New Hampshire!

We are back from our vacation in the beautiful White Mts! We were there 2 years ago w/ the boys- came home in August and saw Sova's face in an email from an adoption agency the following week. It was a joy to have her w/ us this time around and experience everything again... Out of over 300 pics- here's what sums it up:

Storyland: I LOVE this place...it is a preschoolers Disneyworld! Probrably my favorite day...here's Little Miss Muffet :) Sova also got to meet Cinderalla after being brought to her castle in a pumkin carriage...she walked away from the Princess walking bakwards staring at her...she truly believed that she just met THE Cinderella (if u aske her what her faverite part of vaca- she will say 'princess!')Here is our newest photogrpaher! For his 6th B-day we bought him a kids digital camera...he LOVED it and looked like such a big boy snapping away all day at litteraly EVERYTHING!
Echo Lake: a small serene lake in the middle of the mountains...we came here twice to swim, fish and best of all for the kids- catch the millions of tadpoles. This was one beautiful relaxing day.


I'm in the middle of reading to the kids their 1st real Little House on the Prairie Chapter books...she reminds me of a prairie girl here :)
Yes...I still try to match them...hey, I can only get away w/ it for a little longer ;)

My NH mission was to see and hike as many waterfalls as possible...it was a success! My back litteraly ached by mid week because we obviously had to take turns toteing 2 of the kids...I can still hear Sova complain, "MORE waterfalls!?" It was worth it!


This was the best one...it was a series of cascades that left little 'pools' for the kids to splash in...very Cold pools though ;)
We gave Jacob some practice shots ;)
The place we stayed at was LOVELY...we actually had an upstairs! The kids favorite thing about the vacation was hands down- swimming. Sova contined to prove that she is 1/2 fish...this is what we saw from her in the few times we saw her swim last September. She has absolutely NO fear of water- obviously very scarey! She CANT stop smileing in the water so she drinks 1/4 of the pool. She loves swimming under water but the girl has absolutley No coordination at all so she always looks likes she's drowning cuz she wiggles constantly instead of paddeling. Jacob is So close to swimming on his own but still enjoys the comfort of his armies :) And it took Caleb a while to feel safe alone in the water but once he realized that he could swim by himslef w/ the floaties he was a doggy paddeling pro and refused to leave the water. One day they litteraly swam in the pool for 4 hours straight- only getting out for a lunch break...and Caleb swam right through his nap- at one point he was so exhasted that her was having a small crying tantrum and closing his eyes trying not to fall asleep- all while swimming (the tantrum was because he didnt want to get out!)
I love this picture...it looks like Mike is giving swimming lessons :)
Most of the time this jump ended in a bellly flop!
We only had 1 rainy day where we went shopping- and then had a Wall-E family movie on the big bed w/ popcorn...then Planet Earth...which I was surprised about how much they loved that sereies...Caleb fell asleep at 4pm - at 1st we thought that was good- one down- 2 to go and we could play a better game of UNO w/out him...but those thoughts changed to bad once he was up at 5 am demanding breakfast from lack of dinner the night before!
The Big boy turned six! Oh my- I cant believe it!
Here he is on his B-day morning overcome w/ joy from his surprise 'Sugar Cereal'...it really has become a tradition...on special days like valentines day- mikes b-day or the kids b-days...I surprise them w/ the coveted cereal that is passed by in the cereal isle everyweek...they even say now when grochery shopping, 'wow look at that cool cereal! Can I get it for my next Birthday!" Random shoppers look at me strangley ;)
He never saw the minnie boxes and nearly exhasted himself in choosing which one to try 1st!
The Gondella: here is Jacob...very high up and nervous! We took a gondella ride up a tall MT and did realy cool hikeing trails at the top. It was so foggy whe were litterly walking through clouds at the top- we couldnt even see down the Mt.
Durring one hike Sova turned on her 'mommy' switch (which is usually on anyways) and decided to be infatuated w/ taking care of Caleb- holding his hand and helping him up steps...it was so cute this time because Caleb was actaully enjoying the attention- rather than runing away screaming :)

THE END :)