Guiping Girls Reunion

We recently had our annual Guiping Girls Reunion for the 10 families that traveled to China in April 2005. The girls were 14 months at adoption and they are all 7.5 now. Only 9 families made it this year. The girls had a blast, as usual.

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More pool fun

 

 

 

 

Took Anna and Brandon swimming today and also Tanner. HOT out!

We are so glad to have Grandma and Grandpa Schmidt's pool that we can swim at.

Swimming with cousins

July 2011

Had a fun day swimming at the pool with the Indas!

4th Of July

 

 

 

 

Colorado

 

We had a wonderful time in Colorado. We rented a cabin/house in Divide, Colorado. It was a perfect place waaaayyy up in the mountains in Pike National Forest. It took 15 min from the bottom of the mountain in Divide to work our way up to our place. The Aspen Trees were gorgeous here! We went to the sites surrounding Colorado Springs like Garden of the Gods, Florrisant Fossil Beds, Seven Falls, Cripple Creek, Royal Gorge (horseback riding for the girls and rafting for the boys) and a day to Denver to the Red Rocks and a visit with my college friend Andrea Darschewski White. I really wanted to head up to Estes Park,but we ran out of time. We had a beautiful view off of the deck and played Monopoly and enjoyed the hot tub from there.We cooked dinner almost everynight at the cabin and had picnic lunches every day on our days out exploring, hiking, etc. WONDERFUL TRIP!

Since there are over 500 pics that I took, I will just post a link to the photo book when I am done!

Guiping girls visit

 

Anna always enjoys it when Kailee and Carly visit. The girls always pick up where they left off. They missed Karli B, though!

Zoo Fun

 

Anna and Justin always enjoy the zoo. It was time to renew our zoo passes and sign up for camp, so it was a perfect day to stay and play. I am so glad the zoo lets us add Justin to our yearly pass. We were hoping that Pastor Danny would be our train conductor, but not this time.

Dinner Theatre

 

 

 

 

So glad when Dinner Theatre was over! I took on selling tickets for the Saturday Matinee and Saturday Night show. BIG undertaking. About 350 at each of those shows. The Friday night show was sold out and had 380 people. It was an exahausting month, but the 4 shows went well.

Grandma Weber turns 85!

 

We recently celebrated my Grandma's 85th birthday. It was great seeing everyone!

Field Trip

 

Anna's class went to teh local Sports Center for about 5 hours. LONG TIME. They had a blast, though. Anna enjoyed Rock Wall climbing for the first time.

Mother's Day Makeover

 

 

 

 

Anna's school had Mother's Day Makeover. It was my big chance to be pampered by her. She did my hair, make-up, toes, nails, and I got a massage, a corsage, and they sang a couple songs. It was fun and cute. Some of the moms came out of there looking like something out of the AVATAR movie, but I knew it was all about what I put into the cosmetic bag.I was very cautious.

WOW Bowling

 

The WOW program (Wednesday Night choir program) wrapped up its year with another Bowling party. Always a blast for the kids.

Brandon turns 12

 

It was such a busy weekend with Indianapolis and the piano recital AND Brandon's 12th birthday. We surprised Brandon with a drum set. He had been dying for one forever and a friend had one for sale. He is pretty darn good already. Barry and Logan fixed up a small 6x9 store room and sound proofed it a bit and we set the drums up in there. Brandon was VERY surprised and thrilled with the drums.

Piano recital

 

 

 

Brandon and Anna had their piano recital...and Justin, too. They all did a great job on their songs. VERY PROUD OF THEM. Their teacher, Miss Nancy, is fabulous and loves the kids!

NATIONALS!!!!

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Because the Show Choir placed in the top 3 in Hollywood (We won!), we were invited to Indianapolis for the first ever National Competition...to name the absolute best show choir in the nation. What a great day watching the groups! It was a neat competition! We did not get grand champs, but we did get First Runner Up, Best Vocals, Best Diction, Best female Performer, Best girls sound! It was awesome. We also get $5000 toward another FAME competition next year!

Brandon celebrated his 12th birthday in INDY. We went to the restaurant of his choice...The Old Spaghetti Factory. We went there Friday night since the comp was Saturday. We did find time to eat at Weber grill and I also got some ice cream from the hotel restaurant later and we sang to Brandon.

 

Indiana Zoo

 

 

We headed to INDY for Show Choir Nationals, so we kept the kids out of school and took Anna and Brnadon to the Zoo for the day. It was a beautiful day after soooo many days of rain. The kids got to feed giraffes and we went to a great dolphin show. We also visited the Botanical Gardens next to the zoo and saw beautiful tulips and orchids.

Easter at Schmidt's

We had Easter Sunday at the Schmidt's and we were able to get outside for a little while for an egg hunt with the girls.

Blessings

 

 

 

 

 

Feeling blessed with the kids. Even Logan humored me with taking pics on Sunday.