Palmetto Bluff, Adult time

We had two nights without the kiddos while we were on our trip. On the Thursday night of our week at Palmetto Bluff, the adults took a much needed break. got babysitters, and took a great wine cruise and had a fabulous dinner afterwards.

 The deLaureals (with and without sunglasses)

The McCaffreys

The Holts

Bean, Kit and McCaffrey baby #3!!

Cher Cher chilling on the boat!

the crane Ted took about 50 pictures of . . .

Papa and Martin

the group

take 2

the best parents ever!

We even saw a dolphin on the cruise!

Having a little fun . . . 

heading to dinner after a successful wine cruise!

The last night we were there was Martin's birthday (Martin contends this is the true reason for the trip, but I still have my doubts) and all the adults headed out to a nice dinner in Bluffton.  Although the ambiance (sp?) of the restaurant was a little lacking, the food was amazing and we had a great time.  Martin was even given some gifts - and one in particular we know he will cherish forever.

Martin in his now-beloved gift from the McCaffreys

stealing a kiss on his birthday!

Bit the Bullet

I know that I still owe you more pictures from Palmetto Bluff, but we have been busy at the Holt household and I haven't been able to sit down to the computer in a while . . .  I haven't even checked Facebook! (gasp!)  Here is what we have been up to:

A.  A lot of swim team practice for Ward
B.  First lake trip of the summer (there will be a post on that)
C.  Taking Mary, her boys, and Ward up to Camp Alpine
D.  More swimming and swim team, including Ward's first swim meet tonight (I will take pictures and hopefully video)

But the point of the post . . . I have finally bitten the bullet and gotten another appointment with the orthopedic surgeon on Friday to schedule my ankle surgery.  My ankle is perma-swollen and the pain is really getting to be unbearable.  I can't exercise or it swells to about the size of my calf.  Exercise is my stress-relief so I have just been a joy to be around lately.  I am hoping to schedule it for early August, once the kids are back in school and I am not going to the pool every single day.  Let's hope that I can make it until then.

Palmetto Bluff, Volume II

Volume Two of Palmetto Bluff includes lots of pool pictures.  For those of you not in town, I think that the most shokcing of these pictures is how much Ann Park has grown up.  She has lost all that baby fat and is really turning into a stunning little girl, if I do say so myself.  Plus she loves the pose for the camera so we have a TON of pictures of her!

Sam loved the baby pool!

Tripp and Cher Cher!

Mr Serious = Ashton

Ann Park "relaxing" in her intertube!

Here are some of Sam playing in the water shooters. He loved standing over them and it was just too funny!!

I think that this is the only shot I got of Hope.  Thank goodness her daddy is good with a camera!

Again, Mr. Serious!!  He is such a doll and really not always serious in person! 

More to come later!  I think that I will do some adult pictures in the next installment!

Adoption update

We finally got some good news on the adoption front and things are chugging along.  A while ago I reported that our homestudy was complete, but that ended up not being correct.  I was so upset about the whole thing that I could not bring myself to write about it or I would end up in tears or just plain mad.  Long story short, our homsetudy was supposed to be back to our agency from the social worker in March, but it didn't happen until last week for a lot of different reasons (which really don't matter in the long run).  The waiting was very frustrating (esp. because our documents that are in the homstudy can get "old" and have to be re-done through no fault of ours) but I am trying ot trust and find comfort in the knowledge that our little girl isn't ready for us yet.  The waiting will be worth it, I keep telling myself.

But now the homstudy is in the hands of our agency and they are trucking along.  Out of all the documents (hundreds, literally) there was only one small mistake and we have already fixed it.  Hopefully they will all head to the Secretary of State at the beginning of next week to be apostilled.  (What is that you ask?  Apparently a notary isn't enough for foreign countries and all the documents going to Russia have to have an apostille from the Alabama Secretary of State.)  At the same time, the documents are going to be sent to Russia to have them translated.  That will take about a month and then we wait to find out what region we are assigned.  Then more waiting.

Small steps.  But steps nonetheless.

Palmetto Bluff, Volume I

I am going to have to tackle the Palmetto Bluff pictures in installments, or volumes, because there are just so many and I don't have any energy tonight.

The first set are the kids playing "turkey."  Ward - my child with the best imagination - thought that the palms in the yard looked just like turkey feathers and had Tripp and Louise following in his footsteps.  They were "gobbling" all over the yard and had the best time.  I wish that I got some of it on video!

Starting up the fun!

Louise had THE BEST time and is such a sweet girl!

Tripp had a little trouble with his "feathers" but finally got it!

Hiatus

Sorry about the short hiatus on the blog.  We went on the annual Upchurch family trip to Palmetto Bluff, SC (more on that in another post) the last week in May.  It was amazing. Then, when we got back, I had one of the busiest weeks of my life.  As many of you know, I am/was president of an organization that puts on a ginormous party the first weekend in May every year to raise money for the Alabama Ballet.  So as soon as I got back from vacation, the pressure was on. 

I have to say that all the hard work (beginning last August) was well worth it.  The event was beautiful and a great time was had by all, including me.  I am beyond exhausted.  The only thing I can compare it to is the way I felt after my own wedding.  It was hard to go to work yesterday.

So that is why I have been absent on here.  I will resume regular posting soon and I promise to get some good pictures from Palmetto Bluff on here of the Upchurch clan.  We took over 300 pictures so there is alot to go through!  Stay tuned!