Adoption Day

Every August we celebrate Hogan's adoption. It is the month when his adoption was finalized and our family was cemented together forever. This year's Adoption Day was filled with family and plenty of fun. We played out in the yard, went swimming, and of course ate a delicious cake. Troy and I realized that from this point on Hogan will begin to understand more and more about his adoption. We decided that we wanted to make service a part of his adoption day celebration. We want Hogan to begin to understand that while this is a day to celebrate our family and eat cake and get presents, it's also a time to help those who aren't quite as fortunate as we are. We feel like we have been blessed immensely. So this year, everyone who came to share in Hogan's Adoption Day festivities got to come to the grocery store with us so that Hogan could pick out food for the food bank. His job was to pick out food that kids would like to have.

The following week, I brought Hogan up to Troy's work where they have food bank for their clients. Hogan was greeted at the door, got to bring his food in and see what the food bank looked like. Since Hogan was a little confused about real banks and food banks and a bit concerned about whether he would get a sucker at the food bank like he does at the money bank, the person who greeted us also had a sucker ready for Hogan- it was very sweet.

Circus

In August we went to the circus with our friends. Everything in the Big Top was over the top- the lights, the stunts, the length of the show, and the twelve dollar cotton candy. Troy, forever the realist was convinced that the hassle to fun ratio would balance more on the side of "hassle". Hogan and I, the idealists, believed that this really would be the greatest show on Earth! I'm not sure, when you weigh the cost of the cotton candy (did I mention it cost 12 dollars?) against the cool motorcycles that raced around the steel sphere; the madding crowds against the brave flying trapeze artists; the 3-hour show that really could have ended after 90 minutes against the stilted clowns how the ratio was weighted, but whether hassle or greatness it was an experience that we won't soon forget!

Schlitterbahn

Before entering the Schlitterbahn waterpark

About 3 minutes after leaving the Schlitterbahn Water park

We have no pictures of the inbetween because I didn't want to mess with a camera, but I will say that despite the crowds we had a fun day and as you can tell it tuckered Hogan out! He had a blast and he's still talking about the "steam" ride, which was their new Congo river ride with lots of rapids and hills.

Enchanted Rock

If you live in Texas you have to climb Enchanted Rock at some point in your life. Hogan didn't do a lot of climbing this first climb, but he did find lots of places along the way to the top to "rest". Once we made it to the top he was full of energy while the rest of us were ready for a break. It had just rained a couple days before so there were lots of big and little puddles all over the top. Hogan made his way to each one and accidentally slipped or jumped in them before I finally just took his shoes off.

After finishing the climb we traveled into Fredericksburg to Wheelers where Hogan ate a huge lunch. I've never seen him eat so much in one sitting. Having people carry you up and down Enchanted Rock is tough work!

The rest of the weekend with Nana and Papa was a blast, although none of it was captured on camera (sorry!), because this mom was too busy enjoying the water park at the Flying L Ranch right alongside Hogan!

Bats

I finally got to see the famous bats of Austin. Okay- these are the famous bats of Round Rock, and I still haven't ever actually seen the bats off of Congress bridge BUT I was glad to have my curiosity satisfied. There are lots of bats and right as the sun is beginning to set, they begin flying out in hordes to seek out their food. Hogan thought this was pretty neat. It has opened a whole discussion of nighttime animals, something he didn't know existed, and he's been working really hard to wrap his 3-year old mind around the idea that some animals are awake while he's sleeping.

And of course, I have to add the now-standard silly face picture that he's currently obssessed with.

Dancing with Opa

Putting on the record

And then dancing

and dancing

and dancing!

Hogan says: "Thank you for letting me go to Oma and Opa's house. I love my Opa, but I miss him. I'm so sad about it. They're not here."

Friends

We are so lucky to have such wonderful friends. My bookclub group has been meeting for almost five years. We've read lots of books and in that time we've celebrated births, adoptions, marriages, and other amazing accomplishments. This week we all met with our kids to swim and play. We were all being so self-congratulatory about how sweet, cute, and wonderful our kids are. They played well together and had such a good time. I didn't get any pictures of our swimming, but afterwards the kids played in this shaded courtyard. The sticks were magic wands, the brick foyer was a house, and I'm not sure about the poles, but at one time four of the kids were on the poles lining the sidewalk trying to climb them. They played for almost an hour running around the courtyard together in a little gang, never once fighting, tattling or whining. It was a delightful afternoon!