You will begin to notice a theme in my photography, which is that certain small people are highly uncooperative when it comes to sitting close together, facing the camera, removing obstructions from in front of their faces, and smiling genuinely for Mommy. Is that too much to ask? Well, anyway, I've decided to accept it for what it is and strive for authenticity rather than perfection. So when we went to a playground at a park and I posed them on a bench, they couldn't tear their eyes away from a nearby spiderweb. Here it is...
After the spiderweb episode, Victoria was holding this rock in front of her face and refused to remove it. I'm still not sure how I snapped this one.
At the lake house, we went on several boat rides, saw a pair of bald eagles, some gulls, lily pads, a couple of ducks, a heron, some "fishies," and a spectacular sunset that I did my best to capture on film.
In Minnesota, it doesn't get dark until almost 10:00, so the kids had a hard time adjusting to going to bed "before it's night time." We would eat dinner around 6:00, like always, and then get them ready for bed, read a story, and then Tino would ask, "When are we going to eat dinner?"
The lake was COLD, but we swam in it almost every day anyway. Here is my boy drying off.
A rare moment of cooperation with my picture-taking efforts. I must have bribed them or something, I can't remember exactly.
They enjoyed digging in the soft ground in the woods. Along with swimming in a natural body of water, digging is another childhood pleasure not to be found here in Phoenix- not without power tools anyway- the ground is rock hard.
Two weeks after we got back from Minnesota, we spent the weekend at an annual retreat hosted by our adoption agency, once again escaping the climbing temperatures. That was such a wonderful experience. Now that we have had the kids for two years, I feel very much a part of the community of agency staff, foster families, and adoptive families like ours. We participated in organized games, sports, watched a talent show, and introduced Tino to ping pong. This is a perfect game for him, as he thinks it's quite hilarious to smack the ball as hard as he can and watch it bounce all over the room.
I took the kids to camp two years ago with my mom- Dave couldn't make it that year for some reason- and it was a very special time, but this year I think I enjoyed it even more. The kids were more comfortable and are now old enough to enjoy a lot more of the activities. I bonded with some of the other families who were staying in the same cabin, caught up with other families I haven't seen for a while, and was especially happy that our good friend J came to camp with his two boys. We have been friends with J and his wife A since we met in the parenting classes we shared before we got certified. Their story is similar to ours... they also got certified in January 2009 and spent a long year waiting, getting their hopes up, and experiencing multiple disappointments, before they finally were matched with their two amazing sons, G and M, just a couple months after we got the V's.
The four kids played together quite beautifully while the three of us adults teamed up to keep things moving along smoothly. G, the six year old, really adores Victoria, and the two of them were inseparable. Here they are, being goofy:
And here is the crew of four on our last day at camp... I got them to be serious only after I promised we would also take a silly picture. So for posterity, here are both...
And now we're back in Phoenix... and though it's blazing hot here, our once-lovely lawn has turned brittle and brown, and the electric bill is through the roof... this is my home, and it feels good to be back.
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