Father's Day

We spent Father's Day in one of our favorite places...tucked away in the perfect swimming hole on the Buffalo River.  The pictures below say it all!  This is one devoted Daddy who absolutely adores his daughter...and the feeling is mutual!  I love my two loves!

Daddy and Daughter

Helping Luci swim

Talking to my Daddy

Tricked Daddy...he thought Luci was going to give him the cookie she just ate!

Miss Independent..."I do it meeself!"

SPLASH!

Watching Movies

Thought I would take a few minutes and let you all have a peek inside our living room.  The following shots are of Luci as she was watching her movies this past week.  Let's just say she has a lot of energy!

With a few of my friends!

And upside down...!

13 Years of Wedded Bliss!

May 30, 1998

In addition to being Memorial Day, today was also our 13th wedding Anniversary.  Our wedding day had to be the hottest day of the whole summer even though it was only the end of May.  My grandfather recently reminded me that it had to have been at least 100 degrees!  Even though it was hot, our wedding was beautiful and the past 13 years have been full of love and adventure.  It is hard to imagine that we are even the same people that said "I do" that hot May day so long ago.  We have been through so much together and have grown through it all.  I can't imagine sharing that time with anyone else!

Well,  Jason and I had our Anniversary date last night and decided today was a "whole family day"!  We spent this beautiful Memorial Day on the King's River floating from Rockhouse to Trigger Gap.  The river was up and super easy/fun to float!  We are always ready to get in the canoe and go so we took advantage of the beautiful weather and headed out.  As always, we had a blast!!!

Ready to go!

Eating chips in the river

Beauty all around!

End of the trip...exhausted!

First School Program

Yesterday Luci had her first school program.  Each year her school puts on an International Dinner and each class chooses a country to study and perform something from.  Luci's class was Romania so for a day she was our little Korean-American-Romanian!  Talk about identity confusion!

Her class prepared a dance to a traditional Romanian folksong and learned to count to ten in Romanian and speak some common phrases like please, thank you, and good morning.  She has been practicing these phrases at home for the past month! 

Back in the chaotic prep room waiting for her turn to perform.

I was so proud of our little Luci yesterday...The atmosphere was definitely not something she enjoyed but she was a trooper and got up on stage and performed with her class (without coaxing from us).  Luci does not like chaos, noise, and she definitely doesn't like it when other kids are upset.  All of this was present yesterday so prior to the dance Luci was stressed. 

On stage with her class

What a cute day though...all the kids and teachers worked so hard and the families really enjoyed watching all the classes perform!  Both sets of Luci's grandparents came to see the performance.  She was so proud and very excited to come sit in the audience with her peeps when she had finished.

Below is the video of her class dancing.  Luci follows along and even stomps in a few places.  There were A LOT of people there...I would have been overwhelmed!  There is even a bit of excitement at the end...see if you can spot it!

Forever Family Day 2011, otherwise known as Gotcha Day!

This week we celebrated two years as a family of three!  April 27 is the anniversary of the day Luci came to live with us forever.  She made Jason and I more than just husband and wife that day; she made us Daddy and Mommy!

Luci in Korea, April 2009 and Luci in Daddy's truck, April 2011!

We, of course, spent the day as a family...even though it was the middle of the week!  We couldn't possibly do our normal things on a day that will never be normal for us.

We began the day with a laid back morning and breakfast at home.  After getting around (slowly), we went to Barnes and Noble and let Luci pick out her Gotcha Day gift.  She LOVES books and picked out My Garden by Kevin Henkes as well as a watering can to use on all her plants.  After our shopping excursion we ate lunch at one of Luci's favorite places, Red Robin.  She adores the "Little Fish and Chips" so it was the natural choice.  Following lunch we went to see a "big movie" (HOP) with big popcorn and big Sprite.  Since it was 1:00 on a Wednesday afternoon we ended up with a private showing of the movie.  This was fantastic...Luci could be as rowdy and wild as she wanted.  We took advantage of this when it was apparent that nap time crankiness was rearing it's head;  a couple of laps around the theater with the occasional burst of screaming worked wonders.  Luci had a blast!

Watering her strawberry plants with her new watering can

It is unbelievable how far we have come in 2 years and how quickly 2 years have gone by!  This time of year I can't help but reminisce over our trip to Korea and those first weeks home.  Luci has always been a sweet, intelligent, loving child; that was apparent from our first meeting in Korea.  It's the little changes that most people don't know about that I spend the most time thinking fondly about.  For instance, how my daughter has gone from absolute terror at the thought of someone removing a layer of clothing and putting her in the bath to jumping on the bed while giggling and screaming "I nekid!!!"  (naked).  Or only being able to fall asleep (and stay asleep) if she was curled up on my neck like a cat to sleeping in her own bed or pushing me completely out of mine!  Or screaming as if someone was hurting her when she touched grass to nearly falling asleep while laying on the ground UNDER our beehive with her Daddy.  These are the things I never want to forget!  I know that each day will be filled with memories and I can't wait to experience them all as a family!

Irresistible sweetness!

Luci's Playset

Luci has an AWESOME playset in the backyard!  It has been a work in progress since this past fall but is now ready for full-time play!  The slide is tacked up, the swings are hung, and Luci won't come inside!

She absolutely loves it!  Check out the progress in the pics below...

The beginning...even Luci's hen got in on the action!

Luci assisting Grandad

Luci and Grandma figuring out the bolts

 

 

 

 

The ladder and slide are finally up!

Better let Awckie test it first!

Then I'll try it with Momma...

I LOVE my slide!

My swings are hung and I'm never getting out!

Thank you to everyone who helped...Pops, Daddy, Grandpa, Grandad, Nana, Grandma, and Nanny!  These are happy squeals and I'm too busy screaming to say hello...a wave will have to suffice!!!