Boys camping weekend

This weekend was the second annual father/son weekend that a friend of ours hosts up at his lake property.  It's mostly guys from our Couples in Christ weekend with some new faces this year as well.  Jay pretty much wins the contest, hands down, for bringing the most sons.  The guy that hosts has a trailer on a lake with great swimming and fishing for them all to do.  They actually brought the tent and did some roughing it at night.  Last year, I was all on my own for the weekend....but this year it was just me and Livi. 
On Friday night I met my friend, Helen, for dinner at Big Bowl....YUM.....I had Livi and she brought her 2 kids who are also from China.  It was funny because not long after we sat down, I commented to her that we probably look like a couple with our 3 adopted children.  Haha!! 
It was interesting that when Olivia and I arrived and saw them there, Livi ran up to her son Alex, laughing and smiling until she was right next to him.  He's 6, by the way....it's interesting because she doesn't even know Alex.  She's never even met him until that night.  But she ran up to him like she knew just who he was.  I looked at Helen and wondered if she saw him and thought he was someone she knew from China.  I mean, here he is with his short, black hair.....what if he reminded her of one of her friends there.  It was very sweet and kinda sad all at the same time.
The boys came home today with tons of stories about catching fish and having cannon ball contests off the dock.....dads and all.  They played flashlight tag at night and grilled up the fish they caught for dinner one night.  The only complaints they had about it was that the mosquitoes were the worst they've ever seen.  Jay said he's never experienced anything like it.....they didn't even stay out and have a bonfire at night, it was just too bad.  They spent the evenings in our friends trailer with no bugs and air conditioning.  The air was a welcome thing because the only other complaint wast he heat.  It was hot!  The temps have gotten into the 90's, but the humidity has made the heat index well over 100'.  It has been absolutely sweltering!  I can't believe they had to sleep in that out in the tent.  Jay said that when they would wake in the morning, their sleeping bags were wet from the moisture in the air.  UGH!!  Thank goodness they had the lake.  They said they were pretty much in the water non stop...even the adults.  And they went through a ton of water and juice.  Even the guys stopped drinking beer towards the end and decided it would be smarter to open the water.  Ya think??  hehe....
They got home at about 3:35pm today....about 5 seconds after my brother, Mike, showed up to pick up Tyler to come babysit for the night.  He didn't even walk in the house, he just went from one minivan to the next.  Good timing!
Well, I wish I had pictures to share of it all but I didn't send the camera with them.  I only have my nice one since the old one recently broke, and I didn't want them to have that in the tent just waiting to get stepped on.
Maybe if we're lucky someone else took some pictures of the weekend. 
I'll have to ask Jay about that....hmmmm....
I'm so glad they get to do this. Hopefully, it's the start of a really great tradition.  I know our friend that hosted has said he'd like it to be an annual thing, so that's great.  It's good for the dads and sons to have that time together. 
And, it's good for mom to have some quiet time at home. 
See, everybody wins!!

Livi's surgery

On Monday, Olivia had her palate repair surgery.  It was a one hour surgery that required her to stay over for one night in the hospital.  I stayed with her and we were home by about 3pm on Tuesday. 
We knew this one would be harder on her because it is more invasive than the lip, but I don't think you ever really understand that until you see your child hurting and in pain.  After it was over, the nurse came out to the waiting room to bring us back to the recovery room.  I wasn't prepared for the sight of her.  It was the most pitiful little thing I've ever seen.  She was being held and rocked by one of the nurses and laying her head on her shoulder.  She had her eyes closed and was only whimpering.  Her lips were swollen and there was blood all over.  She had it coming from her mouth.....her nose....and her ears (the ears and nose dried up pretty quickly, but the mouth bled constantly the rest of the day).
It just made me so sad to see her that way and I got very choked up.  I took her and sat on the rocking chair holding her, wiping the blood she kept drooling, and wiping her tears....and my own. 
There isn't much I can say to her to help her understand what's going on.  I can't explain that we did this because we love her.  I can't tell her that the doctors really are nice and good people who are helping her.....even though they had to hold her down while they put her to sleep in the operating room.....and I can't tell her that it won't always hurt this bad.  
So I just whispered in her ears the things I knew she would understand. 
"Mama's here......"
"It's okay....."
"I know that's a bad owie..." (she understands owie and points to her lip when we talk about it)
"All done....."  (she knows what that means too)
In all these words I wanted her to understand the simplest parts of it......
That I know it hurts....that it's all over now....and that I'm here and it will be okay.
So I just kept repeating those things...over and over.  When she'd get real upset and start writhing around, the nurse would add some morphine to her IV.  That would help and you could feel her relax again for a while. 
At one point, while holding her with Jason right next to us, rubbing her back, I looked at him and asked...
Who does this for all those little orphans getting surgery that don't have a mom and dad? 
Who sits in a rocking chair and whispers comfort to them?
Who makes sure that they're getting enough medicine to help with the pain?
I imagine it's not the same for them and they are hurting and scared.  That made me sad to think about and I was so glad I could be there for her at that moment.
After about 40 minutes in Recovery, they got us up to her room where we held her for another couple hours before finally trying to lay her in her bed.  She was real upset at first, but then I got in right next to her and she calmed down. 
She was pretty miserable that whole evening and so, because of that, we opted to have the boys stay home this time instead of coming for a visit.  It would have been way too much for her.  She just was not herself. 
I really didn't see any perk of her until about noon the next day. 
During that 24 hour period, I just spent time with her.  Reading story books, watching kids videos, wiping her poor mouth...over and over....and trying to get her to eat and drink something.  She has to be on a liquid/pureed diet for 2 weeks so we were trying things like applesauce, pudding, and ice cream.  I knew she was hungry but she didn't want anything to do with it.  Later on Monday evening, she would try a bite, but then it would just make her cringe and cry and she would refuse to try any more. 
Lunchtime on Tues. was the first time I really got her eat anything.  She finished a whole pudding and some ice cream.  Healthy, huh.  Who cares though. 
They sent us home with some pain meds that we used along with Tylenol and IB pretty consistently for the next 2 days because it was obvious she needed it.  You could just tell when something was starting to wear off so I really tried to just get on a schedule with it and stay ahead of her pain. 
So, here we are on Friday and she's really doing better.  I'd say yesterday was the first day she was more herself.....although she is pretty crabby still, today too.  That's understandable though, I'd say.
I'm glad this is done and we won't have to do anything major again for a long time.  Thank God all went well and she's going to heal up just fine and be good as new.  What a sweetie. 
So, just in case you forgot how amazing her transformation has been....this is how far we've come in just a couple months.

Sunday Snapshot: MOA

For those of you NOT from Minnesota.....MOA stands for Mall of America.
Our house is about a 45 minute drive to the biggest mall around. 
It's HUGE! 
There's an entire amusement park indoors and over 520 stores to shop at.....hello, can you say "woman's paradise"?
In the grand tradition of trying to find things that are free and cheap to do with the kids this summer, I decided to take a trip out there. 
Me....and 6 kids....
in a mall big enough to fit 7 Yankee Stadiums inside.....
big enough to park 32 Boeing 747's in it.....
and large enough to fit the 4 heads of Mount Rushmore in each corner of the building......
Smart, huh?
The plan......
to walk around the mall and play in all that it has to offer without spending any money. 
**I even packed a lunch for us to eat in the food court......like we were going to the local park rather than a public mall**

Here's a fun fact about the Mall....
If you spend 10 minutes in every store there, it would take 86 hours to see them all. 
Needless to say, we didn't quite do that. 
But we did park....go in on the first floor....and start to walk around.
The goal was to walk around all 3 levels and stop and go as we pleased. 
Here's a snippet of the conversation I had with the boys on the way there.....
"Don't ask to go on any rides......don't ask for ice cream or cookies at the Nestle stand.....don't leave my side.....if you get separated from me, stay where you are......don't get us kicked out of any stores.....Don't ask for any toys, not even to spend your own money on......don't embarrass me.......
Other than that.....Let's have FUN!"   hahaha.....I'm so mean.  :)
Alright, so what else is there.....
How much fun really can 5 boys and a little girl have in a Mall anyway.....
And what in the world will they do.....?
Well.....this.....

We played in this really cool novelty toy store.....

The boys looked around in their favorite shoe store.....

And we checked out the digs in the Vikings Store.....

We threw pennies in the alligator wishing pond at the Rainforest Cafe.......

I had zero change on me, so Trae decided to just grab some that was on the head of the gator.....

isn't it bad luck to steal someone elses wishes??....

and ate our lunch from home.....I did spend $2 on a large pop from Burger King that we shared and refilled about 8 times throughout the day....
We got a treat when we stumbled upon a stand with girls handing out free
cans of Pepsi Throwback.......
Um...we'll take 7, thank you very much.....

There were some really yummy cheese samples at the Wisconsin store

Next up was Lego Land.....a kid favorite. 
We spent lots of time there and the boys all built some pretty fun things.

There was this really cool tropical restaurant...but we didn't go in. 

We just had fun with the board out front....

We were there so long by this time that Jason decided to join us after work. 

Here we are waiting for him....

and this is the "show me your muscles" contest that went on while we sat overlooking

the amusement park..

Olivia wanted in on the action too...

Oh, honey....we're gonna have to talk about just how far a girl can pull her shirt over....hehe..

Okay, so by this time....it's dinner time.  We're hungry. 

We decided to get some McD's at the food court.

After that, we had time to go to Lego Land again

and another toy store....

....and pose outside of the Bubba Gump restaurant .....

sitting where Forrest Gump had and trying on his shoes.

By the time we finally decided to call it a day,

it was 9pm.  I had gotten there at 11:45 that morning.  Just to be clear....

That's over 9 hours.....in a mall......with 6 kids. 

But, ya know what.....we really had fun. 

I think we just might do this again before school starts.

4th of July Camping

Camping has definitely become of our families favorite things to do. 
We love it! 
The boys love it! 
And now, Olivia loves it!
The kids love it because it's a perfect way to just be outside and swim, fish, and get dirty all day...
Jay and I love it because we know we are creating great family memories for them that will last a lifetime. 
This 4th was no different.  We went to the same resort up north for the 3rd year in a row now. 
It's small and quiet and the fishing and swimming is great so it's perfect for us.

This year Tyler caught his biggest fish to date.  It was a bass that weighed in at 3 1/2 pounds and he was beyond excited! 

All the boys did some fishing and had good luck....both off the dock and out on the lake. 

Livi had so much fun in the water.  She wasn't too fond of the idea back when we were camping on Memorial weekend, but the freezing cold water probably had a lot to do with that time.  This time....she was all fish. 

We had gone up with some friends of ours this year.  They had a camper too and have 2 kids...twins.  Tyler has been in school with their daughter since they were in kindergarten together so we've gotten to know them that way.  The other dad had a good catch like Tyler....pulling in a 4 pound Northern.  The two of us decided to go ahead and fillet them up and cook them for dinner that night.  I did Tyler's bass and he did his Northern.  Between the two, we came up with enough meat for all 12 of us to have a good size piece that night. 

 On Sunday, we headed to Bay Lake where we had reserved a pontoon to rent for the afternoon.  It was one of the best weekends we've spent up there for weather.  The sun was out every day and it was just beautiful.  The water was warm......it was perfect. 
We spent 5 hours on the lake on that pontoon.  We drove it to a sandbar and stayed there for the first 3 hours or so.  Just swimming and hanging out on the boat. 

We took the next 2 hours to just go around the lake and try some fishing.  The fishing wasn't that great, but the view was beautiful and that 5 hours flew by. 
There was a radio on the boat and we had the music playing while we swam. 
At one point, Livi was over by Jason and he started to dance with her.  It was the cutest thing ever!
All I could think of was that Steven Curtis Chapman song....Cinderella. 
Made me want to cry.......This small child, never knowing a daddy before......will now grow up having one.  How precious.

That evening, back at the campsite, some of the other people staying there had brought a ton of fireworks. All the people there pulled up a chair on the beach and watched.

Monday morning came and we took our time leaving.  We weren't in a hurry to get home and wanted to get as much swimming and fishing in before we had to head out. 
The night ended with us going to fireworks.  We only had to go about a mile from our home where people lined the streets for a great view of the show.  It was Livi's first 4th of July and her first as an American, so it was pretty special. 
What a great weekend!!