Trip to Europe

One of the beautiful canals of Copenhagen

One of the food stands at a market we found by one of the canals

Enjoying my birthday dessert!

Anniversary Trip:

After the big birthday party was over and the relatives headed home, I started digging in and getting ready for our big 20th anniversary trip to Europe. At first I was in a daze and couldn't believe we were actually going somewhere just the two of us, much less to Europe! But after all the other summer excitement was over, I finally had time to plan and pack. And not much time at that point!

We tried to pack really light and didn't even take any luggage to be checked. We knew if we could wash our clothes during the trip, we'd be fine. Mostly, I focused on the kid's schedule and what needed to be prepared at home for us to be gone for two weeks!

Denmark:

When we were planning the trip way back in the spring, we knew we wanted to do something that involved Europe and some countries that would be truly interesting. Mike suggested the Baltic, but I really wanted to go to London too. Finally, we decided on a few days in Copenhagen, Denmark followed by a 10 day cruise of the Baltic. I was still hoping for London, but it just was too much to add on and wouldn't have been enough time to enjoy the sights of a big city. Maybe next time!

What we chose turned out to be the best possible option and we LOVED it! We would stay for 2 days before the cruise in Copenhagen and after for two days (Mike didn't want to have to go directly to the airport and have any problems with catching our plane.)

Copenhagen:

After a few frantic weeks of last minute packing and getting the house and schedule prepared, we set off early Wednesday the 28th of July. It was hard to believe we were really leaving! I can still picture all the kids waving to us from the front porch at home (sniff, sniff). I tried to be cheerful though and put on a brave face as we left them for the airport. I knew with Grandma Earl helping out at the start and my mom and Albert on the way for the last part of the trip, they were in good hands!

Things went pretty smoothly and soon we were on our way for New York and a change of planes before heading on to Denmark. It was tiring but with Mike's shoulder to rest on, I snoozed for part of the long flight at least. Besides a little drool on his shirt, Mike did OK too.

Flying into Copenhagen was lovely. We could see the fields and green, fairly flat country-side bordering the sea. The airport was easy and we made it through customs and got our luggage. The next hurdle was getting the right train to the station in Copenhagen!

We stayed at a really nice Marriott just down from Central Station. I got a cheap deal online for our room and it was even better than I hoped it would be. Next we set off to see the sights!

Highlights of Copenhagen:

As you can see from the pictures, it is a beautiful city with old buildings and many canals. We were able to walk all over the place and just enjoy being there! We found out that the street food of a type of hot dog with toppings and some that were nestled in a crispy bun were so cheap and yummy! My other favorite things were the danishes (of course!) and the fantastice belgian waffles. The bakeries were so wonderful. I think I could live on "bread alone"... and with a little fruit and creme on them too!

We took a bus once to see more of the sights, including where "The Little Mermaid" is usually sunning by the water, but she's in Shangai for 2010. The buildings and canals were so georgous! Mike and I really felt like it was the perfect city for a first time trip to Europe. It's clean, safe and people speak English in most places!

We had great Indian food and even found a fun place for my birthday dinner that we walked to from our hotel on the canal right behind us. (We walked out the back door and basically a few steps and you are at the pier of the canal). It was so easy to walk anywhere we wanted, plus we used the bus to get a better view of town. Fortunately, we saved the canal boat tour for the last part of our trip. You'll find out about our amazing boat ride experience later!

Our Summer Continued...

June

Trip to the ER:

We had an unexpected trip to the ER the Friday before we left Missouri. We were enjoying another yummy meal at mom's when Grace suddenly stared off into space and kind of froze. I was standing right by the table, so I saw it immediately. I thought she was choking on her salad, so after I quickly grabbed her, I checked her mouth for food and removed what I could. Then I did the heimlich (I just had some first aid training in spring). She was limp and just kind of slumped in my arms. It was terrifying! It was at that point that we knew we needed to call 911 fast. As I tried to see what I could do to help Grace, we realized we didn't have time for an ambulance to come and find us. Grandpa Albert drove with me holding Grace and rushed her to the nearest emergency room. The boys came for the ride while Grandma and Eliza stayed behind to call off the ambulance before it came to the house.

Grace started coming to during the ride but seemed really out of it. The hospital did several tests on her and talked with me about all that had happened. We found out that she had a seizure. I also found out after talking to Grace, that she could remember a seizure once in China.

We finally left the hospital about 10:00pm after they could see that she wasn't having any more seizures and seemed to be fine. We did get a prescription for her and watched her very closely the following few days.

It was certainly a frightening experience, but we were so grateful it wasn't during a more dangerous activity (swimming, etc.) or that it had happened while traveling and without the support of my mom and Albert. Thank goodness for them and for the timing!

Going home:
We had a 2 week visit with family in Missouri, so we didn't make it back until the middle of June. Just in time for Grace's birthday! We followed up with a specialist when we got home and Grace now takes seizure medicine and we try not to worry more than necessary. She'll take it for at least a couple of years and needs to have checkups with the specialist every 6 months for now. We did understand more about her difficulties with her sight and problems tripping and things like that. She doesn't have great peripheal vision, especially on her right side. Otherwise, she is doing fine and won't likely have any seizures as long as she takes her medication.

June continued with camping for me Grace and Zach and trying to get back to normal life following all the time away from home and excitement.

July

Back to normal:
I had a few days at home after all the camping and vacationing. Kirk and Mike helped out while I was at camp with Grace. It was so good to be home! We had a fun July 4th and enjoyed swimming and hanging out in our yard. I started teaching swimming and the days flew past. The boys worked in the yard and we tried to catch up on all the yard work that needed to be done. They mostly worked for lunches or outings, since that was their favorite form of payment!

Grandma Earl's 80th birthday party:
The next big event was Mike's mom's birthday party. The family planned for months and it was coming soon. Mike was in charge of food, a big responsibility for a group of around 100. Somehow, we all worked and it turned out to be a great party. Mike's sister Larayne and daughter Melanie, especially worked hard to make it look beautiful. They came from Oregon and Washington to be there for the week of the party. Melanie and family stayed with us and their boys and little girl had fun with our kids. We loved having them stay!

Catching up...

June trip to Missouri

One of the "kid's" favorite activities at Grandma Carol and Grandpa Albert's: nightly fireworks!

Grandpa Albert, Grandma Carol, Kirk, me, Olivia, Eliza and Grace

(Zach was the photographer)

Our hike at George Washington Carver State Park. (He's the one who created peanut butter, among other things.) The one above with Zach hanging onto the side of the bridge and mom is also on this hike.

My brother and family: Scott, Linette, Hannah and baby Hope

The girls with Hannah and Hope; and me, mom and Scott at lunch in Springfield

Granpa Montgomery (dad) with Grace and his buddy Eliza

(she didn't go through the cave at Silver Dollar City with us and stayed with dad instead)

OK, like everyone else, we had a VERY busy summer and it hasn't slowed down since school started! I've decided to make a bit of a report on our summer and go from there.

June

The day school got out, me and the kids packed in the van and headed for Missouri! The drive was lovely and we actually had a great time. I had a nice hotel booked near the Denver airport and that worked out perfectly after a big day of driving.

We stayed with mom and Albert the next night and were all happy to be together for the first time in months. Grandma and Grandpa took great care of us and made sure we always had something fun to do and something good to eat!

Grandpa and Grandma set up their camping trailer for us at the lake near Branson for a few days while we were there. We had fun camping and going to Silver Dollar City with the whole family. It is a beautiful area with just a short drive to Springfield. We were able to see Scott and Linette's family and Dad while we were there too.

Hope of America

Grace was in the "choir" for this event last night. Our 5th graders in the local schools make up the flag and sing all the songs. She loved it! "We Can Be a Light" at the end of this video is one of my favorite songs of the performance.

Princesses for a Day!

DISNEYLAND!

Monday
After a rainy start to the day, it turned out beautiful! We had to buy our passes for the bus first and had a slower start, but it worked out fine. It was not too crowded and we got on some rides pretty quickly.

Before,

and after!

We ALL loved Splash Mountain!

Grace and Kirk on the Matterhorn...

She loved anything that was a roller coaster, but not always the first time!

After eating lunch in the park, we went back to the hotel for a break. It was fun to relax and swim in the afternoons and then head back for more fun!

Spring Break in California!!

Easter Sunday

Our Easter Sunday was spent driving in to Anaheim from Las Vegas. (We only had to drive to Las Vegas on Saturday, so that was an easy day. Mike and the boys went to their Priesthood meeting for church with Mike's cousin Brad and his boys.) We all loved the room at California and were excited to get settled in and head to the pool.

The Earthquake

It was kind of an exciting afternoon on Sunday. We were there for the earthquake! It was 7.2 just over the border in Mexico. Me and the kids were heading back up to our room from the pool and were wondering why the elevator wouldn't work. We went and asked the front desk and they told us there was an earthquake! Kirk and Olivia had noticed while we waited for the elevator that they felt like the earth was moving or something weird, but Zach, Grace, Eliza and I didn't notice.

Mike, however, was on the 8th floor and definitely felt it swaying! We heard some rides were shut down at Disney too. Overall, it was an exciting event to be in the middle of, but Zach and I wished we would've noticed something!

After that, we all relaxed and listened to some of Conference before heading to bed.

Next: Disneyland!!

Girls in our Sunday best...

(Sorry, the "photographer" was impatient to eat lunch, so I was lucky to have one picture actually turn out. I did ask him to take lots since I know, someone always has there eyes shut. This time it was me!! I'll only give one hint as to his identity: he's really tall:)

Earl family is getting active!

Olivia at Park City

Grace practicing with her ballroom class

It has been fun to try some new things lately, like skiing for Olivia and snowboarding for Zach. Olivia LOVED it and still wants to be Lindsey Vahn. Zach says he would rather stick with skiing than snowboarding, but he did pretty good.

I 've started pushing our family to get more active. I noticed that we were getting a little out of shape and I pointed out to everyone how much walking we'll be doing soon on our trip to Disneyland. This has given us a good reason to start getting more fit.

We've started playing racquetball, swimming and Zumba (me), at the local rec center for family night. It's a fun activity and it gives us a chance to do something fun the whole family enjoys. We've been meeting the Earl cousins there and the kids have fun playing racquetball and swimming. Mike and Doug used to play racquetball, so they have been helping the kids learn. Cheryl likes Zumba, so I've gone a couple times to that class. It is pretty tough after my winter of hibernating, but I try to keep up and not emberass myself too much!

Other things we are doing are the Irish/tap dance class that Olivia, Eliza and I are taking. Yes, I'm in the class with them! It's been very fun and with 3 girls, two of them mine, it feels like a mother/daughter class. It is a great workout and if I can get back in shape, it won't kill me like it is right now!

The weather is finally getting warmer, so we've also started biking part of the time to school (especially Olivia). Grace is still learning, so she's not quite ready to ride without training wheels. Eliza loves to ride in the bike trailer part of the time and then I put her scooter in the back for some of the spots that I don't want to pull her on.

AND, I've invited some of my neighbor friends to start walking the track that encircles a park by the girl's elementary school. This morning we did a brisk walk for about 40 minutes, but with lively conversation, it only felt like half that time!

This sounds like a lot, but really I'm hoping to do something every day and some of our activities are only once a week, so the walking and biking are more of our daily exercise.

If we can find the time, anyone can! It's just deciding to do something and then making it happen!

Happy 16th Birthday Kirk!

Thursday, March 11th

Kirk asked me to make a Tres Leche cake. It was good, but the chocolate cake I made when the family came over last Sunday was REALLY good. (Adding extra melted dark chocolate to our favorite birthday cake recipe was a great idea!)

We went out for dinner at one of the best Italian places around. The kids all love the pasta bar and the salad bar is awesome! Zach even had a little pizza to take home with his. Pasta is one of Kirk's favorite foods and it actually fills him up, so that's good too!

Kirk is a "bright" light in our home. I'm so proud of him and the good choices he's made in his life and I know he'll continue to do his best. It's so nice to see him being kind and patient to his little sisters and being a good example to us all. Sunday at church, he was made a Priest and will be helping to bless the sacrament next week.

I love how he continues to learn about different countries and cultures. After he won for state 2 years ago, I didn't know if he'd lose interest in geography, but he's always bringing home books from the library on every country you can imagine. He loves to learn and he remembers what he learns! I wish I had his memory!

Kirk is finishing up his Eagle for Boy Scouts and is in drivers ed class at school. After that, he'll take his drivers test and we'll have another person in the house to help with the running. That will be so nice!

We love you Kirk!!

Our week so far...

Monday night we made wantons and Doug and Cheryl's family brought noodles. We had a great dinner together. Kirk and Zach really love the wantons and they helped tremendously. Grace also wanted to help so I taught her how to fill them and she loved it!
Olivia's georgous hair! It looked so pretty that day, I just had to take a picture before it got messed up.

Eliza lost one of her front teeth on Thursday! This is her third tooth to come out and she has another that is ready to come out anytime.

Happy Chinese New Year...

and Valentines Day...and President's Day. Three holidays in two days! I had strepthroat Sunday, so it wasn't quite the fun holiday I was expecting. We had our big CNY party with the local China adoption families the week before, so we had already had a nice party. Thank goodness!

Mike's sister Larayne and husband Steve came to town for a few days. We all went to eat Friday night and then the rest of the family went over to Mike's mom's Sunday night for some games and snacks. I stayed home and suffered while watching the Olympics.

I went to the doctor Monday and had a shot, which took the pain down a notch, but I still felt pretty awful. Thankfully, Mike and the kids all pitched in to help out with meals and clean-up, so it wasn't too bad.

I got a haircut last week. This was pretty drastic for me since I usually like to take a couple of haircuts to get to a shorter cut. There was a big pile of hair afterwards! But I knew it was time to change the longer hair style I've had the last year or so. It is so much easier!

Have I Done Any Good in the World Today?

Have I Done Any Good in the World Today?

Why adopt from China?

One of Eliza's pictures from the orphanage

Grace and her friend in Hanzhong
What made you decide to adopt from China?

After adopting two girls from China, with great success I might add, I'm surprised that people still ask these questions. Imagine someone asking an expectant mother, or a mother of young children, why she chose to have them. It does seem to be a rather personal question to ask people. But, as I think about it, I think it is because not everyone sees the possibilities before them. Many people wouldn't have even entertained the notion of adoption, much less from another country!

I know for us, we had talked about adoption many years before we actually adopted. Maybe the idea had to grow on us for a while until the time was right. I know I felt that after our first three children were born and waiting a few more years for another to arrive, someone was still missing. With our fertility issues, it was evident that those missing family members weren't coming easily! I'm not sure what exactly happened, but it seemed that adoption kept coming up as we met people who had adopted, in particular from China. My own brother had recently adopted a darling baby from China when we were going through this stage. I would just keep running into people who'd adopted and it started me thinking that maybe we could too. Mike also was pretty close to several people who'd adopted and so it didn't seem to strange of an idea to him either.

Now, this sounds very easy, but there were many prayers given and thought taken about what was right for our family. It is definitely a leap of faith, but you know when it is right! Then there is that whole timing issue. You may know it's right, but sometimes it takes longer than you thought or a completely different path than you expected!

I think that there are many people out there who really could adopt but just don't think about it seriously. So many children need families and would bless the lives of their new families immensely. I know I can't imagine our life without our dear girls from China. As many others have said, "Why China? Because that is where my daughter is!"

First Presidency Statement on Haiti - LDS Newsroom

First Presidency Statement on Haiti - LDS Newsroom

I know we have all been watching the disaster in Haiti and wishing we could do something to help. There are several humanitarian organizations helping and many are doing so much good. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is one of the first responders many times in a disaster. 100% of the donations will help those in Haiti. If many people give even a little bit, it will make a difference!

I also appreciate our leaders asking us to remember the people of Haiti in our prayers. Something we can definitely all do!

Our Favorite Cookie Recipe

Banana Oatmeal Cookies

1 ½ C Flour (I use wheat flour for at least half)

1 C Sugar

½ tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Salt

¼ tsp Nutmeg

¾ tsp Cinnamon

3/4 C Shortening (can substitute olive oil for up to half)

1 Egg

1 C Bananas (about 2-3, very ripe)

1 3/4 C Oatmeal (old fashioned or quick)

1/2 C Chocolate chips, or Nuts

Sift together dry ingredients. Cut in shortening. Add egg and bananas. Mix well. Add oatmeal and nuts or choc. chips. Bake at 375’ for 12 to 14 minutes or golden brown.

*We usually double this recipe to make a good sized batch. I use the winter white wheat which isn't as strong flavored as hard red wheat. We have a grinder and I make it very fine for baking.

I thought I'd share this family favorite after several people have asked for it. It is always a great way to use up your ripe bananas. (Especially if you save a few just to make these!)