on the lake

A good day on the lake

happy birthday boys

I finally got to use Lori's gift to decorate for the big days

there was a D&D theme this year

One of our gifts to the boys is that we are taking them to Nashville to see our new favorite band, The Avett Brothers, in concert

Jared had a swim party

Carter did the boat party again

Carter doesn't like cake and chose to have cookies and swedish fish instead

Carter and his friends still love all things monkey, so he was thrill with this gift

first day

Claire was the only one happy that school was here again. As always I could have used a month more of summer, and the boys would have loved 8 more month of summer. But, it was time. We survived. We are almost use to it again. We can't wait til summer.

off and on

While I was at a meeting at church one night last week, Allen took the kids to his office to take Carter's braces off. (end of summer is too busy a time to be seeing your offspring during work hours) Carter only had to have them a year, as he just had a little crowding. He is thrilled with his new smile.

While at the office Allen decided to use his new toy/laser on Jared and expose a slow descending tooth a little more, to help it along. Then thought why not slap a few brackets on and help it down even more and close that space while we are at it. Jared was game. So I came home with one boy without braces and one with braces. They both look great.

jared time

The other day Jared and I swam laps together in our pool. Then we raced different strokes. (I can barely hold my own with this kid) Then we played in the pool together. He showed me all the things he likes to do in the pool and had me try. Things like laying on the bottom of the pool, doing a hand stand in the deep end and then floating back up, upside down, swan dives, no hand dives, and dive and glide as long as you can. I hope it meant as much to him as it did to me.

zippin' along

You know when you have one of those great days and you can't stop smiling? We had one of those. We took the kids on a zip line in the Smokey's. The place had six of them actually. We did all the prep work- talked about how it would look scary, but would be fun, showed youtube videos of people on the same zip line, explained that the owner said everyone loved it once they tried it. And this time our hard work paid off (unlike the snow tubing). Our biggest fear, Jared, gave only smiles and never hesitated to go when it was his turn. Claire had a serious look but not one tear. Carter had his nervous excited smile. After the first run we all concluded that it was awesome. Allen and I shared looks of relief and we fully enjoyed the day with our kids. Later that night we still were smiling, because it was one of those days.

On one run you got to race, here is Carter and Jared

Claire was beyond cute

the happy family

a movie of Claire's first run

reunions

We have been busy with reunions these past few weeks. We had the Barber Reunion 2010, Knoxville. It was great to be with everyone again and meet the newest (and last?) addition to the family, Sam. My boys especially enjoyed holding this big boy and proudly carried him around. Sadly I didn't take many pictures of our days together. The first afternoon was spent on boats and at our pool. We got to show off our new fire pit and smores were enjoyed by everyone.

We took advantage of us all being together and got a Barber family photo. This is everyone waiting our turn. Other highlights of our time together: Virginia Creeper, talent show, and of course the crossword puzzles. Our t-shirts had this theme and were great-using every one's names. I so enjoy seeing my brothers (and their families) at these reunions. I think I most enjoyed the paper game...just hanging out laughing together. The thought of Troy showing his blank shirt still makes me smile.

The next week we attended the 2nd annual reunion of families that have adopted from China. We didn't make it last year and are glad we made it this year. The morning was spent doing Chinese games and the afternoon we enjoyed a Chinese Acrobat show. I try to get Claire to as many of these type events as we can so that she can be around families like ours and not feel so different. Funny thing is that while we are there, I notice that she is different. At home she is just Claire. But there I see that she is an adopted little Chinese girl who doesn't look like her parents or brothers. But I love to look around and see all these families like ours. I love the bond we share. I love knowing they know what it is like to go to China and pick up your daughter.

Claire got to write Chinese letters

At the reunion, Jared became somewhat of a celebrity. There was one of those metal puzzles where you try to get one piece off the other. Apparently, many adults spent 30+ minutes trying to accomplish this feat. Jared took about 3 minutes and got it. He was instantly paraded around to all the adults who had tried and failed and they were all in awe of Jared. The ladies in charge took his picture, then took our family's picture, then offered him anything from the gift shop as his prize. He chose the Chinese yo-yo.