Lake George Getaway!!!!!

You'll be all "blogged out" after reading this post! It took me forever to post it! Oh well... here goes!

Did I ever say how much I LOVE Lake George!

Every year when we go, I love it even more, especially now that Max and Sonja are getting older and can enjoy everything there is to offer there. It's just like living my childhood all over again through their eyes. As I watch them, I can see they probably feel the same way I did when my parents took my sister and I there. We would become so excited during our yearly trek there that, by the time we arrived, we were exhausted (which I'm sure my parents didn't mind at all!)

Much like when I was a kid, our first day there was fairly low key. We got the camper settled and met a few people and just relaxed at our camp ground. I've got to say, This campground had it ALL! You really didn't need to go anywhere to have fun because this place had SO much to do! They too have theme weeks (as many parks these days have). We arrived during Winter Wonderland week! Many people had their Christmas decorations up at their campsites. One unique decoration we saw was a Christmas tree made from inner tubes in various sizes. The smallest being the top, then they increased in size down to an enormous one, all in neon colors.

Throughout the day, they had scheduled events are various parts of the resort, most of them being Christmas themed. They had a recreation hall which held most of the crafting events. There were also many books to read as well as crayons and coloring books for those rainy days.
An example of a days schedule is
10:00am Build a Buddy
10:30- Bounce time!!
10:30- Family Field Games
11:00- Frog Hunt
11:30 Snowman S'mores Craft
12:00- Kickball
2:00pm- Family Softball
2:00pm- Gem Mining
2:00- Children's Holiday Party! (holiday crafts, tattoos Games snacks and a visit from Santa!)
3:00 Gem Contest
4:30 Water Play!
4:00 Teen Holiday Party! (team contests &games, make your own sundaes)
6:30- Wagon trail Shuttle
7:00 Live Entertainment "Band of Gold"

Holiday Buffet- Turkey with all the trimmings!

They have two pools, mountain trails for hiking and biking, pedal cars, electric boats and so much more. Like I said, you never have to leave the park!
We decided to go to the Build a Buddy craft at the rec hall. They kids LOVED it. Unlike the Build a bear, they got to stuff their buddy with their OWN hands! You can stuff them with friendship, kindness, kisses, hugs etc etc.

Max liked it SO much, he dove in with BOTH hands!
Sonja chose to use a lot of friendship!
Max, busy stuffing away. Like the place he chose to rest the stuffing pusher (the red thing resting on his upper arm)?
Max uses all of his concentration.

He pushed so much stuffing into his Moose "Bullwinkle" The woman said his was the second heaviest buddy!
"There! THAT should do it!"
Sonja hands her buddy "Teddy" to the woman, to have it weighed and measured.
Teddy weighs 12 ounces!
Hmmmm....... How tall do you think Teddy is?
Teddy is 18 inches tall!!
It's official! Here's Sonja getting Teddy's birth certificate!
Bullwinkle is 16 inches tall!
How much does Bullwinkle weigh?
15 ounces!!!! Here's Bullwinkles birth certificate! He's all yours Maxie!
Max checks him all over before giving him a big hug.
Sonja gives Teddy a hug too!
A storm approaching. This is a picture of the frog pond. At night, the peepers and bullfrogs make their beautiful music.
Dan decided to take Max and Sonja on the pedal bikes.
Daddy, Max and Sonja heading out for a cruise.
Sonja thought her bike was a bit dirty so she got busy and washed it. Maybe she'll go into the detailing business someday!
Max and Sonja (taken with the right hand side of the fishing pond behind them). There was a little walking path across the fishing pond, which is stocked with pan fish for all to catch.
Almost every night, we took the kids up to the store to have an ice cream. This particular night, Max was misbehaving. Dan had just finished telling Max that if he didn't behave he would have np ice cream. You can tell by the look on Max's face just what he thought about that.
ALL SMILES! Good behavior pays off in spades. Yummmm..... rocky road ice cream!!!
"Look at us!"

Notice his shirt? It says, "As a matter of fact, I am a rocket scientist!" Well, you wouldn't know it by the way Max puts his helmet on (If you can't tell, it's on backwards!)!
A visit to the big mini put and Max thinks he's at the U.S. open! Here he lines up his next shot.
"CHEESE!"
Ummm.....ahhh....nice look there
We found a store in town that had all kind of stuff. We had so much fun just trying on all of the hats, glasses, disguises etc. Who says you can't have fun for free?!
Sonja Boone?
During our stay, there was an huge storm that came through. It was the same storm that caused so much damage in the New England states. There were tornado watches in the local area, with some neighboring townships sustaining damage from the wind and flash flooding. As a matter of fact, our campsite had a mini stream going through it for a few hours during the worst of the storm. Other sites were completely flooded, leaving the campers to seek out sites on higher ground or leave all together.
All of that rain didn't dampen Sonja and Max's spirit or fun! They just put on their raincoat and boots and made mud pies!

Max seems to have gotten bitten by the shutter bug. The picture above, and the following pictures of Dan, were all taken by Max. While I was at one of the laundry centers at the campground, this is what they were doing.



Raining out? Go to the rec hall! Here we arrive at te rec hall. Sonja immediately took her coat off and off she goes with the other kids!
Sonja gets a butterfly painted on her face.
Max a teddy bear.
Teddy bear art was the craft of the day.
Max really getting into his work.
After the crafts the rain stopped and the sun started shining. The kids decided they'd pan for gems. Sonja found a huge sodalite gem as well as adventurine, bloodstone, citrine and jasper among others.
Max found an obsidian arrowhead, sodalite, crystal, garnets, emeralds, and amethysts and others. They loved it!

After we enjoyed our campground for a few days, we took at trip to the Great Escape Splashwater Kingdom.
Sonja wasn't shy about getting her picture taken with the Looney Tunes characters. Max on the other hand wanted nothing at all to do with them.
He would rather see the animals. They had a newborn goat there that I just wanted to take home with me. I case you haven't guessed, I LOVE goats!
Sonja the cowpoke! She got right on and wanted to take the horse herself instead of having the horse led. Max again wanted no part of riding the horses.

Max at first, wouldn't go on any of the rides. As soon as Sonja went on them he would say "I want" and point to the ride, trying to tell me he wanted to go on. On occasion, the ride operator would stop so that Max could get on, only for Max to refuse again.
Max wasn't afraid of the merry-go-round though.
Sonja doing the "No-hands" thing like the big girls....
That is until the ride started to drop!
Ummm.... Dan.... don't you think you're a little big for that ride?
Max looks as if to say "Opps, I dropped my keys in the water!'
Sonja klanging away on the bell as Max gives the universal "quiet" sign.


I think this one says it all. Sonja waving without even looking, as if to say, Yah...Hi Mom...whatever....
Max looks so small riding on the swing with Daddy.
Sonja wants to go on all of the rides, even the scary adult rides. You wouldn't know this is the same kid that last year was afraid to ride most of the bigger kiddy rides!
Max also became more daring as the day went on. He too wanted to ride the adult rides.
Oh.. how I wish I could ride too sometimes. I used to love riding all of the rides, especially the scary ones. Don't feel sorry for me though, now I get to see the delight in my children's faces, which I may not if I rode too! I love it!
Max gives an evil look as he pretends to give Sonja a motorcycle ride.

Sonja having fun as Max sleeps this one out.

"Are you ready?"
"Here we go!"
At the Magic forest, they have a diving horse. This is her prior to her dive.
Here she is, ready to go!
"Spllaassshhh!"

"Hi Mom!"

A visit with Santa. Max wouldn't even go into Santa's house. I had to take the picture from the door threshold.

We had a lot of fun and may go up again before the snow flies for the changing of the leaves, as it is sooo beautiful.


Sonja's birthday is September 1st!

Well.....Until next time.....

WELCOME!!!!

I would also like to say a BIG "HELLO" to those visiting our blog from China, South Korea, Australia, Japan, Italy, Spain, Ireland, Austria, Poland, Germany, Scotland, Switzerland, Norway, Finland, South America

and..... of course Netherlands :-) ( Hi Rui Chun, Theo, Jose' and the girls! Max (and all of us) send kisses and hugs!!! Rui Chun must be running like a track and field star by now with her new leg!!!
BTW... I think Max misses you being his cribmate! He tries to sleep in bed with his big sister Sonja all the time! :-)

Much love to ALL!!!

I have an older camera Dan purchased for me. At the time, I was thinking about taking up photography as something that I could do after my injury in 1999.

My aspirations were put on hold when life, as it does, threw me some curve balls, one of them being my father becoming gravely ill. My first priority was to be by his side in the sunset of his life. That time was precious. He passed away July 2001. He was 75 years old.

The camera was put aside. We dug it out when we took our trip to Rome Italy and then to adopt Sonja. Dan later purchased a very small camera before our trip for Max, which is the camera that has been used most of the time. Occasionally we would use the old camera. Even though it is quite heavy, and is several years old, it still takes much better pictures than our new "mini" camera.

I recently took the old camera out of the moth balls and used it. To my surprise, there were these images on the card.

These pictures were taken around July of last year. I can't BELIEVE the change in Max since that time!!! Take a look for yourself!


Max looks so small in this picture with Daddy during a park picnic.


No..... that's not a beer, it's apple juice.........jeez....
A first glimpse at Max's feisty attitude (notice the stern look, raised eyebrow and furrowed forehead).
Even Sonja's looks have changed tremendously( especially her haircut....what was I thinking!!!)!

Sonja shows what she thinks about the store bought potato salad.

The above picture was taken in the fall of last year, right about this time of year.

As you can see in the picture, Max was still doing quite a bit of drooling due to his lip still not repaired and his palate fistula.

We sure went through A LOT of bibs in a day!

He would sometimes soak through his bib, and then through his shirt, which would leave his skin cold, irritated and sometimes chaffed, poor little guy.

Now, he HATES bibs, but will wear one when he needs to for eating.

They still love Daddy's horsey rides though... I don't think that will change....at least for a while.

Until next time.....

O.K....So I haven't been the best at keeping up with blogging lately (understatement of the year!).

I am so far behind in this blog, it'll take forever to catch up.

I guess I never will unless I start!

The pictures from this posting was taken back in July on our trip to a small theme camping spot.

It's very quaint and has a few things for the children to do. They have a few scheduled things throughout the day for kids to participate in as well a having a theme every week. It's not like the bigger campgrounds that have tons of things for the kids to do, but it was fun for the kids for a few days and that's what counts.

At certain times throughout the day, they have "wagon rides". The morning after we arrived, Sonja woke up bright and early (as per her usual) and was dressed and ready to go (see picture above of her on her bike).
Max, on the other hand, takes a little while to wake up and get his bearings (see picture above).

Daddy, Sonja and Max headed out to go for a wagon ride while I stayed back at the camper and hung out, as I was feeling a little under the weather. Max was excited at first to go for a ride, that is until he saw the big furry weird looking bear wearing the an ugly green hat....Oh.. and his little pal Boo Boo too.

Everyone is all smiles, singing songs and fun was being had by all.....
except for Max.
He wanted nothing to do with this whole thing.
Notice the tear just under his eye? That's due to the weird looking bear looking at him. He broke right down crying. As long as he stayed his distance, no one was gonna get hurt. One false move by the creepy bear and it was going to be a cry-fest.
Sonja, on the other hand, was loving it! She sat along side the other kids and joined right in.

Sonja: Maxie.... come on! It's O.K. Come sit with me!
Max wasn't falling for it!


Maxie thinking: Hmmmm.... those people don't seem to be too afraid.
Max approaches the big, green, weird looking bear with extreme caution. One sudden move and Max would be running like crazy, crying his head off all the way.
Max: The big weird bear hasn't killed anyone so far!
Max decides to throw caution to the wind and go in for a hug.
Max and Sonja playing with their friends.
Sonja, 3 going on 16
While camping, we met some friends, the B family. Sonja immediately hit it off with their son, Chesney. Since that trip, that's all we hear about is Chesney, Chesney, Chesney. If you click on the picture above, you'll see she's just smitten by him.
and also in this picture
He was just as crazy about her too. Oh... and he's an older man.... the ripe ol' age of 6!

Here Chesney adjusts the necklace he gave to Sonja as a gift! Awe.....how sweet!
This is a picture of Chesney's other family members (minus Derrick the dad). Rachel (Mom) is on the right, along with big sister and brother Brittney and Jordan.

Great people that we hope to see soon!

Well, that's all for now!

Until next time.....

Happy Adoption Day Anniversary!!!

Happy Adoption Day!

In my previous post, I mentioned that on July 4th we celebrated Sonja's anniversary of her adoption.

It's been 3 years since we adopted Sonja. It feels like she's been with us always!

Here's a little look back in time 3 years ago, to one of the best days in our lives!
Big Daddy, with tear filled eyes, holding his baby girl.....priceless......
She was sooooo tiny!!! She was 10 1/2 months on "Gotcha" and only weighed 14 pounds! Just like dynamite though, big things come in small packages!
FIRST BATH!!!
She was a little hesitant, but within a few minutes she was having a ball!!!
To this day, she likes those stacking blocks shown in the bath with her. We brought them with us when we adopted Max and he also loves them. I guess I'll have to divide them up to put in their memory boxes when the time comes.
Sleepy little peanut.
Sonja after her first taste of Popsicles, and her little Popsicle face (notice: big smile, red stained face and gummers!)
She had the tiniest little arms and legs.
She'll soon be 4 years old and starting Pre-K! She's so excited and promises to teach Max everything she learns in school.

On August 1st, Dan and I celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary!!!! In actuality, we've been together for 21 years. We pretty much grew up together. We were in the same homeroom in high school, hung around together as friends throughout high school and beyond, and well.... the rest is history!

Thanks for stopping by!

Until next time......

O.K.....So I lied.....

Well, I thought I would be able to post before now, but it just didn't happen.

We've been REALLY busy! So many things to do and just no time for blogging.

We've been enjoying the camping season tremendously. We've taken advantage of most weekends and have traveled to several parks.

We've also been trying to catch up on home projects that have been put aside since Max's arrival.

In the past month we celebrated Sonja's adoption day, which just happens to fall on the Forth of July, how appropriate! We had a small celebration with family and a weekend of camping and fireworks. I hope all of Sonja's "sisters" had a wonderful day of celebration too!! We love you and miss you all!!! We'll see some of you very soon!

The kids are loving camping and have made new friends. Those who meet the kids initially think Max and Sonja are twins. They are close to the same height, Sonja being 38 1/2 inches and Max being 36 1/2 inches, and are the same weight almost to the ounce!

Every time we leave the house now Sonja asks, "Are we taking the camper?" Even when we are at a campground and we go somewhere outside the campground, she asks the same thing, like we should drag it with us whereever we go!


Is Lawrence Welk camping with us?Max and Sonja love playing with the bubble machine.

"Hey! Watch out or I'll sock ya in the kisser!"
Sonja and Max doing their own woodworking projects while Bear watches closely.
Safety first!
Whatchu talkin' bout!

Dan and I celebrate our anniversary tomorrow!!!!!!!

Until next time