Home!

I know I disappeared, but yes I am home if you care. ;) I've been sleeping and trying to cope with a bad flare up of my Lyme disease... speaking of that, I know I said May was Lyme Awareness Month, and I would post about it, and I didn't. So I plan on hitting that hard the rest of May! :)

Our trip home was slightly eventful. After we didn't wake up on time, we made it to the airport with minutes to spare. Going through security, the same alarm clock that didn't wake us up looked funky in the machine thing, so had to be run through again costing us time we didn't have to lose. After it got cleared we high-tailed it to our gate at the end of the terminal, and made it, as people we starting to board! Needless to say, I was very happy to see my parents (having no idea that all happened) surprised me with a new alarm clock when I got home! LOL

And then, our second flight turned around half way though and came back. Because the de-ice-er thing on the plane wasn't working, and because of the weather conditions where we were landing, it was unsafe to land. 45 min later, they had it fixed. :P

Anywho, just though you wanted a laugh. :)

We enjoyed our time at Spitz's soo very much, and we miss them something AWFUL!!! Love those Fab Five!! ♥♥♥

Zoo Time!

Today, we had an awesome day, and I took lots of pictures, so I'll make it two parts. Part one: the zoo!

We went to the zoo today and met up with the B family and Uncle Mike! B's have adopted three precious girls from Ukraine, and Uncle Mike traveled with Sarah (another Sarah! We had 3 at the zoo today!) to bring Mila home, just like he traveled with Summer to bring Lyla home!

Here are some a lot of pictures!

Rachel and Bellie getting some snuggles in before we go!

Happy Bug on the way!

Lyla meeting Sofia!

Summer meeting Sofia!

Beautiful girls!

Our big ol' group! The kiddos with Ds outnumbered the "typical" kids! So fun! :)

Uncle Mike and his girls!

Sofia and me! Love that spunky girl!

Uncle Mike and his traveling buddies!

Rachel and Sofia!

Looking at the bears!

Uncle Mike and his Lyla Bean!

Pretty princess Sofia wearing my sunglasses. (Yes, this was me aiming the camera as I was holding her. Clearly, I am the camera as well as I aim a ball.)

Love that pose!

Photography courtesy of Sofia!

Sofia found the knife!

Owen the chef!

Gav watching the monkeys!

 Our favorite uncle!! :)

Uncle Mike hanging out with his miss Mila Hope!

And then she went to Rachel!

And didn't want to go back by Uncle Mike... and Uncle Mike's her favorite! She loved Rachel!

She didn't care for me, but tolerated me enough for a picture! :)

"Cheese!" Uncle Mike and Zoya!

Belle and Gav loving on each other!

Gav eating french fries at McDonalds!

Our McDonalds Crew!

So sweet! Love these sisters!

Beanie loved my pineapple smoothie! Later today after I got all the pictures up, Summer says to me "Was Lyla actually drinking your smoothie?!?!" I said that yes, I could feel the cold coming up the straw. She was shocked, she didn't think Lyla knew how to use a straw, because she didn't know how the one time they tried!

Zoya and me!

Zoya and Rachel!

We had so much fun today! Thank you Summer, B's, and Uncle Mike our favorite uncle for such a fun day! :)

NDSC - Saturday and Sunday

My last two days in DC! :( The main part of the conference was all day Saturday and Sunday morning. I didn't attend any sessions, but had fun hanging out at the RR table with everyone. You may think that's a bit crazy to go all the way to DC for a convention and not go to any sessions, but you would understand how awesome it is just to hang out if you had been there! :)

Saturaday morning, after dropping the girls of at Kid's Camp, Brian, Braden and I went to see some more museums. Our first stop was....

....here - the International Spy Museum. But there wasn't photography allowed. It was really cool though, the history of spying.  Of course there was a lot about the Cold War, WW1 and WW2, but there was also about the Civil War. You wouldn't think about spies in the Civil War, but there were!

Then we were here - the Archives. And no photography there either. :P Seeing the Declaration and Constitution was really neat!

Then we went to the American History Smithonian Museum. I took quite a few pictures, but the only ones of interest are this sewing machine from 1917....

....and Braden and I by the Ruby Red Slippers! The ones I got of the original Kermit the Frog puppet didn't turn out that  well.

Back at the conference.. hanging out at the table - Charlotte Dirkes!

Dusty Hinz attacking Molly....

....with kisses. Molly was in heaven if you can't tell. :)

Molly and Sonya Hinz

Zoya B

Back at the hotel room, saying goodbye to Lococo's  -  Lilya was glad someone was finally willing to help her flip!

Elizabeth and Dax

Caleb and Lilya

Ruby wanted to do flips too, so she got Mrs. Lococo to do it with her. :)

Mr. Lococo and Julia, who is from Ukraine. :)

Ruby's reaction when Caleb told her that they had to say goodbye because he was going to go back to his house, and she was going to go back to hers. :(

All was soon right in her world again... She loves Caleb and Josh!

And Elizabeth too!

Early Sunday Morning - Me, Molly, and Elizabeth right before Molly left

Saying one last goodbye to Lococo's

Lilya and I, Caleb and Ru, Braden, Elizabeth, and Josh

Back down at the table again - Dusty and Sonya

Andrea and Michelle - The 2 main leaders of Reece's Rainbow

Right before our flight left Daxy had several diaper explosions (he would not stop!) and he ran out of outfits.... so we resorted to Ruby's spare outfit... going from 3 mo to 4T was quite a jump in sizes! It doesn't look to bad here, but trust me, it was pretty huge! ;)

The flight was uneventful, and this was looking out the window to the parking garage on the way back to the van. I took this one for Rachel, because it says 'Yellow 3G'. Lilly is in region "3G", and her color is yellow. It was perfect!

Lilly - she still needs a family!!! :(

And I finished my trip with a photoshoot of Dax in the van on the way home....

Blurry, but adorable!

Love this beautiful baby!

He crashed... still just as beautiful when he's asleep!

What a perfect ending to a perfect week with many perfect people!! NDSC was uh-mazing and I hope I can go back someday!