Here we are, the Underwear Heads ready for their Road Trip!
You know, sometimes I wonder why our family gets strange looks out in public...maybe it has nothing to do with that whole transracial adoption thing....
And then again, there are some moms who diligently post the CUTEST portraits of their kids on their blogs...and what do I do? I post pics of my kids with Hanes Hat Heads...yea, really attractive. But then again, as those of you who have read the blog long enough or know us in person know...I've never denied that we really ARE a strange family!
So, we are 2 days away from embarking on our "Summer of Love" Tour, as I have named it! Hahaha! After a very busy weekend ahead of us, we are going to be ready to rock. Tonight we have a surprise birthday party to attend and then tomorrow we will be spending the entire day and evening at the Olathe Sweet Corn Festival where our entire family will be working at the Cub Scout booth selling ice cream in an effort to raise funds for our Pack. It will be a long, hot day and I am wondering how much of our profits will be eaten by our own crew!!
I am in the final stages of packing so we can then jump in the car at 5:00 AM on Sunday morning and head to Denver to begin the SOL Tour. We have an extraordinary time ahead of us and all of us are very, very excited. I also sort of feel like we should have a painted school bus or something, a modern version of the Partridge Family on the road with the main differences being that we can't sing a lick and David Cassidy is definitely not amongst this bunch (I had such a crush on him as a kid! Ugh! Hate to admit it!). Oh yea, and thus far we don't have a red headed drug addled Danny Bonaduce in the group.
First stop will be Denver after the 5 1/2 hour drive where we will meet friends from Kyrgyzstan for lunch!! We will get to spend the afternoon with friends who hosted our family for dinner a couple of times while in Kyrg, and we are so looking forward to seeing them again. Our family has been blessed many times over to meet people throughout our lives whom we have just "clicked" with, and this was certainly the case in Kyrg as well. After spending the afternoon with our Kyrgyzstan friends, we will head over with them to the Adoption Alliance Kyrgyzstan families adoption picnic which should be great fun. The boys were all asking if there was going to be anyone older there as I told them that there would mostly be babies, and they looked at each other shrugged and said "We'll have fun with each other!" so I guess even if there is no one there their age they'll be just fine.
After Love Stop #1 we have Stop #2 where we are staying with our friends who were from Montrose but moved last year to Denver. Their son is Matthew's best buddy since they were almost 4 and we are all looking forward to staying with them and visiting. The boys will be in Lego Heaven together, and maybe I'll get recharged visiting with my dear friend who always seems to provide me with insight that is new and thoughtful.
Love Stop #3 will be on Monday, when we meet Nancy, Matthew's old agency Director and spend the day with her and her daughters. Wow, are we looking forward to this and I have a feeling poor Dominick will feel like he is surrounded by a couple of clucking chickens as I know we will yack our heads off and catch up after 6 years!
Love Stop #4, and the real reason for the trip, will be to fly to Chicago to see our best buddies who moved at the end of the school year. To say the boys are a little over the top excited about that is a huge understatement and the countdown has been going on for weeks now. We adults are looking forward to just being around one another again, relaxing and playing cards until the wee hours of the morning...and feeling like we are home again in that special way you have with true friends. I am sure, knowing them, that we will have some whirlwind adventures exploring downtown Chicago and their own neighborhood.
The last stop on the LaJoy "Summer of Love" Tour will be Love Stop #5, where we will spend the night at one of Dominick's cousin's homes and visit with family we haven't seen in years. With our kids really falling in between one generation and the next due to our delay in starting our family, they will be the youngest there of their cousins...second cousins...uhh...not really sure about that whole Big Italian Family thing, isn't everyone family??? Much of the family I have only met once or maybe twice as we were never able to really afford going to Chicago before and most of the time have spent any vacation money we've had the past 1o+ years going back to see our moms in California.
We would like to thank President Bush and Congress for sponsoring our "Summer of Love" Tour with their economic stimulus checks. We also would like to thank our other sponsors Southwest Airlines with their incredibly low "Ding" internet airfares, and all our friends who are putting up the Fab Five as we travel. Your hospitality is very much appreciated and will be cheerfully reciprocated, but more importantly your love is cherished. We'll try not to trash our rooms and throw TV's out the windows...hahahaha! Can't guarantee you won't be stepping on a Lego or two or be subject to crying jags if Joshie looses his blankie!!
So, all joking aside, we have one of the most wonderful trips ahead of us to lead us into the school year. It was unexpected and things have come together to create what really is the Summer of Love tour...we will smile, laugh, joke, hug and spread the LaJoy.
We are SO BLESSED to have such wonderful people in our lives, even though some of them have only been present for a short while. Reconnecting will be very special and I am sure, boring as it will be to all of you, that I will have a lot to blog about. Seems road trips bring about those moments for deep conversations and I am hoping that we will have time to really relax together during this "calm before the storm" as we gear up for a hugely busy fall with adoption stuff, school, work, and readying our hearts and lives for the addition of two more people to love. Lots of adjustments coming down the pike for us all, and having this time together will actually be really important to cement us all together in a special way before the upheaval we expect as we transition to becoming a family of 7...and adding PINK to our lives!!!! Maybe we should rename it the "Summer of Testosterone" or the "Summer of Denim, Mud and Bugs"!
As an aside, thanks for your comments regarding the new look of the blog. It took me hours to figure out how to do it as I am not at all a techie. I hope you enjoy it!
I am in the final stages of packing so we can then jump in the car at 5:00 AM on Sunday morning and head to Denver to begin the SOL Tour. We have an extraordinary time ahead of us and all of us are very, very excited. I also sort of feel like we should have a painted school bus or something, a modern version of the Partridge Family on the road with the main differences being that we can't sing a lick and David Cassidy is definitely not amongst this bunch (I had such a crush on him as a kid! Ugh! Hate to admit it!). Oh yea, and thus far we don't have a red headed drug addled Danny Bonaduce in the group.
First stop will be Denver after the 5 1/2 hour drive where we will meet friends from Kyrgyzstan for lunch!! We will get to spend the afternoon with friends who hosted our family for dinner a couple of times while in Kyrg, and we are so looking forward to seeing them again. Our family has been blessed many times over to meet people throughout our lives whom we have just "clicked" with, and this was certainly the case in Kyrg as well. After spending the afternoon with our Kyrgyzstan friends, we will head over with them to the Adoption Alliance Kyrgyzstan families adoption picnic which should be great fun. The boys were all asking if there was going to be anyone older there as I told them that there would mostly be babies, and they looked at each other shrugged and said "We'll have fun with each other!" so I guess even if there is no one there their age they'll be just fine.
After Love Stop #1 we have Stop #2 where we are staying with our friends who were from Montrose but moved last year to Denver. Their son is Matthew's best buddy since they were almost 4 and we are all looking forward to staying with them and visiting. The boys will be in Lego Heaven together, and maybe I'll get recharged visiting with my dear friend who always seems to provide me with insight that is new and thoughtful.
Love Stop #3 will be on Monday, when we meet Nancy, Matthew's old agency Director and spend the day with her and her daughters. Wow, are we looking forward to this and I have a feeling poor Dominick will feel like he is surrounded by a couple of clucking chickens as I know we will yack our heads off and catch up after 6 years!
Love Stop #4, and the real reason for the trip, will be to fly to Chicago to see our best buddies who moved at the end of the school year. To say the boys are a little over the top excited about that is a huge understatement and the countdown has been going on for weeks now. We adults are looking forward to just being around one another again, relaxing and playing cards until the wee hours of the morning...and feeling like we are home again in that special way you have with true friends. I am sure, knowing them, that we will have some whirlwind adventures exploring downtown Chicago and their own neighborhood.
The last stop on the LaJoy "Summer of Love" Tour will be Love Stop #5, where we will spend the night at one of Dominick's cousin's homes and visit with family we haven't seen in years. With our kids really falling in between one generation and the next due to our delay in starting our family, they will be the youngest there of their cousins...second cousins...uhh...not really sure about that whole Big Italian Family thing, isn't everyone family??? Much of the family I have only met once or maybe twice as we were never able to really afford going to Chicago before and most of the time have spent any vacation money we've had the past 1o+ years going back to see our moms in California.
We would like to thank President Bush and Congress for sponsoring our "Summer of Love" Tour with their economic stimulus checks. We also would like to thank our other sponsors Southwest Airlines with their incredibly low "Ding" internet airfares, and all our friends who are putting up the Fab Five as we travel. Your hospitality is very much appreciated and will be cheerfully reciprocated, but more importantly your love is cherished. We'll try not to trash our rooms and throw TV's out the windows...hahahaha! Can't guarantee you won't be stepping on a Lego or two or be subject to crying jags if Joshie looses his blankie!!
So, all joking aside, we have one of the most wonderful trips ahead of us to lead us into the school year. It was unexpected and things have come together to create what really is the Summer of Love tour...we will smile, laugh, joke, hug and spread the LaJoy.
We are SO BLESSED to have such wonderful people in our lives, even though some of them have only been present for a short while. Reconnecting will be very special and I am sure, boring as it will be to all of you, that I will have a lot to blog about. Seems road trips bring about those moments for deep conversations and I am hoping that we will have time to really relax together during this "calm before the storm" as we gear up for a hugely busy fall with adoption stuff, school, work, and readying our hearts and lives for the addition of two more people to love. Lots of adjustments coming down the pike for us all, and having this time together will actually be really important to cement us all together in a special way before the upheaval we expect as we transition to becoming a family of 7...and adding PINK to our lives!!!! Maybe we should rename it the "Summer of Testosterone" or the "Summer of Denim, Mud and Bugs"!
As an aside, thanks for your comments regarding the new look of the blog. It took me hours to figure out how to do it as I am not at all a techie. I hope you enjoy it!
2 comments:
The Underwear Heads pictures is great! It made me laugh out loud (as I'm sure you were doing when you took the picture). Have a wonderful time on your "Summer of Love" tour!
Hey La Joys - Following you on your trip - when was/will be the Channel 9 interview? I want to see it! Have a blast, Underwear Heads! Aren't there some cute ones for you to wear, Mom? Have a blast! Joan
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