We finally went camping! It has been a really long time since Mike and I have done any camping since we became parents. This past weekend we loaded up our new family sized tent and headed up the mountain with my sister and her family. The campsite we rented ended up being really, really small literally sleeping on a cliff with a roaring river below. Luckily the guy who was managing the campsite let us move to a much bigger spot, yay for that! All the happy campers!
We set up camp and got a fire started and then it began to rain, thunder, lightening. It felt like we were camping in Washington again :) Our nice big new tent fit ALL of the campers and we played games and ate junk food while we waited for the storm to pass. An hour later the storm ended and we resumed playing in the fire Oh, I mean camping. Angie (my sister) made AWESOME tinfoil dinners and we had watermelon and made smores later on in the evening.
Unfortunately, the night didn't go as well as the day. Kaelyn (my niece) was really sick around midnight so Mike and I helped Angie and Wade pack up their camp and sent them to our house for the rest of the night. Luckily our home was only about an hour away. We kept Jacob (my nephew) and all tried to go back to sleep. About an hour later Lilly woke up and started crying and saying she was cold (she was in two sleeping bags) she refused to go back into her sleeping bags and climbed in my mummy sack. She wasn't content laying on me and pushed me to the side and slept next to me in the mummy sack. To say the least, I did not get any sleep that night. But that's ok, I always expect to not sleep while camping, it's just part of the whole experience for me :) This way I run on pure adrenaline :) The morning came and Mike made us (the survivors, Mike, Jacob, Lilly, Bryn and I) A wonderful meal of egg/sausage/cheese bagels. So yummy! We played in the fire some more ate a couple of marshmallows then took down camp. We decided to drive the scenic loop home and I am glad we did, we saw wild turkeys, a deer and stopped at Devils Kitchen. Overall it was a fun, yet too quick, camping trip. Hopefully we will be able to go again in August after summer term ends.

We decided not to worry about a stroller for Lilly, last year it was kind of a hassel taking her in and out of it, so Mike offered to carry Lilly when she needed little rests. Most of the day Lilly walked she is such a high energy kid, she keeps us going :)By the end of the day Lilly wanted Mommy to carry her. She is a Mommy's girl when she's tired, but when she wants to play she is deffiantly a Daddy's girl. We took lots of fun breaks throughout the day, we had hotdogs at lunch time and then a few hours later decided it was time for an ice cream break! I don't think Lilly has ever had an ice cream cone this big, she LOVED IT! Mike shared a few licks, but Lilly ate most of it.Of course we have to get the photo of Lilly drinking out of the lions mouth fountian. I'm generally not a fan of drinking fountians, but I had to let Lilly use this one :) She thought it was pretty awesome to drink "Lion Spit" :)Lilly got to ride on her first carosel ride! While we waited in line she decided that she wanted to ride on the elephant, so as soon as it was our turn to climb on I ran to the elephant to make sure she got it. She loved it and I really enjoyed myself too. I love seeing Lilly happy and experiancing new things.

I asked Lilly a few times what her favorite thing about the zoo was and everytime she answers with something different:

1. Pink birds

2. Ice Cream

3. The Zebras

4. Kettle Corn

5. Going to Cabella's on our way home

6. The snakes (this I don't understand, she is really scared of the crocidiles, but would try and touch the snakes) She likes snakes :)

My favorite part was I got to spend the day with the two people I love most in this world. They are both such fun and bring so much joy to my life. Love you guys!

The Springs was really nice, Lilly loved that it had "Little waterfalls, just like me!"Sunday night we went dutch oven cooking with my family for my sister's birthday. It was a total blast and it only sprinkled for about 10 minutes, the rest of the night the weather was perfect. Lilly loves her cousin Kaelyn.I let my sister, Angie, play with my camera and she snapped this shot of Lilly and I at the creek. Nice shot, Ang. :) Friday Lilly and I met up with my friend Jeanne and her two (very cute, nice kids) and ventured up to Bridal Veil falls. The water was soooooooo cold! It took a good 30 minutes for my feet to thaw :)Lilly splashing around at the base of the falls.Lilly and I are so excited to be able to make new friends and get to get out and play with them. This weekend really has been a blessing to me. I've been pretty down lately knowing that a lot of our friends graduated and are moving away soon. So to be able to meet new people with common interests has been wonderful. I was pretty nervous to meet up with 'Strangers' at cascade falls for the mommy hiking group, but was so glad that I did. Yay, for new friends and yay for my family, and yay for the great outdoors to bring us all together.

We are still searching for our next child, there are a few things you can do to help:

1. The pass along cards that we sent out this Christmas and last summer are no longer valid as the links to itsaboutlove.org have changed. Mike and I are feverishly working on designing a new one, but in the meantime please refer those to our website http://www.mandamike.com/ or the http://www.itsaboutlove.org/ and have them search for Mike and Amanda. We will send out new cards ASAP.

2. We are making copies of our DVD slideshow to give to birthparents who are considering placing their baby for adoption. If you know of someone who would like a DVD let me know and I'll mail it to you. Unfortunately, our caseworker will not include our DVD with our paper profile so we are going to try and distribute it ourselves. You can also view it here .

3. Add our button to your blog, instructions on how to do this click here help us get the word out that we are trying to grow our family. Who knows, maybe someone who knows someone who is thinking about placing will see our website.

4. Pray for our family, add our names and all birthparents to the prayer roll in the temple.

Thank you again, for all of your love and support. It isn't easy growing our family by adopting, but it sure is worth it. As we already know thanks to our beautiful Lilly and her wonderful birthmother. Hopefully our 2-year expectancy (adoption pregnancy) will come to an end soon. We are sooooooo looking forward to being parents for the 2nd time. We are also excited about adding another birthmother into our family and look forward to having an open relationship.

Mike and Lilly doing a little gardening, we've found that the only way to keep the morning glorys out is to hand pick them out of the lawn in the spring.

One of the blogs that I like to read just posted this youtube video.

It's not very often that I get to post on our blog, Amanda usually takes care of that, but the most wonderful woman in the world and the most important person in my life just reached the milestone age of 30. Although her date of birth shows this to be her new age, she doesn't seem to age past 25.

Amanda is the love of my life. She always is there to support and encourage me in everything I do. She is the reason I am who I am. It is so wonderful to be eternally joined with my best friend, and to have her with me through all of our stages in life. Ever since our second date I could picture myself growing old with her... I didn't want to live without her. Now we are a little bit older, and still I look forward to getting even older with her and I can't imagine living one day without her.

Amanda, I hope you had an awesome Birthday!
You are the BEST!!!
I love you!
Mike