OurLittleMcFamily.com

Summer will quickly be upon us here in the desert. And you all know how cranky I get when summer comes. So I try and make the summer as busy as possible for myself so that I can endure the baking hot sun.

Here is what we are planning:

MAY
–Zion Nat’l Park, of course. Year six. We leave tomorrow.

JUNE
–Spring Mountain Ranch, Willy Wonka. Planning this outing for months now with friends. So excited to take the kids to their first official play.
–Camp Invent. Danny is going to his first invention camp with a buddy. He is totally stoked.
–Bear Lake. The kids and I are planning a week at the lake with my mom and sister. (Adam will be in China on business–boo, boo!)
–Swim lessons. Hopefully we can squeeze a couple of these in. :)

JULY
–Grandma Penning Visits. YAY!
–Relay for Life. We are going to Oregon to participate in Team Georgie this summer. So Excited!
–Washington. Oh how I love escaping the desert heat, trading it in for two weeks in Yakima. I can’t wait to hang with my family, scrap with Jes, camp at Rainier with cousins, and see old friends and their children.

AUGUST
–The Beach. Yes! Who love the Oregon Coast? We do. We do. We have been planning this vacation since Thanksgiving with my parents and siblings. One whole week in Seaside with my family. The kids are going to learn to body surf this time around. Can’t wait for vacation with my hubby and kiddos.

Ezzy’s eighth year is going so fast. She started attending Activity Days. One of her first activities was a Daddy Daughter Dinner. How cool is it that she has a daddy to take her?

October always bring Fall Conference to our home. It is one of only two times a year that we intentionally stay home for church–glorious internet. The kids did awesome. They sat through all four sessions of conference while coloring ties and pictures of the speakers, and writing down the main themes of each talk. What a difference a year makes when it comes to communication, right?

I started exercising again today. Yeah, it was only a mile walk. But I also went out and walked with the kids later in the day too. Maybe my motivation is slowly returning. It would be really good for it to hit around the holidays. Perhaps it will stave off extreme amounts of weight gain due to even more extreme amounts of consumed peanut brittle and sugar cookies. :)

Daniel raced in his first “space derby” and received his first Cub Scout award all in one night this past September. Danny received his rocket on Sunday, and had to race it on Thursday…September 24th, 2009. Needless to say, Adam and Daniel spent the three evenings in-between frantically sanding, shaping, glossing, and tweaking the shiny red and black vehicle. After the race, Daniel received his Bobcat and his Wolf allowing him to advance into Bears. He also earned two arrows.

Our nine year old son could not be any more excited than he already is about scouting. He dances around the house chanting, “I’m going to Scouts!” every single Thursday. He is an oldest child in every sense of the word. It drives me insane sometimes because I see my own oldest child tendencies manifesting themselves in him. So when he is too nervous about unimportant things, or when he gets frustrated because he didn’t do something exactly right the first time, it is like looking into a very sharply focused mirror. I suppose you do not have to be related by blood or race, or even speak the same language to be so much alike after all! :)

The super-supportive siblings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Although it wasn’t United’s fault that my bag was lost, their lousy communication kept it lost for 3 weeks after it was found in Hong Kong. Here’s a funny, but all too real, look at how your baggage is handled:

Full Story: http://www.davecarrollmusic.com/story/united-breaks-guitars/

Pine Nut Road is north of Las Vegas, inside the Desert National Wildlife Refuge. I gave mommy a break on Sunday afternoon and took the niños out for a drive with Jeremy. We have been wanting to explore this area because there are a few areas we have heard are good for camping in this area. I explored the other side of the mountain the week before with Dave, but we didn’t have any great success. The Refuge is a pretty lonely area - not a lot of traffic on these roads!

Though we didn’t make it all the way to the campground, we did make it almost all the way to the end of Pine Nut Road. From the end of the road, one can hike to Hayford Peak, the highest point in the Sheep Range. We hit snow at about the 6,500 foot level. We decided to have a little snow ball fight and head back for home since we were quickly losing the light.

Once the snow is gone, this will be a great place to head for cooler temps and camping in the trees (there ARE more than Joshua trees up there!). It’s a good thing that the kids like driving out on “la tierra” because they’re going to be doing it more. :)

Before the head staples!!!

After the head staples!!!

Adam wasn’t home from San Antonio but 10 minutes when the boys decided that wrestling on the stairs was a good idea. Hello!!! Wompy knocked his head (where Danny had already given him a goose egg on Halloween) on the corner of the banister–leaving a giant splotch of blood on the moulding.

Needless to say, instead of Sunday napping, we spent a few hours finding a Quick Care that took our insurance and then getting Juan P. treated. We are really proud of his bravery though. He didn’t cry when he brought a handful of blood down to me, nor did he cry during the stapleing procedure.

And he’s so stinkin’ cute that the doctor gave him TWO dulces. Yummy!

***the ouchies on the front of his head were for something the day before–oh, the five year old. :)***

JULY was full of wonderful adoption preparations. My girlfriends helped me pack and shop for the kids. My mom helped me put their rooms together. We also met our children over the video for the first time.

August was….well a cornacoupia of emotions. In short, we became parents–gaining four amazing Spanish-speaking Sunshines. And we spent one hell of a month in Bogota. Another thanks to grandma, grandpa, uncle brian, and tia jena for flying out to help. It feels surreal, doesn’t it?

SEPTEMBER was the month that saw us home. We drove from LA to LV. We immunized and enrolled our munchkins. And we spent two weeks attacking the lice-infested hair of our daughters.

OCTOBER was full of rock-climbing, bike riding, and Halloween. Adoption-wise, the kids started to pick up a bit more English, and respond well to school. Their first trip to Logan, UT (7.5 hours) went off without a hitch. These munchkins were born to be our children–they are excellent travelers. And yes, most of our travel is DVD-free! It is possible. :)

NOVEMBER was the month that Amy (and Mya) and Jes flew into visit. We scrapped, ate Cold Stone ice cream cake for Amy’s 30th, and cruised the strip in the minivan. We spent Thanksgiving with the Penning clan in Logan, UT. While in Logan, we took real autumn family pictures. I believe we have felt more like a family since November.

DECEMBER was just last month, but it seems likes ages ago. We hit a turning point adoption wise and language wise in December. I like to think it is the spirit of the season that forged us closer together. The children’s language jumped forward during Christmas Break. Also during December, we started to see lots and lots of kisses given freely to us and to each other without Adam and I initiating….what a wonderful feeling. December 2008 is most decidedly a keeper. December also brought Kavika to our door. The jury is still out on how long Kavika will be with us. But for now, he is part of our family.

Hey Readers! Obviously, 2008 was a huge year for this not-so-little McFamily. Please bear with the next two posts. They are for my journal, after all. :)

JANUARY started our year with great sorrow over my grandfather’s passing, and great sadness over another miscarriage. Most of January was spent in bed. At least, I had beautiful snowy goodness to look at. I also had a more-available-than-usual husband since we were away for his Master’s. On the adoption front, January was one of our very busiest months…full of paperwork and trips to fed-ex (yuck!)

FEBRUARY was spent training for the SLC 1/2 marathon (more like crawling) and watching baby Spencer while Jaimee and Brian headed to Tahiti. Adoption wise we finished up our home study interviews and accomplished our mandatory physicals.  

MARCH was spent losing weight, touring Southern Utah, and celebrating ADAM’S 30th birthday.

APRIL was one of the best months of my life. I ran/walked/jogged a 1/2 marathon! We also participated in our second Race for the Cure with our buddies in LV. But even more significant was the Adoption Shower that was thrown for us in Las Vegas. I still tear up when I think about the outpouring of love toward us and our children. It was one of the most joyous occasions I can remember.

MAYwas Zionfest #4. Our most favorite yearly friend retreat. We even made t-shirts this time. :)

JUNE was full of sad goodbyes and happy hellos. We said goodbye to my sister and her family. They were amazing hosts while we were at school. They have also been two of our biggest champions and supporters from the early beginnings of our adoption process. 

But back to Las Vegas we went as Adam graduated from Utah State University with his MBA. And our friends welcomed us back with open arms, as if we had never left.

Okay, we’re playing a little catch up. And yes, the rumors are true–we did have snow here in Vegas. The last time we saw snow in the valley was Christmas Day 2003–but it was only a skiff and it did not last through the day. This time Las Vegans enjoyed a few days of it. Our home is located in one of the lower points of the valley so we did not get any actual snow on our street. But we did get lots of rain and slush. It tried snowing a few time, but turned quickly to rain. Adam’s parents and our friends, the Brummetts, had a lot of snow though. I am just happy that it rained for so many days in a row. We didn’t see blue skies for three or four days–and it was Glorious! I woke up every morning hoping for gray skies. I know, I know–I’m weird. But there are a lot of us transplants here in the desert that are happy to call ourselves precipitation loving weirdos.
Our own Mt. Charleston got pounded with snow so we decided to take advantage of it. We piled the four ninos in the truck, and took off. It wasn’t so bad going up, but by the time we reached the top we were in the middle of an actual snow storm…the kind of snow storm we usually only partake of in places like Utah and Washington. Anyway, by the time we were able to get down off the mountain conditions had worsened, and there were many many people driving who had no business being on the road.

As you can see, the poor little children had a mish-mash of our clothes and theirs to try and keep them warm. There were a couple of babies–big big babies–in the group. Oh yeah, they were all wimps except Danny!!! Even Ezzy melted down a couple of times. And only Danny would climb the “big” sledding hill with Adam. It was really funny. Here’s my hottie of a husband:

Daddy and the kids ended the day by having a snowball fight with the neighbor kids when we got home. Yummy hot chocolate and soggy shoes were welcomed additions to our desert oasis.

We were so happy that out of all the years we have lived here snow graced us in 2008. Our children have never seen snow, never experienced it. Snow was one of the things they were most excited about when moving to the States. They had a total blast freezing their tooshies off in our short-lived winter wonderland.