orange beach, al {family pics}

i'm going to have to post the trip in several posts. there are just too many great pictures to choose from! while we were there, we all dressed up and got some beautiful family pictures. above is our entire vacation crew. this is the first trip where the entire family has been able to go since all the kids got married in jason's family. and we celebrated solomon's 1st birthday while we were there!

 

 our family portraits

africa is never far from our minds

 cousins

nana and grangoat with the grandkids

all of the cox men

my boys

me and my hubby :-)

the ladies

jason with his parents, brother and sister

more to come!

back to the real world

We just returned from the most wonderful vacation with Jason's family to Orange Beach, AL. Seriously, we had SO MUCH FUN! It was just what we needed to shake some of this stress off of the adoption wait. I am working on a very large post about our trip, but for now here is a sneak peek of all of us one day at the beach. We got some absolutely beautiful family pictures courtesy of my mother-in-law that I can't wait to share!

 And today I FINALLY got to hold this little girl -

I was seriously dying on Monday that I could not be at the hospital when Lori had Lily (the beach is the 2nd best place to be though :-). I was at the hospital (and once in the delivery room) with her other two, so it just didn't seem right for me not to be there. We got back last night and I hurried on over to her house as soon as I could today to get my hands on sweet Lily! It was worth the wait and she is just precious!

fireworks and fishes

happy (late) 4th of july!!!

we spent the day swimming with friends,

playing with sparklers,

and watching some fireworks!

the boys also finished their 2-week swim lessons this morning.

they are both little fishes!

one fish,

two fish!

elijah was in level 3 and perfecting his swimming strokes.

he did fantastic!

judah started in the preschool class and in the middle of day 1 was quickly moved to level 1. he was the youngest one in his class but did amazing! i am still in awe of what all he can do at age 4. i thought elijah was quick to learn to swim but judah seems to be even quicker. he can now dive to the bottom of a 3-4 foot pool and retrieve rings all by himself! amazing. his teacher promoted him to level 2 if he takes lessons again. wow, dude.

look at those kicks!

love these little fishes!

twenty-four months

baby, bowling, birthday and buddies

this week i helped give lori a baby shower to get ready for baby lily's arrival. she is coming soon...only about a week left!!!! i have been blessed having lori in my life since we were 10 years old. that's a LONG time! :-)

a group prayer to bless lori and lily and her arrival.

this week we went bowling with our friend amanda.

elijah helped judah bowl. they were a great team!

this week i celebrated my birthday with my boys. jason took me out last weekend for indian food and roller derby (it was awesomeness). my friend suzy sent me the shirt i'm wearing that says: "expecting from ethiopia". i love it!

this week we played with our buddies, annalee and grace (lily's big sisters).

getting wet on a daily basis is required to survive the summer heat!

it's only one more week until we leave for the beach and we can't wait!

what happens at camp...

 

stays at camp.

and you never know what you'll do when you're at camp with kaki.

 

 you might drive down the road to an exotic zoo

and get to pet & feed all kinds of animals, like

camels

white elk

a buffalo

llamas

an ostrich

zebras

and goats

lots of goats!

let's not forget the deer

or getting eaten by a deer

you could get pushed down by a deer and end up with

a fat lip, like this:

you'll always get to go to the dining hall for food

and see brandy, the camp dog

and at camp, even 8 year olds can drive!

the boys had a wonderful, fun week at camp!