No more pictures

Sam tired quickly of me trying to document every moment of his vacation. Here he is telling me "NO MORE PICTURES!"

......which was followed by "PUT YOUR CAMERA INSIDE.....ON THE COUNTER!"

Sam's tent

Before the family Tahoe trip, Lana made what must have been a mammoth trip to Cabela's to get all kinds of supplies. One of her purchases what a tent/cot for Sam to sleep in. When she told me about it on the phone, I was a little skeptical that Sam would actually sleep in it. I had visions of Sam and Joe sleeping in our bed, and me getting the cot. I should not have doubted her - Sam loved it. The first night he jumped right in and wanted me to zip it up right away. I tried to leave a couple of the screen windows open in case he was a little clauterphobic, but he protested, " No, Mommy, zip it up ALL THE WAY!"

Here it is all zipped up.

And I unzipped it in the middle of the night to get a picture of him sleeping.

I have to look to find our way!

One of the many toys Lana brought for Sam was a bug collecting kit. One of his favorite items in the kit was the magnifying glass. He soon decided that it could be useful not just looking for bugs, but for other things as well. We left our house one night to go down to the house some of Lana's friends were staying in to eat dinner, and Sam decided he needed his magnifying glass. "I have to look to find our way!" he told me.

We're missing one

We went out to eat to celebrate getting Sadie's LOA. We usually sit at booths when we go out to eat (much easier to contain the Sam-ster when he has to climb over someone to escape), but this night there weren't any booths available so we were stuck at a table. There were 4 chairs, and after we sat down Sam kept looking at the empty chair. Here's our conversation.

Sam: We're missing one.
Me: What?
Sam: We're missing one.
Me: What are you talking about?
Sam: (pointing at the chair) We're missing one.
Me: We're not missing anybody. This is it. You, me, and daddy. That's all there is. Everybody else is still on vacation. (I thought after a week with all the Masons he figured somebody was going to show up.)
Sam: No - we are missing one.
Me: Ok. Whatever. Who do you think we are missing?
Sam: My sister - she sit there when she done with China.
Me: You're right buddy - she sure will.

Sadie news!

I haven't finished posting the Tahoe pics yet, but that will have to be interrupted by our good news - our agency received our official Letter of Acceptance from China today! Now we wait for travel approval from China (about 3-4 weeks) and then travel 2-4 weeks after that. So we will be in China in September sometime! We can't quite believe this is really happening!!!!

Rafting on the Truckee

We went on a float trip down the Truckee River yesterday morning. We were spread out between 3 boats, and Aunt Lana provided water guns for a little fun along the way. Sam wasn't too sure at the beginning, asking to go home after being in the boat for 5 minutes. It didn't take him too long to warm up to it, though. He enjoyed splashing his feet in the river, and probably would have dived in had I not had a hold of him.

Sam and Joe out in the river.


In an attempt to dodge a large tree branch, I fell in the boat. And then I couldn't get up.


Sam having fun!

Pictures from Lake Tahoe

Today we went to the lake. Here's Sam swimming with John looking on.

Sam in his new floatie, thank you to Aunt Lana. When I opened it, he exclaimed, "My new floatie - I like it!!"


Aunt Stacy and cousin Molly chillin' under the umbrella.


With Uncle David and Molly in the water.


Joe and Lana in the kayak.