Back from the beach!

We just got home from our first official family of four vacation, shared with two other families. So there were 7 kids and 6 adults, relaxing it wasn't, but it sure was fun! We spent a week in Nags Head, NC. The house was great-had everything we needed and then some. The weather turned out to be wonderful considering what was going on at home. We had one bad storm at night and one really overcast day, otherwise it was perfect. The kids had a blast together, everyone really played great together, well aside from Keeley and Alek. They have moved into a new dimension of their relationship and we now call them Mr. and Mrs. Bickerson. She knows how to push his buttons and he knows how to react. So it was interesting, crazy and funny to watch this all unfold.
Alek loved playing with his new buddies: Gwen, Emily and Ben. Kevin loved that Alek was able to finally play with a boy since he seems surrounded by girls. Maks loved stealing everyone's shoes, especially the girls Crocs. Kevin had enough of seeing him walk around in pink ones, that we went out and found Maks and Alek blue ones.
The kids had a lot of fun on the beach, the surf was rough, but that didn't stop them, well except for Maks, who ran away from the waves.
He did enjoy the pool alot though and has perfected his "dive" or flop which you can see in the video.
Ryan was as cute as ever, the little sandpiper!!
The pool was a nice break from the beach and the kids had a blast jumping, diving and being tossed around by the dads.
We did the Wright Brothers Monument and Museum, which was pretty neat aside from the fact it was the hottest day of the week with quite a bit of humidity.
We drove to Oregon Inlet where the fishing boats come in, Alek slept thru most of the that while Maks checked out the catch and tried to pick one for himself for dinner.

The mom's got a wonderful girls night out to dinner and we found a great little store afterwards where we could sip some adult beverages and purchase some cool jewelry.

The dad's got their boys night out as well, altho our evening sounded alot more fun then theirs!

Our last day we drove down to Cape Hatteras to see the lighthouse. I climbed it--that was hard work, but really neat, it was actually tougher to come back down. The view was amazing.
After that we hit the beach down there, it was the perfect beach day and the perfect ending to a wonderful week.
Yes it was full of chaos and lots of children yelling "mommy". Cynthia actually wore a shirt one day that summed it up: "Who are all these children and why are they calling me mom?"

It was a great trip and the kids absolutely enjoyed themselves!

Saturday we headed back north in alot of traffic and stopped in Maryland for the long awaited, yet quickly planned nuptials of Jeff and Amy! Thankfully we arrived just in time. It was a beautiful and fun ceremony and a great party!!
CONGRATS Jeff and Amy!!! We are so happy for you guys, we can't wait to see what the next part of journey brings.....

So here are some pics from the trip and of course Maks famous flop! For the pics, just click on the family photo and then all the pics will be to the right of it.


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August 16, 2004

3 years ago today, in a court room in Kirov, Russia, Aleksandr Smith officially became our son. I remember how nervous we were, it was almost like we held our breaths through the entire 20 minute court hearing(little did we know how easy that court hearing was)! I remember when the judge walked back in to announce his decision, it was like a huge weight was lifted---6 years of trying to build our family and now it was real, we were parents!
I remember feeling shell shocked, it didn't seem completely real until hours later when they handed him to us on the train, closed the compartment door and we were all alone. He was just staring at us, wondering what just happened--thankfully we got him to giggle and smile at us, and then we fed him his first bottle. We thought, hey this is great, this is easy, well he proceeded to cry and scream the remainder of the overnight train ride back to Moscow--we were walking zombies by the time they dropped us at the hotel. But from then on, he was a dream, he went with the flow and stuck to us like glue and we never let go.
I can't believe it has been 3 years, where did the time go? To me, Alek is still that bald headed pale little 5 month old! Each day he makes us smile, he cracks us up with his comments and his silliness, he pushes us to the brink of insanity with his 3 year old defiance and then redeems himself with that sweet smile and goofy laugh. He amazed us on how well he did when Maks came home, he is a wonderful big brother and you can tell how much he loves Maks and how much he loves making him laugh. It is so fun to watch Maks try to imitate everything Alek does, you can tell how much Maks already looks up to his big bro. I love the phrases and comments Alek makes and the little stories he tells us while we are driving somewhere. I love that he is a loving and caring little boy and that he still lets his mommy snug and cuddle with him at night. I love how he sits down with books and reads them to us since he has all his favorites memorized. I love how he tries to imitate his daddy working with tools, working around the pond and playing baseball. I love how he just loves to have fun and how his eyes light up with each new experience.

It has been amazing 3 years as his parents, he is such a blessing, a joy and truly a miracle!

Happy Adoption Day Aleksandr!

We love you!!!!