Fourth of July: Out with a Bang!

We have a Fourth of July tradition: hiking at our favorite spot and having lunch and playing by the creek. 

This year Gramma Liz came with us! 

Sofi-J. (that's my favorite nickname for her) got a free ride with Mama on the way to the creek! 

 Shawn was in charge of "the beast" (the name for our stroller-not a child!)

I love, love, love this beautiful place! 

I know this picture is blurry but it's probably because Gramma Liz was trying to keep up with me! Shawn got ahead of us and, ahem, lost us....and I was stuck carrying Sofia on my back and Zoya on my front! I may have muttered something to Zoya about wanting to kill her father! This just adds to our tradition, as it's the 2nd year in a row we have a memorable story that made the trip very interesting....last year was THE YEAR OF THE MUD PIT!  And well, THIS YEAR, everything turned out perfectly, but then again we only had one child and many more brain cells that hadn't yet been killed by the joys of parenting :) (look how tiny Zoya was!)

We finally made it to the spot for some lunch and splashing! 

Sofia wasn't too sure this year about getting her feet wet! 

Zoya has always loved throwing rocks into the water! She needs some work on her aim, so it's a miracle nobody got injured! None the less, watching her interact with nature is always such a reminder of how far she's come from the 4 white walls of that darned orphanage! 

Sofia being very cautious, for once in her life! 

Mila, the thinker! 

I think Mila was signing and saying "veggie straws" (she says "ju-ju-jus)...if you look close there is a pretzel near her foot, how dare we give her a pretzel and not a veggie straw....such a princess! 

I love seeing how calm Zoya is when we come to this place! 

Tickles! 

Mila decided to take a snooze on Mama on the free ride out of the woods! 

I tell ya, there is absolutely nothing sweeter in this world than holding your sleeping child watching her sleep! 

Okay, take one last look at this precious, unscathed face of Sofia's!....... 

Because Little Sister decided to end the day with a bang....or more like a boom...

Sofia-0, Pavement-1

We went out for dinner at an outdoor diner and Sofia was sitting at the picnic table with the rest of us, she turned to look at something and lost her balance and fell face first into the concrete below the table :( She did not break her fall at all with her arms/hands, just face first into the ground. I get nauseous thinking about it. Poor baby! It was totally out of character for her because she's so strong and stable and we usually don't have to worry much about her gross motor skills! I saw it happening but couldn't grab her fast enough. I felt so bad. Sofia is a very tough cookie with an extremely high pain tolerance and when she was crying she just kept saying, "ooohhhhh, owwwww, ohhhhhh" in the most pitiful way ever :(....broke my heart. I was all *$*!@#, we need to get to the ER! stat! she broke her face" and she was all "hey I'm ready for more french fries now." Oh that girl! Funny how the Lord gave us "our little boy" after all ;) Seriously, I'm still having PTSD from this incident, and 3 minutes later Sofia had forgotten all about it!!!!! 

Happy Fourth of July! We are so thankful for our freedom and do NOT take for granted what that means for us, and for our girls!!! 

This time in 48 hours we'll be in our new home buried in boxes trying to find our way out! See you on the other side of those boxes!