609214866" border="0" /></a>Oh the cheeks!<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIEslnpdnU4EeIpLfEEdWcIVCX4WWIyUPKcc4rpaoHLo5NmMtZ_jmjlLE240PULx9zugcttaCjayF4NGvTOf7jnjQ41qxLK__aGvfIB4nFGnjD8Z9YYFeGfQyxQRpzH0was8N8L02W6XxI/s1600/IMG_4246.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 267px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIEslnpdnU4EeIpLfEEdWcIVCX4WWIyUPKcc4rpaoHLo5NmMtZ_jmjlLE240PULx9zugcttaCjayF4NGvTOf7jnjQ41qxLK__aGvfIB4nFGnjD8Z9YYFeGfQyxQRpzH0was8N8L02W6XxI/s320/IMG_4246.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5588574770926063890" border="0" /></a>He loves hats just like his big bro.<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq1eQ8IfJt7BFepwX_w1S6T2iRKR0byYh9Gm1vLInliYggYWC3A9zB9WhXl5iBbu_Xiqgtq7u4YJQ3MCnxVz97LGicCLKlRIZ7YVRvcjHu3FcEoPNCQGyYzDvIoiMQNkpOjcV_jjSWJIm9/s1600/IMG_4255.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 181px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq1eQ8IfJt7BFepwX_w1S6T2iRKR0byYh9Gm1vLInliYggYWC3A9zB9WhXl5iBbu_Xiqgtq7u4YJQ3MCnxVz97LGicCLKlRIZ7YVRvcjHu3FcEoPNCQGyYzDvIoiMQNkpOjcV_jjSWJIm9/s320/IMG_4255.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5588574769247339826" border="0" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6OKaxGIHmuPKjRR2CoMcmQ86V2nW8aU0NEJtblFbAd2OhbzDePH835XG3oLh2QO_eBKQzfkwSWrp2OjRhPwhSLs0zGMgQ5jM7mQM76Ho7nUTWLZ0N4CRK-9iXOaEeGYXvgpqG3XKeU-aa/s1600/IMG_4283.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 308px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6OKaxGIHmuPKjRR2CoMcmQ86V2nW8aU0NEJtblFbAd2OhbzDePH835XG3oLh2QO_eBKQzfkwSWrp2OjRhPwhSLs0zGMgQ5jM7mQM76Ho7nUTWLZ0N4CRK-9iXOaEeGYXvgpqG3XKeU-aa/s320/IMG_4283.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5588574766424831890" border="0" /></a>Smoothies are making a repeat appearance at our house lately. Berries, yogurt, and milk are our recent favorite.<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiQ1I7dccCR0pbu4EuIMXdjCosMHk-4oJUKNJm9pogg-ouFSCyJhKNYlW1y1lspVxtbj0rdbCMN5px1A5cpFArQMiF_yaR1rfEW0T7Paf4FSBoxwwdJW_aqVdSgGAnaiM-5esbFCFI2SZB/s1600/IMG_4294.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 219px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiQ1I7dccCR0pbu4EuIMXdjCosMHk-4oJUKNJm9pogg-ouFSCyJhKNYlW1y1lspVxtbj0rdbCMN5px1A5cpFArQMiF_yaR1rfEW0T7Paf4FSBoxwwdJW_aqVdSgGAnaiM-5esbFCFI2SZB/s320/IMG_4294.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5588574753912163394" border="0" /></a>I hope this is the last snowman of the season! However, the snow makes Peter and I even more excited for our Hawaii trip in April!<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIHXrjObE26fZIapY4ezxZjiQq3g3zQlW5bFi1ZT8QOisL_RWap0aJjwjTCuIYgjd-MrBwTp1hBZX18UnMeY72zeI_0_j-QnQZxMDouLkBEqNLxsDN8Jm3CVEepFT7RjFq0bFQIAMvzp6Q/s1600/IMG_4296.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 203px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIHXrjObE26fZIapY4ezxZjiQq3g3zQlW5bFi1ZT8QOisL_RWap0aJjwjTCuIYgjd-MrBwTp1hBZX18UnMeY72zeI_0_j-QnQZxMDouLkBEqNLxsDN8Jm3CVEepFT7RjFq0bFQIAMvzp6Q/s320/IMG_4296.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5588574750668554498" border="0" /></a>The hugging was short lived. The next day Kale demolished the poor guy with his golf club. <br /></div>naomihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18089599000852688355noreply@blogger.com2