More Pictures from our Get Together

I got more permission to post some pictures so I figured I'd add a few more of our Guatemalan (and US) cuties.

Lily H, Jaidyn, and Rudy

Lily H, Rudy and Luke (I am pretty sure it's not David!).

Lily G and Jaidyn

Lily H, Jaidyn and Rudy (being a typical boy)

Lunchtime

I think they were all plotting against us. Hopefully Chris is keeping an eye on things. :)

Jaidyn and Charlotte (I don't think I got any pictures of Charlotte's face - she was always going somewhere in the pictures!)

Weekend in DC

As mentioned in my previous post, we spent the weekend in the DC area meeting some friends. We spent all day Saturday at the zoo. Rudy had a lot of fun seeing all the animals. For some reason, the flamingos were his animals of choice so we had to make sure we saw them before we left (and they were far away from everything else). We had a lot of fun and spent a long day at the zoo. We rode the metro to and from Maryland, which Rudy really enjoyed.

My favorite thing at the zoo was the orangutan. There was an O-line, which they could climb over head to get from one building to the other. I also liked seeing the baby gorilla.

On our way home Sunday we stopped in Baltimore and went to the Aquarium. We saw the dolphin show and lots of divers in the water. Which was, I think, Rudy's favorite since he's been pretending to be a diver and feed us (the fish) food every since.

If you look very closely, or enlarge this picture if you can, you will see a sloth sitting in the middle of the tree.

Friends through Adoption

This weekend we had the chance to meet some people we have become friends with through the internet. Several families who used the same agency to adopt their children from Guatemala got together in DC. It was the first time for most of us to meet, even though we've 'known' each other through the internet for several years. We had a great time walking around the zoo and talking and vowed to do it again - only at a park where the kids can just run and play since that's where they had the most fun.
There were a total of 6 Guatemalans plus 3 other siblings - 2 older and 1 younger. Rudy was the only little boy. I am only posting a few pictures because some families have asked not to have their pictures posted and others I haven't heard back from yet.

Lily G. and Lily H.

Lily G and her dad
Rudy and Lily H.
Rudy and Lily H.

FFF- On Stage

Rudy loves to perform. After our recent trip to see Dan Zanes perform, he has been playing his "musica" more often and even had to use Paul's yoga mat for a stage.

Like Father, Like Son

In honor of Father's Day, I thought I'd show some pictures of Paul and Rudy. Rudy loves to do whatever Paul is doing, he is still very much a Poppy's boy. He loves mowing the lawn with Paul and will follow Paul all around the yard. Paul will usually try to signal to Rudy to move out of the way, but Rudy usually responds with a wave.

They both like thrilling rides (unlike me).

They like to sit and watch parades.

They even both like to take naps in the car. (Don't be alarmed by the fact that Paul is sleeping in the driver's seat. This was after our Sesame Place trip last weekend. Rudy fell asleep, after much crying, about 10 minutes from home, so we knew we didn't want to wake him up to bring him inside. Paul volunteered to stay in the car with him so he could also nap.)

FFF- Summer Pictures

We haven't had much summer weather so far but last weekend when we went to Sesame Place, Rudy was dressed like he was ready for summer.

Happy Birthday, Paul

Friday was Paul's birthday. Rudy and I baked him a cake. I decorated it one night and Rudy was very upset because he wanted to do it. He had plans to put chocolate chips on the cake. So, after dinner and before eating the cake, Rudy added a little more embellishment to Paul's guitara cake. He also picked out the pink "that's my favorite" candles.

On Saturday we continued Paul's birthday celebration with a trip to Sesame Place. Yes, you read that right and yes, it was Paul's choice to go. Dan Zanes and his band were playing there and Paul and Rudy both like their music so we went to see the show. Rudy was pretty reserved during the show, and he wasn't crazy about how loud it was. But he made it through the whole show, which is better than the last Dan Zanes concert we went to.

In this picture, Rudy is sitting on Paul's lap and resting his elbow on my shoulder. He was just chilled out with very little expression on his face listening to the music.

After the concert we ate lunch and planned to go to the water rides. It had been a grey day so far and wasn't looking like it was going to clear up anytime soon, but we set off in our bathing suits. Rudy played in a few little wading areas and then we decided to go on a "slide with a tube". While standing in line it started to rain and it was a cold rain. We decided to stick it out for the line we were in but to get ready to go home after the slide. We will definitely need to go back and try the other slides because Rudy really enjoyed the first one. On the way out of the park, the cement is all painted blue. It was wet from the rain and Rudy kept asking about it - it looked like a swimming pool. Then as we walked toward the gate, he became a tiger and then a frog and started crawling and hopping his way out. It was definitely a good time to leave.

FFF- Car Pictures

On the way up to Vincie's house last weekend, Rudy was wearing his hat in a funny way, so I took a picture. Then he started posing and asking me to take pictures of him so here they are:

A Birthday Party and a Long Night

Last Sunday we went to my friend Vincie's house for her son's 3rd birthday party. Rudy and Noah (the birthday boy) and Tyler all have fun together and it was nice for the three of them to get a lot of time to play. They swam, played all kinds of sports, and generally were boys. I think it was the first time they've all really played together - especially Rudy and Noah who are just about 6 months apart. Fortunately, we've got plans to get them together more often this summer.

Paul is probably going to kill me for this next part, but it was a memorable night so I have to add it. On our way home, we got a flat tire on a bad highway. Paul attempted to change the tire only to discover he didn't have a wrench (I won't repeat what was said but he was not happy with Toyota for selling him a car without a wrench).
Here are the boys when we discovered we were going to be waiting a while.

I called AAA only to find we were looking at an hour and a half wait. We were right next to a guard rail with no where to go and be safe so we started looking into plan B. I called my brother, Bill, who lives about 30 minutes from where we broke down. He came out with his wrenches and he and Paul tried again to get the tire off. In the meantime, I moved Rudy's carseat into Bill's car (actually Renee's) and we drove to a nearby gas station to wait in safety. Bill & Paul still couldn't get the tire all the way off so they waited for AAA. Rudy and I entertained ourselves in Renee's car - Bill & Renee had bought him a baseball glove so we pretended to play catch and then really played catch with a doll we found in Renee's car. Rudy cleaned his car seat with the ice scraper and took pictures.

Meanwhile, Paul and Bill waited for AAA. When the guy finally came they discovered the battery had died while the hazards were on. Now this shouldn't be a problem once you have a AAA repairman there, but he had driven in a car with no portable battery charger and there was no way to turn a car around on the highway to jump Paul's car. So we made another call to AAA to request another vehicle. Rudy and I drove around to see if we could find a service station that could help but at this point it was about 9:30/ 10:00pm on a Sunday night so we found nothing. To make a long story short, Paul finally got the battery jumped, Rudy and I met Paul and Bill and we all headed home. Rudy and I had to take the next day off from school to get new tires and a new battery in Paul's car. We are hoping we've had enough car adventures lately and we have no more breakdowns.