Our Hilton Head, SC Vacation

So, I bet you thought I dropped off of the face of the earth, eh? Nope! We just got back from a 10 day relaxing (haha!) vacation in Hilton Head. I'll tell you, all things considered, we had a GREAT time. It was low key and we had time to do what ever we wanted and just got to be a family. That was an awesome feeling.

It's ab0ut 12 hours from us so we stopped the 1st night in Charlotte, NC. We had some insanely awesome BBQ (we stopped here on our last trip through) and laughs at The Residence Inn. We took our time the next day getting to our condo in HH. It was on a golf course (foooooooooore! I wanted to scream soooo bad from the patio) and decorated so nicely. We each had our own bedroom which sort of help keep with our at home sleep routines. The pool was amazing. It was one of those zero depth ones where the kids can just walk in to and it had tons of sprinklers and water thing-a-ma-jigs that kept my kiddos VERY busy all week. The beach was about a mile a way. We didn't go there as often as I would have liked (the sand was white and the water was warm) because Logan had some "issues" thanks to a few too many Sponge Bob episodes (grrrrrr!) but I've learned to pick my battles and serenity on vacation was what I was looking for :)

We had so much fun swimming and shopping (weeeeeee!) and playing min-golf and eating ice cream (every night!) that it was hard to come to real life. But we're here now and real life is still a pretty happy place to be :)

Here are my 10 zillion pics:

Logan in his bed

The Kitchen

The Living Room & Patio

Logan giving "the Fonz"

Playing Ping Pong -- My Olympic Hopefuls :)

Logan zipping around the wharf at The Salty Dog

Shy? Are you kidding me?

Ice Cream Social -- Don't they look thrilled??

My honey and me

Precious as always

Sipping her Lemonade

Say "Cheese" if you loves the ice cream!

Pretty Boats

My Beach Bugs

This was Devon's 1st trip to the ocean. She looooooved the sand!

In the stockade at "Pirate Golf"

Devon's 1st time playing Putt-Putt

Logan being a cool dude on stage with an odd magician man





Devon mesmerized that Big Bro was doing magic

Ahhhhhhh, more ice cream!


It rained one day and Logan scored a Nintendo DS Lite & Mario

How cute is Devon here??

Get Down, Get Down!

The Sprinkler Queen!

Logan floating in the pool

This alligator lived in the pond by the pool. He was real! There were signs posted "Do NOT Feed Alligators: $10,000 Fine!" I wasn't looking to be gator bait!

Totally blurry but me and the love bugs :)

My dudes :)

My Princessa and me

I tried soooo hard to get a picture of them together. I tried, I swear! They were too busy having fun to pose.

My camera survived this sand storm that Logan launched at me. "Why I am too afraid to by an SLR" by Tara

The happiest little girl on earth

Yes, my son is wearing a funny hat....lol.

I love Devon's smile in this picture

Here are my Disco Fever stars getting down at The Shannon Tanner Show at Shelter Harbor

Logan volunteered to sing a song on stage (!!!)

He busted out "YMCA"

My Brother's kickin' it disco!

Silly Devon at the hotel on the way home in VA

Boating with Friends

I am happy to report that Devon's GI Scope went well yesterday. The Dr. did not see anything obvious but he did take some biopsies. We will know those results in about 3 weeks. Poor bug was so tired and worn out yesterday.

We were so lucky to get the chance to relax with our friends Ruthanne and Andrew and my brother and sister-in-law last night. Ruthanne was so nice and picked up authentic Philly hoagies and cheesesteaks for us. Oh my gosh....they rocked! I truly never realized that there was a difference between a hoagie and cheesesteak, but like a fine wine we compared and contrasted their tasting notes.....lol. Let's just say that I was chowing down the scraps again at 10pm. After dinner, we cruised around the lake on Shawn's boat. It was Andrew's first boat trip and I'm pretty sure that he like it. They spent the night and Andrew slept like a champ. Logan woke up with a fever and tummy bug in the morning and Ruthanne and Andrew watched him for me while I took Devon to OT. I owe her BIG TIME!

Here are some pics from our 3 hour tour.....a 3 hour tour (just kidding).

Devon driving the boat with Unc Shawn

The cutest little skipper :)

"I look speed in the face and laugh!"

We call this one "Windblown"

More funny hair

"My name is Logan and the world is my urinal"

Birth Mom Found! & Going Under

I'll start with the hardest part. Devon has to go under tomorrow morning at 7am for a GI Scope. Many of you know that she has had some serious eating issues and we are trying to get to the bottom of it to determine if it is phsyiological or psychological or a combo of both. She has been on medicine for a month and a half with not much luck and she has been seeing Logan's fabulous OT and will get on her schedule regularly in a few weeks. The last few days have been really rough on her with food and it breaks my heart to see her struggle. I hope that we get some answers tomorrow and pray that it is quick and painless for her.

Now for the EXCITING news. We made successful contact with Devon's First Mom with searcher Nancy Hoffman. We learned information that we will treasure from the simple (her favorite music and foods) to deeper things like her heritage from El Salvador (!!! I have an entire NEW culture to study!) and siblings. Two amazing things that came from the search was the peace that she said she now had in her decision to create an adoption plan for Devon and that she would like to meet us some day! Nancy is sending back some pictures to the States with a family that was down there on a reunion and I hope to have them soon. I am thrilled at the idea of meeting some day. I truly could not have asked for a better outcome. I'm still in shock and it still chokes me up thinking about it.

The Guat-Tots Take on Kalahari!

We just got home a few days ago from one of my favorite trips of all times: Kalahari in Sundusky, OH with our group of friends that we call "The Summer Sisters". We all started our adoption process for Guatemala in the Summer of '06 and are from all over the country and have grown so close since we 1st all met. We knew that we wanted to get together this summer and Curly chose to go to Kalahari for his 40th birthday (I love my big kid!) so I let the Summer Sisters know and Viola! We had The Cash Crew in from TN with Kelly sister Kasey and her son Alex, Ruthanne & Andrew from Chicago, Sheri, Eliot & Curtis from NYC, Marcy & her beautiful girls from Orlando and Nikki & her kiddos from Dover, OH. I think someone counted 17 kids! Man oh man! It was a BLAST!

We checked in on Tuesday and immediately found Sheri and her DH and son. It was so exciting to finally meet them! We had a pizza party in their room on Tuesday night and went back to hit the slides.

Wednesday started off with a light rain so we tackled the indoor waterpark. That night we had a "Fiesta" to celebrate Curly's BIG 4-0! We had a taco bar, homemade corn and black bean salsa, fresh guacamole and then tres leches cake for dessert. We went back out swimming after all that (I promise that we waited the required 30 minutes....lol).

Thursday was check out and time for more goodbyes. I was sad but know that we will all see each other again.....hopefully sooner than later!

We created some awesome memories that I will never, ever forget!

Our "Roomies": Ruthanne & Andrew

Devon and boyfriend Andrew :)

All of the kids (minus Logan & Mason who were off doing cool 5 year old stuff and Alex who was busy being cute somewhere else)

Sofie, Devon, Andrew, Bryce, Isabelle (checking out her friend's shoes....like mother like daughter....lol) and Kemry

Ready!!!

Woooosh!!!

Splash!!!

Devon & Kemry bustin' a move in the tree house

Curly: The "Pied Piper" of cute kids

We didn't have a place to hang the pinata, so Curly held it.

We didn't have anything to break it open so we used a pasta spoon and then resorted to having Curly just rip in to it! Hey, whatever works :)

Curly opening that AMAZING gift basket of Trader Joe yummies from the Summer Sisters

Devon sitting on Nikki's lap trying to sneak some of Isabelle's beans

Devon pounding a juicebox on Kasey's lap and her sweet son (I ADORE his cheeks) Alex

"Do all of those beans show on my swimsuit figure???"

Curly blowing out his candles (40 real candles would have set off the condo's fire alarm!)

Funny M&M's I had made with Curly's face and funny sayings

Logan soaking up some rays at the outdoor water park

Some things in life are best shared with a friend at the end of a loooooooong day!