Wordless Wednesday

Family

As I mentioned previously, Kevin recently began searching for his birthmother and found her!  We were privledged enough to be able to meet face to face while she and her husband were visiting Iowa this month!  We were honored to spend many hours asking and answering questions, looking through pictures, and laughing with extended family.  Many nights we were up WAY past midnight trying to squeeze the most out of such precious time together.  She and her family live in California, so it will be difficult to see as much of eachother as we would like, but thank God for technology, the phone, and planes - we will see eachother again very soon.  :)

Here are some pictures of our 2 week visit.  Enjoy.

Walking out to meet his mother for the first time in 41 years.  A pretty remarkable thing :)

Kaitlyn meeting her grandma for the 1st time.

 Kaitlyn read Peggy every single word of her scrapbook and Peggy loved every minute of it.  Such a heartwarming sight. :)

Kevin with some of his new Aunts.

At lunch with Peggy's family.  It was such a blessing to meet so many of them all at the same time!

Kaitlyn and her new cousin, Meghan on the beach in Clear Lake.  These girls really hit it off!

The girls learning to fish with Uncle Dick.  That man was VERY patient!  I love Kaitlyn's face looking at that worm!  ICK.

Fishing on the dock.

The girls got to drive this golf cart with one of the neighbors in Clear Lake.  They squealed with delight everytime he walked through the door!  Such great memories.

Peggy came to Dubuque to meet all of Kevin's family.  They stood around the island in the kitchen for hours listening to her story, asking her questions, and telling funny stories about Kevin growing up.  It was a wonderful night. :)

Kevin & I with his mother (Peggy) and her husband (Steve).

What a beautiful experience to witness a mother being reunitied with her child after so many years.  They are so alike it's uncanny and meeting with Peggy and Steve seemed to be the most natural thing we've ever done.  Easy conversation, hearty laughter, and tearful goodbyes.  We feel so blessed to have been able to spend so much time with them and are very much looking forward to the next time we can share our time with them.  :)

Honeymoon... a little late

Since we've been home from Punta Cana for a month now, I figured I'd update with a picture walk of our wonderful, relaxing week in the Dominican.  Loved it.  :)

Kevin bartered with these two men for nearly an hour.  He loved it.

Darts

This game is really awesome TERRIBLE.  I have been darted to floor MULTIPLE times today, which requires me to fall to the ground regardless of where I am, what I'm doing, or what I'm holding.  The last (and final) time I was darted today I was elbowed in the head resulting in a major CRACKING noise coming from my neck. 

I promptly made an announcement to the entire team that I am now in a "dart free bubble" and will not be affected by their attempts to dart me.

That's all.

A Blue Ribbon & the Amazon

The girls performed their Home Routine last night and this afternoon before lunch, they received their critique sheets and a ribbon - a BLUE RIBBON, which means SUPERIOR!  They did a great job and were really excited with the results.

This afternoon after turn technique class, the girls played a few team building games.  One of them was where the entire team had a pair of imaginary shoes - but only one pair.  Each girl could only wear these special shoes ONE time.  The shoes could not be thrown across the Amazon - they had to be worn by a girl on our team to get back to the rest of the team.  The girls had to figure out how to get this done - and man was it funny.  Evidently, this video is too long for me to upload to Blogger and imbed in my post - but you can watch it here. 

I am always so proud when I sit back and watch them work together, whether it be something big like winning State, or something small like crossing the Amazon - their teamwork amazes me :)

Good Morning from UDA

We're having a good day already!  The girls were up late last night working together on the Team Routine they learned yesterday.  Their mission is to take the basic choreography and change it into a routine we could perform at a game - formations, ripples, etc.  It's always amazing to me to see what they come up with.

Kim & Karly are working on rhinestoning our new Platinum sweatshirts...they are so cute!  :)

And lastly, our team is going to have a VERY long day.  But these two, are really going to be pushing their limits today.

 

My two white ballerinas will be gettin' down today in Hip Hop 4.  I can hardly wait to see!  We love to watch the girls grow and push themselves out of their security boxes.  :)

More to come later - check back!

What's that I see?

Friends, that would be UPDATED scrapbooks.  That's right, UP-TO-DATE.  I am completely caught up on Kaitlyn's scrapbook!  I can't really explain my excitement, except to say that I am very proud of myself.  Kevin met his birthmother for the first time this week (more posts to come on that), and it was very important to me that Kaitlyn's scrapbooks be up-to-date because Kaitlyn wanted very much to sit down next to her and share them.  This seems reasonable.  Except when I mention that I was one full year behind.  I hadn't scrapped our Disney trip from last June, I hadn't scrapped anything from last summer, her 9th bday in September, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Easter, or anything in between.  NOT GOOD.  So, last week my scrapping materials overtook our living room and I just went to town.  I scrapped every single day and after nearly 25 lay outs, I am caught up until right before the wedding - which we are going to put in our new family album which I hope to start later this month.  I am feeling very proud of myself: an updated scrapbook and an updated blog. 

All is right in the world.  :)

4th of July

...just a little late. 

I'm really working hard here to get this blog situation back to normal.  I have been taking pictures and finally have everything in order to get things updated and to keep up with it.  :)  I even convinced Kim to get her blog back up - so go check her out.  She's "Take A Breath" on my Blogs I Like list to the right.

Here are some photos from our 4th of July weekend.  We had lots of fun with family, friends, good food, and laughs.

Enjoy


We had dinner with friends at Happy Joes before heading down to Davenport's Red, White & Boom

The kids ready for some fun.  We ended up across the river because there was nothing but jazz music to entertain the kids on the Iowa side and that simply wasn't going to work.

Sam & Emma were making bracelets - those were a huge hit :)

Isn't she a treat?  Hello "Lucy"...

And last, but CERTAINLY not least.  Miss Emma made it through the entire firework display without leaving because it was too loud!  1st time ever.  SO proud of her!! :)

I hope you and your family had a fabulous 4th.  Kevin & I enjoyed our first holiday as a married couple.  We are so thankful to the men & women who fight for our freedoms and make America such an amazing country to live in. 

PVP camp

I'm going to keep updating the blog for the Platinum parents back home so they can keep updated on all the fun going on here.

For those of you without a clue as to what I'm talking about - my sister and I coach a high school dance team, in the summer they attend a 4 day camp where they learn lots of dances and essentially go 8 AM - 8 PM.  We also stay in college dorms.  Fun for the girls - not so fun for the adults.  But we make it fun and end up having a great time. :)

Anyway, I'll be posting pics and video as the week goes on so everyone back home can keep up with our fun.  :)

This video is hilarious because they had JUST gone over the rules to this game called "Dance Down".  In the rules, it states that when there is a "coach is coming" command, you cannot move until they give a "take five" command.  Watch what happens when my AWESOME listeners get tricked by the Head Instructor.

*Sorry for the shakey video - I was laughing so hard I almost peed my pants and couldn't stay still!!

Ohhhh, they make me laugh.  :)

Some of My Favorite Formals