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Sorry to all my bloggy friends that I haven't posted in a while. Things seemed to settle down for a while and just when I was thinking things were getting under control, God throws a curve ball. It has been a rough couple of weeks and especially today! One trip to the doctor office, one trip to the hospital and two trips to the pharmacy. And then 2 more trips this week to dr. appts. So it has been and will be a busy week and it's only Monday!!! Yikes!

Well yesterday, I attempted some photos of the kids. Boy, it's hard to get 4 kids to look at you and it's even harder to get them to smile at the same time. I only edited one photo so far. I will try and get more up later. But this was one of the better shots with all the kids at least looking at the camera. The boys had their Ethiopian hats on that we got them on our trip and then Mekie had a traditional Ethiopian dress on.

So what else is going on you ask, other than dr. appts.? Well 2 weekends ago we went to the Johnny Appleseed Festival. The kids rode the old traditional rides and they had so much fun. Got yummy food and enjoyed the fall air. Sorry no photos! We have also been working out in our wooded area in our backyard, cleaning up some of the brush and cutting down some rotten trees. Then Derek has also started to build a clubhouse for the kids. It is 7 feet high and goes around a tree. He has the floor part built but thinking we will wait till spring to finish it. The kids love climbing up there. And the newest thing the kids love doing is collecting acorns. They have 3 huge buckets full! (By the way, how do you get rid of the acorns without them noticing???) We have also started meeting some other friends that have adopted from Ethiopia. I met a friend last week that has a boy Ash's age and will go to school with him and then she has a girl that is the same age as Mekie and will be going to school with her! Isn't that exciting!!!

Well I need to get some rest. I was up last night because Ash was up wheezing, coughing, and his teeth hurt so bad. My poor little man. So the kids are all resting except Garrett, he thinks he too old to nap!! So keep us in your prayers as we try and get all these kids healthy and their teeth fixed.

Kalahari

Kids see Kalahari!

"You mean I have to wear this!"

Garrett put on his life jacket and he was gone! Face in the water, down the water slides, going across lilly pads hanging on to a rope, playing basketball in the water. He was everywhere and had fun doing it.

The kids ready to get wet. Garrett is off to the side all ready wet!

There was a really awesome little kid area that the kid's really enjoyed. Ash wasn't so sure of all the spraying and neither was Ethan. So those two really enjoyed the kid zone.

Mekie and Garrett love the water. They took off down the slides while Ethan and Ash took a while to warm up.

Mekie's splash at the end of the slide.

Ash and his crazy faces!!

Ash finally attempted a slide. When Ash tries anything for the first time he always has a funny face with it. And I couldn't get a good photo of it. But he had a silly face when going down.

These were really small slides to the ones that Garrett and Mekie were doing early. But Garrett still had fun!

Mr. Ethan wasn't a big fan of the slides but did some. But he enjoyed Grandma pushing him!

I didn't have any pictures of Garrett and Mekie going down the big tube slides. But Derek had all the kids at this particular time and he couldn't find Mekie. And Derek was standing at the end of one of the big slides and out shoots Mekie. Garrett was off going down the slides all by himself and Mekie decided to follow him. She has no fear!!! She kept saying "more water" until the end when she was shivering so bad.

Ethan watching the others playing basketball.
Grandpa with Ethan and Ash. They didn't want to get in the "big water" as Ash called it.
Derek playing basketball.

Mekie and Grandma bonding.

Garrett shooting the ball while daddy and Papa were playing a short game.
We were actually at Kalahari because I had a meeting there with Premier Jewelry. So we invited Derek's parent's to come with us so we could spend the night and have them help us with the kids. So, Derek and his parents watched the kids while I had my meeting. They took them to the arcade and played some games. And they had this huge climbing play area called "Tree Top". The pictures turned out too dark to post. But they had so much fun, Garrett even won an elephant from playing in the arcade. After they ate some lunch they headed down to the pool and after my meeting I joined back up with them.

They got all 4 kids in the swings.

Right before we left, we got some pictures of them.

The kids had such fun. And they were so tired also. I can't believe all the new things Ash and Mekie have experienced since being home and they have done so great. Thanks Rob and Lynn for going with us. I know the kids truly had a good time and really enjoyed spending quality time with you.

And it was so nice to get some time with Derek. We were able to go down some slides by ourselves. And let me tell you, I all ready have a hard time every year I get older but I really have a hard time when I come home from a waterpark and my back is sore and I feel like I have bruised ribs. UGHH!!! Derek and I went down a body slide and raced and guess who won, that's right, ME!!! Sorry honey! And then we went down these slides that looked like a toilet bowel. One you used a big round tube and the other was a body slide. The tube one we both went together. We almost got stuck before we fell out the bottom. And then we went down the body toilet bowel. This was was so much fun but kind of intimidating. This shoots you out of the dark slide so fast into this big bowel. You are flying around in a circle and it has a big hole in the middle that eventually you will fall out into 6 feet of water. So while waiting for the ride we were watching others and the ride stops. People asked what was going on and why it stopped. The lifeguard answered "I think someone drowned or something". Great! And this was the ride I was about to go on! Then it started back up and we were watching others go and most of them fell out of the bowel into the water head first. There was no way I was going head first. So when I was swirling around this bowel terrified I was trying to make sure I would go feet first. Well, I tried but ended up going sideways. And Derek had a back smacker. That was the best ride. Can't wait for my meeting next year!

Fulton County Fair

Checking out the horses while heading to the rides.
They each got enough tickets for 3 rides. Ash and Ethan chose to ride on the choo-choo train.

Garrett and Mekie went through the fun house. I told Garrett to stay with his sister and off they went. Then Garrett came out with no Mekie. I said "Where's Mekie". His answer "I don't know". I said "Go find her". Then in a couple minutes he came back out with no Mekie and again I asked "Where's Mekie" and again he said "I don't know" He ran back and in a couple seconds came out with Mekie. Good Job Garrett keeping an eye out for your sister!!!

Garrett wanted to ride a big ride. So, he's just a couple inches too short to ride the "really big" ones so the scrambler was as close as we got to a "big ride". But he still had to ride with an adult. So Derek went with him. I tried to capture his face on the picture but the bar holding him in was in front of his face. So during the whole ride I had no idea if he was having fun or not! But the photo above of him coming of the ride tells you how he liked the ride!!!

All the kids rode on the airplane ride. And they all liked the ride!

Mekie is smiling by the way. Her smiles, her nose wrinkles up and she looks angry but she really is smiling. I really hope we can get some good pictures of her with out the "angry smile" someday!

Ash, Mekie and Ethan rode on the cars. This actually was the first ride Ash and Mekie went on. When we told them we were going to go on some rides Ash picked out the one that swings you off to the side high into the air and then swings you back down. He was instistent on going. So Derek and I told him he needed to go on something a little smaller for his first ride to make sure he actually liked rides. So this was their first ride! Ash was so excited to drive his very own "mah-kina". So Ethan and Mekie took off but Ash was still sitting there. He was trying to steer the car and move back and forth to try to make the car move. Finally it took off and his whole face smiled! All the kids had so much fun with the rides. And it was so fun seeing Ash and Mekie's first time riding the fair rides!

And of course, it's not the fair without the kids sitting on the tractors. Ethan is my little tractor boy. He loves tractors. We will be in the car going somewhere and if he sees a tractor , he will yell out "boom-boom tractor". The kids and I actually went to the fair Friday night of Labor day weekend (Derek was traveling) and the tractor pull was going on. We didn't even see the tractors pulling but he could hear them!! And every time a tractor started to pull, Ethan would have this strut that he would walk and this serious face yelling out "boom-boom tractor". He cracked me up. It was so funny!

All four of them up on the "pumbcine" as Ethan says!

We had such a great time at the fair this year. Derek and I had no idea of what to expect with 4 kids and all the stimulation and people. But they had fun and so did we. Another first for Ash and Mekie!!

Splash Pad

Ash wasn't so sure of the water at first but once he warmed up he had fun!
Natalie and Mekie running through the green circle. They played so good together.

Garrett hiding under the mushroom of water!

Mekie loves the water! She ran right up to the water and stuck her head in!

And if you are wondering where Ethan is, well, he was off by himself playing at the park area behind us. He's not to big on things spraying him. Hopefully he will come around!

We did this almost 2 weeks ago. I am a little behind of getting things posted. We had a really bad week last week. So, I will continue to put new photos up.