july  2011

Cody, my little brother, came to visit us for a week in July, and we introduced him to 100% humidity!  He loved it, much more than the drier Arizona weather, and I guess we’ve just adjusted to it, trying to hide our slight discomfort there and again.  Cody just finished serving a 2 year mission in California, for our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

We had a lot of fun showing him around parts of Atlanta.  We visited the aquarium(world’s largest tank), the zoo(great zoo!), Fernbank Science Museum(that was ok), and I’m not really sure if we did anything else…Fro-yo.  Can’t forget that!  Oh ya, we went to Piedmont Park in the center of the city, when it was really hot, and thought we would have a picnic, but didn’t, and watched Jarom fly his helicopter contraption.  It was fun:)  Then we would end our busy day with a movie and some yummy fresh popped popcorn with olive oil…if you haven’t tried it yet, let’s just say it’s so good, you wouldn’t want to go back to microwave popcorn! 

Here it is…1/3 cup olive oil, 1/2 cup popcorn kernals…put into a pan with a lid(or we have a whirly pop from target that you just spin the handle and it spins the kernals evenly in the oil inside the pan), and shake until you hear it stop popping…pour into a bowl, salt, and enjoy.  It’s THE BEST!

july 4th weekend- 2011

Leticia, Nadia’s birth mom, came to visit for a few days.  Leticia brought Zoe, her daughter, and a friend to keep her company on her driving trip from Texas to Georgia.  Even though Nadia doesn’t understand what’s going on, (she is three…), she still will look at pictures and say, “that’s my birth mom!”  I asked her what birth mom meant, and she said she didn’t know. 

We want to be open about the wonderful blessing and occurrence that happened of how Nadia came to join our family, and that she is sealed to us for all eternity, and has always been apart of our family, she just came to earth through someone else.  We are grateful for the adoption experience we went through with Leticia, and are glad we get to visit every now and then.

june  2011

Because we live near Emory University, Madison was able to participate in the one week camps for kids who have had health issues and have been in the hospital…they have a week for heart kids, a week for cancer kids, and other medical needs kids. 

So Madison was able to go, all expenses are paid for each child, and she went to a heart camp where all the kids have had heart surgery.  I thought for sure I would hear from Madison sometime throughout the week.  They are allowed to call or text using the camp leaders phone if they get homesick, but no, not a word.  I guess she was having too much fun kayaking, horseback riding, swimming, crafting, eating, and whatever else they did.  This being Madison’s first time away without any family nearby, she did a great job, and showed us that she is secure in herself and knew we would be here for her when she got back.  We missed her so much, but were so glad she had this opportunity!

 madison returning…hair braided, nails painted, bag full of goodies…

 had to get a little fro-yo…so hot in June…and had to celebrate our madison coming home…

cool shot alex took using the mirror…a great little photographer!