Georgia Aquarium

Saturday, my mom, Ryder, and I drove down to Atlanta to meet Jessi and sadly give back Riley :(. We met at the Aquarium and had THE B-E-S-T time!! It was absolutely amazing and Eric and I are aleady planning our trip back because it was so awesome! Right when we got there we went straight to the AT&T Dolphon Tales show. It is in an 80,000 square foot arena and holds over 1000 people! It's basically like sea world but with only dolphins. Ryder was just in awe it was so cute! They jumped up in the air, did flips, threw the trainers in the air, and did all sorts of neat tricks. We weren't allowed to take pictures in the arena but here is a little video you can watch to see what I am talking about..

This was Ryder eating a snack and waiting for the show to start, he kept squeezing his fists together and smiling and giggling he was SOO excited!!

After we left the arena, they move all of the dolphins to a huge glass tank where you can go see them while your leaving, Ryder was just in awe. It was really neat!

Then we headed to the rest of the HUGE aquarium. Ryder and Riley were just in heave and I had a blast and saw a ton of animals I had never seen before! Here are alot of pictures from our fun day! (sorry bad phone camera pictures- I knew carrying around my good camera AND Ryder would be exhausting and I was right!) 

We got to see them feeding and teaching an otter to go up stairs, it was really cool!

This tank was so huge, this picture just doesn't do it justice! They had 4 Whalesharks in this tank along with tons and tons of other big fish! After we turned the corner it led to a tank you walk through/ride it was amazing! All of the sharks, and whales, and fish just swim around you while you go through!

It was hard peeling him away to get pictures!

These were the whale sharks!

We also got to touch alot of things, sea urchins, starfish, horshoe crabs, sea anemones, and EVEN SHARKS! Ryder touched a shark! (you don't even have to ask him because he'll tell you as soon as he sees you! ha!) 

All in all these 2 had a TON of fun and they were pretty much inseparable all week! So glad they had time to spend together!!

*Adoption UPDATE!!*

Today we were scheduled to have our fire inspection between 12-3. Well 3:00 rolled around with no inspector. I tried calling my caseworker but she was out of the office, so after a few phone calls I was able to get the man's phone number and give him a call. He told me that he didn't even have me scheduled today! This was a huge upset because the fire inspectors ONLY do adoption/foster homes ONE yes ONE day a month. This just seems ridiculous to me but whatever. He said he could squeeze us in around 4:30 so I said WE'LL TAKE IT! He showed up and was so nice, and took maybe 10 minutes to look at everything and APPROVE us!! ( I later got a frantic e-mail back from our caseworker saying PLEASE TELL ME HE SHOWED UP! After I told her he did, she contacted him and he had printed out the wrong calendar for today and we weren't on the original one he printed out)This was our last and final inspection and boy is that a relief! So now, all we have left are 2 visits from DSS to write up a home study of us. This is usually about a 30 minute visit on 2 different days and is just low key get to know you kind of thing. We were told that we could probably get squeezed in before we leave for VA for two weeks at the end of the month, which we still might be able to do but there are 5 people ahead of us right now. So we might have to wait until we get back. I don't feel stress or pressure at all, I know it will all happen in HIS timing! This whole thing has gone so fast and smoothly waiting 2 weeks for our LAST step in the WHOLE process is NO BIG DEAL! I'm not complaining! :) ... and on another note to update about. My caseworker called me about 2 weeks ago asking if we would be willing to take siblings. She specifically had a 3, 6, and 9 year old but I told her there was just no way we could take 3. I told her that Eric and I would pray about it and might possibly do 1 to 2 siblings. Well after a lot of prayer we both felt we had the same answer....which was YES! We are just giving this to God and seeing how this unfolds. We still could get just 1 but we are willing to take 2. We both just felt a tug in that direction so that's what were doing! As I've said many times its unbelievably crazy how this process has unraveled. Going from being told at least 8 months to be approved to almost being down not even into our 3rd month is UNREAL! So this is totally a God thing and we are just taking a leap of faith and will see how this all comes together!

I saw this quote the other day and thought it was so true about the process of adoption!

An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet, regardless of time, place, or circumstances. The thread may stretch or tangle but will never break.

Schools out for summer...

It's always nice when school gets out because we get to just hop over the back fence (not literally) and play in all 5 of their playgrounds! We usually walk about half a mile to the one at the end of the street but pushing 3 kids in 100 degree weather is more work than fun! SO we headed to the playground and had some fun!!

Splash Pad and A Sleepover!

We had a great weekend, and went to the YMCA's splash pad yesterday for the first time since it opened on Memorial Day. Ryder had a blast and loved running in the water! We also had a first last night because Ryder spent the ENTIRE night at Momma-honey's and Pops house!! WOO-HOO were making progress! Maybe sooner or later we'll be able to go out of town alone for a couple of days!...wishful thinking!

Addison was pretty good at getting Uncle with the water! :)

Adoption UPDATE and a Baseball game!

Wednesday was a great day all around! We started off the morning by PASSING our DHEC inspection (HUGE relief!!) and then were told by our caseworker that our fire will be held on the 18th of June and because we are going out of town for two weeks the first part of July she would squeeze our 2 visits for our home-study in for us before we go, so we will be COMPLETELY finished by the end of JUNE!! I am SO beyond excited!


 Wednesday night I had gotten us tickets to see a Blowfish Baseball game! We got there about an hour before and had some hotdogs, nacho's and some boiled peanuts! They had a blowfish character dressed up which Ryder LOVED and also a Kangaroo dressed up. We stayed 3 hours and Ryder did so good, we could have stayed longer but Eric hadn't been feeling that well that day. We are going back next week because it was so much fun!!

Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial Day Weekend was VERY busy around our house, we had a lot to do in preparation for our adoption inspection and were cleaning machines!! We went to a big picnic at our church and it was a blast! It was perfect weather and all the kids enjoyed running around! We did take a break on Monday to hang out with family and par-take in some festivities :) Here are some pictures from lunch with Nana, Pa, Becky at Momma-Honey's and Pops house. It was a great fast weekend!

Ryder really enjoyed squirting everyone with water!