Developmental Growth in a Day?

Magically she's three and can draw herself with arms AND legs!! She also wrote her name with only a little help on the "A"

Kennywood!

It's Kennywood so I think the photos speak for themselves.

I do have to comment on this photo!

This is our friend Dan.

Dan moved away and such and we had not see him in a LONG time.

While getting Kennywood's VERY yummy fresh cut fries we noticed a guy in line that looked a LOT like our friend Dan only to realize it was Dan!!

We were so happy to run in to him and even happier to find out he is moving back to Pittsburgh!!

The Birthday Party

We had a wonderful party with some great friends.

Unfortunately Blogger has posted my pictures totally backwards so you'll see our day from end to beginning :)

Princess Xia was still smiling at 10pm!!

Katie and Xia playing with sparklers

Emily, Austin, Josh and Isaac

Crazy Matt cutting cake

The Birthday Girl!!

Singing to Isaac

I'm thinking she has no plans to be a "beauty queen" because she wasn't really into the whole get-up but thanks Julie!!

Xia wanted a purple cake with purple candles with a purple horse.

She's wearing her purple party dress too!!

Isaac and I created a Lego mountain themed cake.

Yes he still loves Legos!!

Xia's yearly photo on the white chair!

Birthday Boy Breakfast

Isaac 12 years old!!

We typically take each person in the family out for dinner on their birthday to the restaurant of their choice but since we have been traveling and eating out so much we are opting out this year for Isaac.

Instead I let him pick a very yummy and totally unhealthy food for breakfast.

He chose caramel glazed cinnamon rolls.

YUMMM!!

We will be having pasta and veggie meatballs for dinner.

Pasta is his fav. the veggie balls are strictly for me;)

Can't believe I forgot.

Somehow I manage to forget about Josh's AWESOME card tricks at the sharing on Saturday night. I guess I didn't realize how tired I was when I was posting.

Josh picked two people out of the audience and did two of his famous card tricks on them.

He carried them off really well to the very amused crowd.

The brothers told us not to let him go to Vegas.

LOL!!!

Day #7--our final day

These pictures are acutally in reverse chronological order but I'm too tired to correct them so we're just going to go with it. =)

Matt, Xia and I with our new friend Beth.

She's so cool! She raises llamas!!

I can't wait until I get the chance to work with some of her fiber!

Isaac, Xia and I with our friend Push

Matt and Brother Phap Vu

I call Br. Phap Vu the monastery handyman.

He is Matt's inspiration for serious trail and bridge work.

The sisters in their saffron robes for the Two Promises and Five Mindfulness Trainings Transmission Ceremony

Emi and Sheliagh taking the Two Promises, vowing to develop compassion and understanding to live peacefully with people, animals, plants and minerals.

The boys took the promises four years ago in Vermont.

We had a wonderful trip again this year and will return to the monastery for Thanksgiving, I only wish we lived closer!

Day #5 & #6

Happy 4th of July!

Chips and salsa anyone?

Xia sharing chocolates with Sister Blue Sky

**All of the monks and nuns have Vietnamese dharma/ordination names but they find that Americans typically have a hard time saying and remembering them so they let us use the English verisons of their names LOL!!**

Sister Joy getting ready to sound the bell.

And yes she is usually smiling which is wonderful and comforting to see!

She can also be very concentrated.

This bell has a wonderful sound and is rung to announce the being of activities.

A little bit of excitement...a new ping pong table!!

Josh made sure he was in the very first game!!

Brother PD and Sister Blue Lotus with some of the children in the children's program.

They all had a GREAT time this year...think vacation bible school/church camp but I'd call it Dharma School with lots of nature walks LOL!!

Isaac still smiling!!

He is a great boy!!

The children singing a beautiful song, " I am a Continuation"

Day #4 LAZY DAY--which was anything BUT!

Every year at family retreat one day is designated "Lazy Day" where there are no programs. We usually just hang around and do nothing but this year we decided to drive to Sam's Point to do some hiking and see an ice cave. Several friends decided to go with us.

Everyone getting ready to set off up the mountain.

I wish I could say I was this dry when we came back down the moutain.

We were so high that we were inside of a cloud by the time we reached the top and therefore got very wet.

My boys leading the way into the foggy forest.

The kids found some smallish rocks to climb.

The boys getting very excited to see some real rocks!!

The kids getting ready to climb down to the ice cave.

For the record I would NOT do this hike again with an almost 3 year old or a boy with two broken arms but that being said they both did wonderfully and had a great time, my nerves may have been shot by the time it was over (visions of said children falling great distances couldn't be shut out) but they thought it was splendid!!

Our descent....little did we know what was in store for us!!

Really cool and freaky to be between such enormous rocks!!

Amazingly huge rocks

Our friend Push, Matt, Isaac and Xia

A tight squeeze

Still climbing!!

We finally reached the right cave and saw ice!

REAL ICE on July 2nd!!

And let me tell you the cave was VERY cold!!!

Almost back to the bottom and still standing after the hike.

We all headed for some pizza after the hike because we had missed lunch at the monastery but we did get back in time for soccer!!

Josh playing soccer with the brothers and sisters.

Now

Xia by the big rock and pine tree July '09

Then

A flash back to Oct. '07

The evening ended with a

Rose Ceremony

During a rose ceremony you receive roses in appreciation for your parents.

A red rose for a parent that is still alive and a white rose for one that has passed.

It is a VERY touching ceremony!!

The kids and I with Sister K after the Rose Ceremony

Day #3

The monastic's of Blue Cliff singing.

Xia got a little restless during the dharma talk so we took a walk.

She stopped to look at the creek just long enough for me to snap this photo ;)

My beautiful girl and I

Heading back on the wonderful trails the brothers have made.

Ok one more stop before we headed back up the hill.

Matthew talking about the Five Mindfullness Trainings.

Not that Matt is long winded or anything ;)

but Xia just couldn't make it any longer after her big hike!

I think her power nap did her wonders!!

Xia and her friend Katrina

The girls and Brother Phap Khong

The girls and Sister Blue Sky

Me just hanging out.

Xia and Katrina heading to the Little Buddha Hall to see what the big kids were up to.

The children's altar in The Little Buddha Hall.

The painting is Isaac's from home.

You can see all of their pebble mediation bags too.

The main altar in the little hall

Walking mediation

Tree climbing meditation ;) LOL!!

Day #2

There is a practice in our tradition called Pebble Meditation. It is a physical way of helping the children to focus on their breath. It can be used when a child is angry, upset, scared or even over-excited as a way for them to come back to themselves and gain control.

Josh creating a bag for his pebbles.

Isaac wearing his bag.

Xia got into the activity and made a bag too.

Joshua and Sister K

Sr. K was at the first retreat we ever went to in Vermont.

Joshua was just 5 years old and the baby of the group.
Sr. K took care of him back then and has a very special place in her heart for Josh.

This was the first time they had seen each other in 4 years so they enjoyed catching up and Sr. K taught Josh how to make paper cranes.

Due his limited ability and his DEEP love of board games Isaac easily found willing companions to play with him.

Day #1

On the way to family retreat at Blue Cliff Monastery, a Buddhist monastery in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh that is nestled in the Catskill Mountians.

June 29th, 2009

We stopped to pose by a rock...

take a little nap.....

and play a little soccer.

Did I mention look cute while we were doing it too?

Camping+Monkey Bars= Broken Wrists

While Josh, Xia, Carol (MIL-->Mother-In-Law) and I were 3 hours away at the soccer tournament, Matt and Isaac were on a camp-out with the Boy Scouts. Friday night I went to bed early so I just exchanged texts w/ Matt before calling it a night. Saturday night he didn't respond so I just thought he was having too much fun. That is until I looked at my phone on Sunday morning. "Call me when you get up" was all it said. Now I'm not being hokie but as a mom and Matt's wife for 15 years a message like that isn't a good sign. Apparently the boys were playing on a playground and Isaac fell off of some monkey bars and caught himself. He bent his wrists back and Matt just thought maybe he had just hyper-extended them. We were scheduled to leave for family retreat in NY first thing Monday morning so we needed to know ASAP if there was a real issue or not. Matt and I agreed that he should take him to Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh to have them looked at just to be safe. (It was also a Sunday morning and we already knew the local hospitals would be no help after dealing with a similar situation when Josh broke his arm last year). Our phone call took place while I was on the way to Josh's first game of the day (3rd out of 4). Several hours later, between games, Matt called back to say that BOTH wrists were broken and they were waiting to put casts on.

I simply could not believe my sweet boy was going to have to spend the majority of the summer INCLUDING his birthday with not one but two broken arms!!! Do you know how much my boy LOVES to swim!?!? *UGH* I do want to say though that this boy has done AMAZING so far! He has been very positive and tries to do as much for himself as he can which is more then I thought he'd be able to do.

We took him for a check-up today and were told that he has to return in 4 weeks. At that time they will more then likely take the casts off and place a splint on the left hand (yeah he's a leftie) and recast the right hand for a couple more weeks because it is more injured. This was good news EXCEPT for the fact that he has Boy Scout Summer Camp in 3 weeks and there is no way he can do canoeing and trail blazing not to mention swimming. The discussion of skipping summer camp has not come up....yet....his birthday is Thursday so we're going to get through that first.

Soccer Tournament

Force Travel Soccer Team @ Edinboro University

The team receiving their metals.

They placed third.

I won't start pouting again and tell how their last game really sucked but I think Josh's face in this picture shows it.

The little sisters club!

They were troopers to last the whole weekend..first blazing sun then rain!!

Too cute as usual!!

We are officially done with soccer for a couple weeks until we find out who made it for next years travel team.

PROMISE!!!

I promise that I will catch you all up on the happenings at our homestead...the soccer tournament, the broken arms, the trip to family retreat, etc....after I get back from running some errands and taking Isaac for his check-up. :)

Tristan

I think I should have named him "MINE" because that's what he hears most...."He's mine!" LOL!

New Bundles of Joy!

Things have been a bit hairy around here lately.

Six Kittens!!

We are keeping 2 of them---the first one on the left (Tristan) and the 3rd one--the one right in the middle (Avalo--short for Avalokiteśvara)
We have found homes for two----the calico (now living with Matt's parents and named Cali) and the last one on far right (now living with his new family and being called Sid--yes more hockey fans!)


But we still have two left that need homes!!

These little guy need homes and hopefully will have them on Thursday afternoon when I take them to Matt's office for a visit ;)


If you're interested in either of them let me know and if they find homes on Thursday I'll let ya know because I'll be cheering!!!