Eagle Rock

The annual Kelly Family Reunion (Sean's side of the family) was last weekend. It has been held the last Saturday in July for 41 years!  The location has changed throughout the years, but the past 5 or 6 years it has been held at Eagle Rock Resort (a four seasons resort in the Pocono Mountains, PA).  The past three years we have been making a long weekend of it and loving it!

The house we rented this year had a pool table, ping pong table, air hockey table that made for many "competitive" tournaments.  And a hot tub that we made a "warm" tub.  It was heaven for the kids :)

The girls loved the lake/beach this year!  And the weather was perfect. 

Audra was so different this year...

She LOVED the sand and water!

The boys enjoyed the paddle boats,

followed by a cook out on the beach.

We went to Knoebels on Friday night, which was bargain night. From 6-10pm you can ride almost everything (except the big roller coasters) for only $10, and the little ones are just $7.50. 

It was crowded, but parking is free and the lines were pretty short.

And at the reunion (the main feature of the weekend)...

Maura "beat" her Great Uncle Pat at ping pong

and

Audra "taught" her Great-great Aunt Grace all about her Littlest Pet Shop toys.

take me out to the ball game

For Father's Day we gave my dad tickets for the whole family to go to a local minor league baseball game. My dad enjoys the Reading Phillies, but he enjoys being surrounded by his family at the ballpark even more.

Today was game day.  And it was hot!!

The kids got free neon t-shirts on the way into the ballpark...and compliments of Stroehmann bakery, the adults got a free loaf of bread on the way out.  Interesting, but with the way we go through bread in our house I'll take it :)

Before the game started the kids had fun at the Kidz Zone.  Aidan and Maura both won souvenirs at the ring toss game.  Maura had a steady swing at the putt-putt game and won countless coupons for free rounds of mini golf at some random place in the middle of who-knows-where?!  Aidan threw a mean pitch at the speed pitch game...but he never guessed his speed correctly, so no souvenir for him.  Maura tried the speed pitch too, but her little arm couldn't throw the ball hard enough for the sensor.  She's determined tough...she has to try just about everything Aidan does.
They both were sweaty monsters before the game even started!

Meanwhile, Riley enjoyed his iPad in the shade,
and Audra enjoyed the concessions galore!

We had front row seats on the first baseline.  Perfect for visits from the mascot...unless you're like Audra...terrified of anything in a costume! (we really need to work on this with our trip to Disney World fast approaching)

Blog Book

So, it is really August 15th....

And it has been a month since I have been able to update this blog due to a nasty virus that had my laptop out of commission.

Now it's time for lots of back-blogging,
Cause the fun never stops around here...even when the computer isn't feeling so well!

Last Christmas my mom gave me a gift certificate for Blog2Print...to have my blog printed into a book.  I finally got around to customizing my book online and placed my order.  The hard cover has Audra's referral picture...my beautiful girl.  The book is bound with 130 pages that tells the entire story of our adoption journey...from paper chase to being matched with Audra, and includes our amazing trip to China...where we finally met and held in our arms the little girl we fell in love with through pictures!

This book is priceless to me, but more so for Audra.  It is a tangible piece of her life story (similar to the baby books, scrapbooks and journals I have for my other kids).  I hope to make another blog book for her with all the posts during her first year home.

Thank you Mom!!

return of the onesie

It's been quite a few years since we've had onesies in our house.  And I honestly didn't foresee a need for them in my future...

But desperate times call for unexpected and creative measures!

Monday evening I found myself roaming the clothing racks and aisles of the local department store searching for a defensive measure for our recent tubie drama.

I needed something:
snug fitting,
one piece,
and preferably...with a lock and key!

...the onesie might just be the answer?!

The largest size I could find was 24 months.  I bought a few and felt good about my defensive plan.

Luckily they fit my teeny-tiny, soon-to-be seven year old like a glove!

Now, I can connect her night time feeding and snap her up, keeping the tubing (and the tube itself!) out of the curious little hands of Audra.

So far this week: 

no leaks, no disconnections, and no dislodgements!

Mommy = 1

Tubie = 0

Tubie drama

This morning I woke up to Audra being antsy to get out of bed...which isn't unusual for her!  I reminded her that her feeding wasn't done yet and tried to convince her to sit still for a bit longer. 

Not too long after that I heard her trying to "tell" me something.  At first glance it looked like she had disconnected the tubing from her G-tube and I prepared myself for a "fed bed".  Once I got a closer look it was in fact worse than a "fed bed".  In her little hands was her entire G-tube with the tubing still attached.  Somehow the tube had become dislodged from her stomach.

This is not good.

The first 4 weeks after the G-tube is placed is the critical stoma/tract healing time.  We had been told that if the tube became dislodged during this time we would need to bring Audra to the hospital to assure that the tube was reinserted into the proper place without any complications.

Today is one day shy of 3 weeks since her tube was placed. 

So we got dressed and jumped in the car headed for CHOP.  When we got there they put a catheter in her stoma to keep it from closing and then we waited for the surgeon to come and replace her tube.  Thankfully, the new tube went in easily and a quick dye study confirmed that it was in the proper place.

The tube that came out had a partially inflated balloon.  Only about 1ml was in the balloon.  There is supposed to be 4ml.  Not sure where the other 3ml went??...I'm thinking that maybe there was a defect in the tube that caused the balloon to slowly leak over the past 3 weeks. 

I'm looking forward to hitting the 4 week mark so we can take care of this kind of tubie drama at home.  Once we pass the four week mark we are allowed to replaced the G-tube ourselves at home.

Five and a half hours, and one shiny new G-tube later...
We were back home to finish off the holiday weekend!
I'm hoping this tubie lasts longer than 3 weeks.

I made her promise to stay away from CHOP for awhile.

She said "ok"...

we'll see?!

4th of July

Our 4th of July was quiet this year...

except for our little firecracker!

She's never quiet.

 

And for fun....

Here are some pictures of Audra from last year on the 4th of July:

(this reminds me how grown up she is starting to look now!)