Christian Homes Picnic

After the lake trip, we came back for a day and then it was off to Abilene for Christian Home's bi-annual adoption picnic. It was held at the park across the parking lot from the zoo. CH did a great job of providing lots of entertainment for the kids -- climby things, slidey things, a mini-train, face painting, balloon clown. They had hamburgers and hot dogs for us to eat and most of the staff from CH were there. It was nice to be able to see some of them again and for them to see Grace.

We had gone Friday and spent the night in a hotel - continuation of the vacation - and then Saturday after the picnic went to the zoo. They have built a very nice new entrance, complete with new shop and some classrooms, but it was not yet open.

Here is a visual report of that trip:

This is the vice president of social services. He drove this tractor most of the day.


She looks happy here, but did not really like the ride.


Here is Luke doing "Little Bunny Foo-Foo" karaoke. He really wanted some country, but they did not have any - whew! Not sure how to explain to all of those case workers what is going on when he breaks out into Robert Earl Keen, Pat Green or Tim McGraw.


Here Luke enjoys a snack and a drink on his way back home...


...and here is Grace literally less than a minute from pulling out of the zoo parking lot.

Random Vacation Pictures

Here are some more pictures from vacation that did not make the previous post.


Here is Grace wearing Bo-Bo's (that's brother, for the uninformed) shoes and socks. The socks go up to just above her knees. "She's a maniac ... maniac..."


Grace just being cute.


This is Grace showing us what the fishy's say.

Vacation Slides

I suppose that blogs have taken the place of going over to people's houses to view their vacation slides. And since some of you have commented that my/our lack of posting indicated we were out of town, I will give you a vacation update.

We went out to the lake two Fridays ago to spend a few days just hanging around doing nothing ... well, not entirely nothing. We did two puzzles:



(I can tell how much Luke has grown since the last time we were there in that he can find the pieces and actually put them in place. Last time it was more "make them fit." And I love the lake hair!)

We fished:



(This is actually two of three for Luke. If you are keeping score at home, it would be Luke - 3, Dad - 0!)

We played in the wading pool:


We looked at bugs:


(Big bugs!)

We swam:


(The lake was as high as it has been for some time, which was nice because it is hard to convince your child he needs to wear a life jacket on the dock when there is no water below the dock!)

Speaking of life jackets:


(Too cute!)

We played Uno:


(Again, we want to be sure to impress upon our children that competition is way over rated so I guess I do not need to post here that this picture was taken after Luke beat Jana and I 10-4-3.)

Events not pictured would be cookouts, nature hikes, looking at the many, many buzzards who have made the cabin their home, conversations about crazy cousin Bill. It was a great time and one we were able to relax. Thanks Aunt Patsy for letting us use the place!