Sibley Cabin and Minnesota trip #2

So we were in Minnesota for awhile so here is part two of that trip.

I was fortunate enough to get together with some of my best girlfriends and professors from Northwestern College Music Dept. Good times!



This was also a time for last girls night before Kristi moved away in our lab group.



Lucas spent some quality time with his Great Grandma Haines.



Why is my little boy getting so big? I don't like it one bit.



Towards the end of July we headed up to the Sibley cabin in northern Minnesota. It was during this time that we celebrated Lucas' "Gotcha Day". This is an important anniversary in the world of adoption when we remember the day our children were placed in our arms. Uncle Bobby (also adopted) was very sweet to get Lucas a cake!







We enjoyed more family time at the cabin with the extended family with lots of eating and playing!









After so much fun in Minnesota we headed back home to Missouri at the end of the month to see Daddy!

Wrapping up the past few months...

Okay so although we have sent out pictures and uploaded to Facebook.. we have failed to keep the blog up to date in the past few months. This will be a nice big post in an attempt to summarize everything from July to now (the end of October). I'll probably break this up a bit:


July 2009- 4th of July and return to Minnesota for FANA weekend.

So we traveled back to Erin's hometown for 4th of July for the sake of good ol' hometown fun. It was "brisk" that day!



These are from the parade in Perry, IA



He needs to stop judging my hat.



Erin's sister Jenny, her husband Jeff, and their kiddos Abby and Caleb came for a visit all the way from Texas. Erin's cousin Amy also drove over from Ohio to get all of the little cousins together.







The Vogtlin visit also prompted an entire family stay at a cabin in central Iowa. Good times!








Following this visit, Erin and Lucas traveled to Minnesota for the annual FANA fundraiser weekend. If you faithful followers recall, we received our referral for Lucas at one of these events last year- so obviously this was a big deal to us!

The picture below was taken about 5 minutes after our friends Kary and Peter learned they had twin boys waiting for them down in Colombia (they are still there working through the process by the way...)



Ted wasn't able to get away from the hospital for the weekend so Nancy was my date :-)



There was a family picnic also.. where Lucas sported his Colombia soccer jersey. Too bad it was so cold!



On that Sunday we went to the FANA Mass that gave us such precious memories from the previous year! Lucas even got to pay a visit to the founder of his orphanage, Mercedes de Martinez who changed his life forever.







That completed the first leg of the Minnesota trip. More pictures in next post!

The New Apartment

Hello! Greetings from nap time. We just wanted to post a few pictures of the new place. It's nothing from Better Homes and Gardens... since people with a baby live here :-)



This is the entry way



The Kitchen & Breakfast nook



This is our dining area





Lucas new room.. about 4 times the size of his old one



This is the guest bathroom that is also attached to Lucas' room



This is our room...



This is a portion of the living room



This is Lucas inspecting our master bathroom



This is our deck and the backyard.

There is also a separate laundry room and our big closet but I'll spare you all of that :-) Use your imagination.



This is Lucas modeling some of his toys and one of his book boxes in our living room :-)

We will leave you with some pictures of Lucas at the Crowne Center fountains. This is a little boy with some big water jets.

The Big Move to Kansas City, Missouri

We're getting close to the end of our first week here in Kansas City. We spent last week wrapping things up in Minnesota. Our last night in Minnesota we enjoyed a BBQ with Ted's immediate family and loaded the truck. The truck is a was a lot bigger than it looks here, the largest truck possible at Budget.



Below are my trusty truck load crew: Ted's Dad Dave, brother in law Bobby, and brother Brad... and also dinner with the whole fam. Lucas had a good time playing with Jaden and Emmy before we left.












We left early Saturday morning from Minnesota and stopped at noon in Des Moines, IA to visit with my Grandma and Grandpa Black and get Lucas out of the car and into the pool!



We arrived safely in Kansas City on Saturday night and enjoyed a good dinner with Uncle Evan.

Evan and his girlfriend Megan were gracious enough to help us unload ALL of our stuff... and it was a lot of stuff. We went to the Plaza in Kansas City with Dave and Nancy on Sunday night before they departed for their Denver vacation on Monday.



Ted spent Tuesday, Wednesday, and today training at the hospital and testing out of some state licensing techniques. I spent the last three days being a Mom :-)

Lucas loves his new room and his pool. There will be many more photos of all of those things once we get more settled.

Ted was able to finish a test in the early afternoon and we were able to go Oasis Water Park that is just 2 miles from our house. We're big fans :-) It's a small park and is not that expensive. Lucas will be free until he is 3 years old so we will be buying a season pass for me next year and we plan to spend a lot of time there. Here are some photos from our day :-)





Lucas gets pretty tired when he's swimming... so he was very happy to snuggle up with Mommy for some time on the lazy river. His thumb took up permanent residence in his mouth for the rest of the afternoon at that point.





Even though he was very sleepy at the end of the day.. he was still smiley







We will leave you with a video of Lucas who is waiting "patiently" for Mommy to finish her breakfast and come play!!