Sassy Saturday

Our jam-packed Saturday schedule had us running from one place another this past weekend.  By the time our head hit our pillows we were just completely exhausted - but OH it was SO much fun!!!  You know that kind of day, right?

If you haven't already put together the pieces, I should inform you that we don't live near our parents.  I mean, we don't live across the country either...but it's a good two hour drive so we want to have a really good reason to make the trip (besides, you know, just saying "hi").  Well Saturday was one of those days.

Every year, my MIL's work throws a company picnic, like I think a lot of places do.  But this is no ordinary potluck they do.  This is one of those all day, beer on tap, meat on the bbq (all ten of them), bouncy house, train ride, petting zoo, face painting type of picnics.  You know, the kind you drive two hours for and don't bat an eye.  So yes, we make a habit of attending this thing, along with the rest of the family.  It's well worth our time, that's for sure.  The kids have a blast and are WORN OUT by the time evening hits (hehehe --> my maniacal laugh).

This is my favorite summer sweater, BTW!!! =)

Excuse the critters =)  Just didn't want to show these kiddos b/c I don't know who they are!

But as if that wasn't a good enough reason, my graduating class (2003 baby!) was celebrating our 10 reunion.  It seemed like the perfect opportunity to drop the kid's off at grandma's and dress up for a kid-free night out.  It was wonderful to see so many friends that I haven't seen in YEARS and catch up and reminisce!  It helped that hubby and attended the same high school, so even though he's two years older than me he still knew several of my classmates.

Of course I was the lame girl who forgot to take pictures practically the whole night, so this is all I really got.  =(  SAD!  I didn't even take a good pic of my new dress for y'all!  Boo.  However, there was a photo booth there so I'm HOPING those pictures will be posted on Facebook soon so that I can have some keepsakes of the night.  Regardless it was still fabulous!

Sweater: Nordstrom Rack
Dress: Urban Outfitters (Here)

Our Trip to Nashville, Y'all!!!

I know, I know...I've been promising details of this trip for, like, ever now!  I mean for crying out loud, we've been home a month already!  But in that month our entire family has been sick three times, including an ambulance ride to Children's ER.  Is that a good enough excuse to be a little behind on posts?  I hope so...because if not, I don't know what is!  LOL!

So.  Nashville.  Everyone asks us...why Nashville?  You mean, besides my obsession with music and my love of the south (or my mental picture of the south, considering that was my first time actually GOING)???  Well, since we started the adoption process we have had a growing group of friends in the Kentucky-Tennessee area that we have been dying to meet (admittedly, I probably wanted to more than my husband).  We needed a break.  It was a good time to take off work.  We wanted a family vacation.  We wanted affordable.  We wanted warmer weather.  Nashville!

(Not so) patiently waiting for the flight, and getting settled in our seats (our flight left at 6am).

Hollywood's first flight....he was a little excited!

Thank GOODNESS for the iPad

We were blessed with AMAZING weather while we were there.  Just one crazy rainstorm/thunderstorm and the rest was sun-sun-sun!!!  We even got some tan lines (yes, including my little Ethiopian)!

For the first half of the trip we stayed with the B family, who we originally met during our first trip in Ethiopia.  Our dear friends were the ones who blessed us by recording and photographing the moment we met our sweet Cocoa for the first time.  If we hadn't instantly bonded over breakfast that first morning I would have still forever had a connection with Teresa and her amazing family after listening to her sweet southern accent on our "Meetcha Day" video over and over again.  As soon as Teresa heard we were coming she offered us a place to stay (southern hospitality is no joke) at their beautiful home right in Nashville.

They were AMAZING hosts.  Their oldest son offered up his room graciously to our family of four.  They gave us free reign of the kitchen, fed us some traditional southern BBQ, and introduced us to their dearest friends.  There was never a moment we felt in their way or out of place - they just welcomed us into the family with open arms!  Even our kids grew so fond of them, offering up hugs and kisses without hesitation.  It just melted me!  =)

In front of their house

The kids with Teresa's sweet daughter, who was from the same orphanage as Cocoa

Playing in the culdesac

What several days with no nap looks like =)

Saturday, the B family decided to give us a real taste of life in Nashville and took us to a game at Vanderbilt.  I know this will confuse every member of my family considering I have hated sports my entire life....but I can't exactly deny my husband and children adventures like this just because they aren't my favorite.  Plus - you can't top a free game in an open stadium on a sunny afternoon!  Some popcorn, pizza, and hefty water bottles and we were set!  That was....until Hollywood started getting a headache from the heat...and then I knew we had to get our fam out of the sun for a little.

That evening, we had the AMAZING opportunity to got out for an Ethiopian dinner with our amazing AGCI family.  Most of the families lived right within the Nashville area, but two dear ladies, Meredith and Cortney, came all the way from Knoxville to meet us!  Although I have ZERO pictures from that evening (due to two very cranky kids demanding our constant attention) we did have a wonderful time visiting with these lovely families.

The second half of our trip we stayed with the R family over in Spring Hill (south of Nashville).  I met Ashley through our community group of AGCI families on Facebook.  They ended up adopting with another agency (you can read their amazing story here), but thankfully stayed a part of the group and we have stayed connected through our common passion of advocating for orphans.

Ashley and her sweet family took us all over the Spring Hill and Franklin area.  We ate at multiple restaurants, visited parks, and shopped downtown.  They opened up their home to us, organized fun play dates with multiple families, and even purchased a pool to ease us Seattle folk into their 80 degree spring weather. Talk about awesome hosts!!!  And as if that wasn't MORE than enough...they also picked us up and took us to the airport.  Oh my goodness guys....we're so grateful words aren't enough!

Ashley and Makenzie's sweet girls!

Splish Splash!  Fun in the sun!

Some Ethiopian sass from Makenzie's adorable little lady!

Hollywood finally joining in on the fun

Some Instagram Fun =)

Makenzie and her adorable family (who I also met through AGCI) met up with us on several occasions throughout the week as well as inviting us into their home and giving us a tour of East Nashville.  It was fun to have friends all over the Nashville area to show us the best of the best!   And we are so grateful they took the time out of their busy schedule to welcome us to Nashville and let us get to know them a little better.

On Friday, we got a very unique opportunity to meet up with some very special friends whom I have known for a long time, but never met in person until this trip.  This is kind of a crazy story, are you ready?  We met about 5 years ago on babycenter.com when we were all trying to start a family.  My husband and I were at a point that we were ready for kids, but we wanted to surprise our family and friends with the news.  But until there was news to share, I needed a place where I could share my excitement, concerns, and ask questions....and that's when I met these amazing ladies.  It started out as just conversation but grew into deep, meaningful friendships.  Our group grew quite big over the years and we're spread all over the United States and even Australia!  They are some of the best friends a girl could ask for - they let me vent without judging, they have been an emotional support system through every adventure our family has gone on, and I am so blessed to have them in my lives.  SOOOO....when these two awesome ladies from Kentucky were willing to come MEET ME in Nashville, I jumped at the chance!  So finally we got to hug and talk face to face and see each other's precious kids.  SUCH an amazing day.  So THANK YOU Amber and Jenn for making the drive.  It means the world to me.

At the Opry Mall and Rainforest Cafe and a huge thanks to my hubby for graciously watching the kids so we could chat and for actually capturing a photo with everyone smiling!!!  Amazing!

We also had the pleasure of meeting the J and G families on Sunday.  When they heard our family was coming into town they invited us to join them for their joint family dinner, after a tour of the Brentwood/Nolensville area, of course.

Kristi and her family I met through her well-known blog.  Back when we were researching the Ethiopian adoption process, I stumbled upon her blog and Gotcha Day video for Lucy Lane and that was how we were introduced to AGCI!  Kristi welcomed us into her home and gave us the grand tour of her 1800's farmhouse (so cute, and so amazing).  And then her sweet husband offered to watch the kids so that Kristi could drive us around town!

Candi and her family hosted our three families for dinner!  I also met them through the AGCI community and Candi was one of the first to send me photos of our sweet Cocoa at Hannah's Hope (since their family traveled in March, and we didn't go until May).  They gave us our first glimpse of Cocoa's smile....I will NEVER be able to thank them enough for that!!!

It was a house full of laughter and good food - they had quite a spread of southern BBQ and sweet tea (which I have grown to LOVE by the way).  And we were so blessed that we could join the G's in celebrating their kiddos' Gotcha Day as well as Candi's husband's birthday.

Breaking out the cake

At the end of the night we realized it might be wise to get a pic of all the ladies =)

Out of the entire week we had one afternoon with nothing scheduled.  I was a little worried about what we were going to do, but it ended up being SUCH a fun day!  We found ourselves downtown just walking around.  Even though I am not a big city girl and never will be, I do enjoy being a tourist every now and then.  There was some event going on so the streets were packed, but we still had so much fun.

So on top of meeting all these amazing families for the first time, we also got the opportunity to meet up with my cousin, who moved to Nashville last year.  It was so fun to see her in her environment!  Nashville so fits her personality!  Necia took us out to a fun southern restaurant, Jim 'N Nicks, which is well known for their life-altering cheesey biscuits.  If you haven't tried them, you must!  Soooo good!  The kids just LOVED seeing mommy's cousin...she's kind of awesome and always a hit with the kids =)  And then she took us back to her apartment so we could see her part of town and chat for a while.  SO glad it worked for us to get together because it was SUCH a fun evening.

Well!  That about sums up a pretty awesome week!  Have YOU been to Nashville?  What do YOU think?

He is Risen!!!

A very belated Happy Easter to all my lovely readers out there!  

I hope you had a wonderful holiday weekend celebrating the resurrection of our Lord and Savior!!  I won't bore you with all the details of our quiet and restful weekend, (Although there is nothing boring about the FEAST we enjoyed at our friends' house on Easter Sunday! A lovely meal complete with ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes with a heavenly marshmallow topping, asparagus, salad, deviled eggs, and rolls.  Oh.  My.  Word.  Our bellies were so full and joyful.) but I couldn't resist sharing some pictures.  When the sun is out, I just can't help myself! ;)

My heart (and belly) is full and I am so grateful that the Lord thought I was worthy of such a sacrifice.  Thank you Lord!!!  You have blessed me far beyond what I deserve.

California Part 3: Farewell

{Flashback}

Continued from Part 1 and Part 2 of our family road trip to California last May!

On our final day in Cali (*sob*) we woke up in beautiful Los Angeles in our hotel room after a rough night of sleep.  The kids felt fabulous, but it wasn't such a great start to our sleep deprived drive home.  We packed up quickly after getting dressed for church, because it was going to be a 2 hour drive to make it to The Ranch Church in Los Olivios on time.  After finding out that we didn't get a complimentary breakfast at the hotel, we took one last potty break in the lobby and buckled up before swinging through the McDonald's drive through for some coffee and breakfast.  Unfortunately, Hollywood wasn't all that interested in fast food (per the usual) so he downed his milk and sat hungry.  (Stubborn as can be, that little one.)  Cocoa loved the smoothie (and yes, even mama's coffee) and pretty much anything else we could stuff into that little mouth.

We hit traffic as expected, but that wasn't what caused our tardiness.  It was a wrong turn to blame for that.  I'm really bad at following directions....but my husband should know better than to take my word for it too (see how I escaped the blame on that one?!?).  We pulled into the church parking lot at about 5 after (really that's better than we can do at our own church which is an entire 8 minute drive from our house) with Brittany and Selah on the sidewalk showing us where to go.  We stepped out into a sweltering 97 degree weather (a huge contrast from the breeze we felt early morning in LA) and were instantly sweating.  Hollywood wanted no part in the boys' classroom so we just took him into service with us.  The kids did great during worship, but once the sermon started they were DONE.  Too much sitting already that morning, I suppose.  Brittany escorted us to a grassy area where the kids could play, and found some bananas for my hungry little boy.  Ignore the grumpy face from the little mister because he really was quite happy....he just wanted to go to Clay and Parker's house to PLAY!  =)

After service we were introduced to some more of Ian and Brittany's friends and were blown away by their friendliness and support to these two.  What a great community!

Before heading back to the Bentley house, we followed our friends to Saarloos and Sons where we had planned to do a little wine and cupcake tasting (how Californian is that?) but between the overwhelming temperatures and limited shade for my pasty boy and myself, we decided to just purchase some tastings to take home instead.  Brittany chose a great variety of mini cupcakes to share with the fam.  Much to our excitement, on our drive home we witnessed a huge police helicopter in a field....they must have been doing some training or something....Hollywood was over the MOON excited!  There was a sign that said we could go and watch, but there was just no shade out there and we were already feeling faint from dehydration so we voted to skip it (even though that would have been mister's highlight of the trip, I'm sure of it....IF we could keep him from fainting, lol).

At the house, Brittany set up the little pup tent with a blow up pool inside of it.  The kiddos stripped into their undies (and diapers) and set up camp inside with a snack of frozen pineapple.  While the parents enjoyed their wine and cupcakes, the children rotated between the driveway pool party, and the bed for some cartoons.  (Most adorable thing ever).  And let's just add that I forgot how quickly alcohol affects you when it's that hot outside!  LOL!  The temperature kept climbing into the 100's and with 9 people in one small home, there was little escaping it.

We helped with a little more packing, but spent most of the afternoon just relaxing and enjoying company.  At one point Brittany and I did catch Jill and Emmarie (the other little lady from our Ethiopia travel group...wouldn't have been complete without seeing ALL THREE of those little ladies) on Skype!  Still blows my mind how much these girls have grown!!!

Hubs and I decided to start our trek back home around dinner time, so the kiddos could enjoy some cartoons and wind-down time before falling asleep.  The AC in the car was a welcome refuge from the heat, but there were a lot of tears as we said our goodbyes...knowing that it could very easily be years before we saw the Bentley's again.  Before jumping on the highway, we stopped by an awesome little taco joint Ian introduced us to (and I quickly became obsessed with....those were some tradish tacos y'all!!!) and devoured them on the road.

The drive was long and boring, and in all honesty most of the details are escaping me at the moment.  Our sleep deprivation caught up with us FAST as we were trying to drive through the night.  On the trip there we could rotate drivers every 5 or so hours, but we were switching every hour or two on the way back in the wee hours of the night.  It was completely miserable and we were really feeling sorry for ourselves...but we only had ourselves to blame too!  There was thankfully a lot less vomit on the trip back...it was almost completely eliminated from turning Cocoa's car seat around.  Our only incident was somewhere in south Oregon early in the morning.  We were literally pulling off of the freeway after we spotted a sign for Subway (hello yummy breakfast) when we heard that awful and all too familiar noise.  Apparently in our sleep deprived state we didn't notice how fast our ice was melting in our cooler (thanks to the 100 degree weather the day before, I'm sure) and our milk had gone bad.  Poor babe =(  Thankfully Subway was also next to a Safeway where we picked up another pack of baby wipes (yes, we had gone through a Cosco-sized pack already) and some fresh milk.

By lunch time we had made it to Portland.  Although we had hoped to stop and have lunch with some friends, the timing didn't work out...not to mention we were so exhausted and ready to be home that we ended up swinging into fast food once again.  We DID however stop at All God's Children to see our caseworker Kiersten!!!  We hadn't seen her since we started our dossier back in 2010 and she had yet to meet Cocoa!  If I wasn't so tired, I might have remembered to take some photos....but oh well.  We had a great visit and the staff at AGCI got some toddler entertainment before we headed back on the road.

Although it was already raining in Portland, it only got worse as we rolled into Seattle and hit a dead stop in traffic.  Although I mourned the loss of sunny California, I was never so happy to get out of my car!  It was all we could do to unbuckle the kids and plop on the couch for cartoons (yes, after they just spent HOURS watching cartoons in the car....t-i-r-e-d).  I think we even picked up pho for dinner.

It took some time to catch up on laundry and readjust to Seattle life, as expected.  But we had SO much fun in California, and we are SO glad that we took the opportunity to go see our friends.  Thank you Cat, Susan, and the Bentley's for hosting us and thank you Skidmore's for making the drive to hang out with us!!!!  We love you all and look forward to next time!!! =)