Day 3 America World Reunion

We slept in and how cute is it to see these two little faces every morning: Ryan was making his angry face:

And then smiling and cracking himself up:

We of course headed down to the pool:

where the boys love nothing better than to jump into the pool!

On the schedule for the Reunion this day was a water park, but as it was a little pricey and the boys wouldn't be able to do all the slides, we opted out.

Instead, we asked the staff at the hotel for directions to a park and they lead us to this one which had several playgrounds, a walking trail with different exercising stations, picnic tables, and most importantly: a bathroom.

The boys have recently seen Peter Pan and so I was so excited to see the name of this part of the playground. As you can tell by the boys' faces, I was a bit more excited about it then they ...

that is until they found all the Peter Pan related item - the crocodile. And as they played on this climbing wall (inside the crock's mouth) they did make the tick-tock sounds!

Ryan makes music with the "tinker bells." There were also pictures of all the Peter Pan characters, which excited the boys to point out, and a sandbox:

That evening our friends from Texas, the Root family, came to our room for a visit. Their two children from Ethiopia were at the Transition House at the same time as our boys:

Day 2 America World Africa Reunion

Day Two of the Reunion found the guys heading off to Nashville for breakfast at the Loveless Cafe while the boys and I went swimming.

Then we met with some old Yahoo Groups friends, the Roots from Texas, and some friends, the Carpenters from New York, and went to lunch at Chick-fil-a, which I had never been too:

The afternoon had the ladies meeting for "tea" (yummy appetizers and desserts) and chatting while Mike swam with the boys and several other Dads and their kids. In the evening we attended church and then dinner with our friends from Wisconsin, the Dudas.

After dinner we went back to the hotel, and you guessed it, went swimming for a little while! (Have you guessed the boys LOVE to swim!!??)

Day 1 of the America World Africa Reunion and Ryan's Birthday

The 2nd Annual America World Africa Reunion was held in Franklin, Tennessee over Labor Day weekend this year. I was SO EXCITED to "meet" so many of the people I have spent the last two years sharing life with on our agency's yahoo group!

On the way we made a quick stop in Louisville, Kentucky to pick up some discount tickets I had purchased for Dinosaur World and Kentucky Down Under. (If you are considering these two attractions or others in the Louisville area, check out this discount website!) Across the street from where we picked the tickets up was a Big Boy restaurant. One of Mike's first jobs was a cook at a Big Boy. And if you don't know the story, please ask him about the Big Boy statue!
John was just too cute in this photo:

After 9 hours in the car, four rest area stops, and 1 throw up mishap, we made it to Dinosaur World. We brought our lunch in and ate before exploring!

This was far and away Ryan' favorite part of the day:

Before the fossil dig, we made a stop at the playground (I did point out to Mike that we drove over 400 miles to the home of over 100 life size dinosaur statues and what were the boys most excited about - the playground!):

Digging for dinosaur bones and teeth:

This is the boys asking me why I want to take another picture of them:

In front of the "Packer"-sarous!

Some of the life size statues:

The boys making crazy faces in front of the dinosaur:

There was a Dinosaur Walk, a winding path through the forest with various dinosaur statues hidden throughout. The boys took most of the path like this, at a run:

A top a wholly mammoth:

Our family posing with, as the boys called him, Manny (from Ice Age):

Mike's favorite dinosaur, the triceratops:

They loved seeing the T-Rex:

Mike hamming it up:

Playing in the Bone Yard:

One last picture:

Then it was into the car for a short two hour drive to the hotel. Ryan loved the pillows:

We met at a local family's house for a Bar-B-Que. Then it was back to the hotel to celebrate Ryan's birthday:

Opening his fire engine puzzle:

Pretending to drink from his Buzz and Woody water bottle:Unwrapping the pirate ship (not a car seat like the box says!):

So after being awake for roughly 20 hours (and the boys were up with us right at 2:15am - "Mommy-a, are you waking us up to put us in the car!?"), it was finally time for bed! A GREAT first day and a special boy's birthday.

What a Difference a Year Makes

From this (picture taken when the boys entered the Transition House in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - August 31, 2009):
to this (picture taken on 4th of July 2010 during a Bar-B-Que at our house):

From this (picture taken while waiting for a David Crowder concert to begin, November 2008 and used in our dossier photo pages): to this (picture taken at the Wisconsin State Fair while waiting for a Third Day concert to begin, August 2010):