First day of school 2012-2013

First day of school

2012-2013

Farmington Jr. High, here we come!

Feeling a little bit nervous....

....and a little bit excited....

....and exceptionally cool. Yo.

 What a good-lookin' crew!

 I hope their teachers are ready for this much awesomeness!!!

Amelia's first day of Kindergarten!

 It's hard to be happy about this day when I've been dreading it for five years now.

Amelia has consumed my life.  Sometimes that has been frustrating.  But somehow in those frustrating moments I fell entirely in love.  She has been my shadow, my helper, my company, my singing partner, my comic relief, my friend.

Oh, how I love this little angel.

Have a happy day, sweet girl.

"They want to love us." -Aubree

I knew that the children we would meet would have a great need to be loved.

After all, love is a basic need.

But I was taken aback when these sweet children taught me that they had an equally basic need 

to GIVE love.

We were lucky and humbled to be the recipients of the love from their over flowing hearts.

This precious little guy discovered that Bryan was willing to play "1-2-3, JUMP!" for hours.  

He spent the rest of the afternoon rubbing Bryan's whiskered chin.

He had not only found his way onto Bryan's shoulders....

...but also found a cozy place in his heart.

He walked us to the bus, rubbing Bryan's hand until the very last second.  

Such a sweet little boy.

"We can't speak their language but the kids still like to play with us" ~Hayden

Within 2 hours of our arrival in Cuenca, Ecuador we were on a bus headed to an orphanage. The bus driver had his two children on the bus with him, a young boy and girl.  Our youngest two kids, Hayden and Seth climbed onto the benches nearest them.  I wondered if their shy nature would overpower the situation.  Within 30 seconds the four of them, unable to communicate in any other way, made eye contact, offered smiles, spoke their own names, then began to PLAY!  

Rock, Paper, Scissors.  Thumb Wars.  Crazy Faces.  

It is a universal desire for children to just PLAY together.

We found this to continue to be true everywhere we went.

  

“Play is the language of children”

~Making friends with the bus driver's children~

~Soccer at the orphanages~

~"1,2,3.... JUMP!"~

~Fist bumps~

~Shoulder Rides~

~Coloring~

~Gathering rocks on a walk~

~Girl Talk & Snuggling~

~Sticky-Frog on a bald head is funny in ANY language!~

~This little girl had such a cute sense of humor!

She would keep her eyes open when we said "Uno! Dos!", then quickly close them when we said "Tres!"

Such a tease!~

~Climbing into an empty lap for some play time~

~Swinging~

~Baket ball and Soccer in the Amazon Rain Forest.  

The kids were so happy to have visitors playing with them~

~Back of the bus shenanigans~

~Swimming~

~More Soccer!  Our favorite pass time with the kids at the OSSO orphanage.

These kids played soccer long and hard!~

~These kids loved being pushed in their chairs,
but sometimes they just wanted to play goalie without any assistance!
So inspiring!~

~

~We played SO MUCH SOCCER that we popped the ball!

We brought the kids a new ball the next day.... GAME ON!!!~

~Being a kid and playing so hard is exhausting work~