We started our day with the Hameloth’s at the Washington Monument.

This is a view from the WWII memorial.

Just like the last time we were here, there were very old men being brought by their families or other organizations to see this tribute to their sacrifice.

Korean War Memorial

Lincoln Memorial

At last we worked our way over the Vietnam Memorial. It’s hard to express how emotional this was to see Nadia standing on Mike’s shoulders to take a rubbing of her grandpa’s name.  It was a very different experience for Mike to come here now that we have children.

The wall was too hot for Nadia’s hands so Logan got on Steve’s shoulder to finish the rubbing.

Dani was such a trooper, but so tired after our very long day together. Steve was happy to hold her while she slept and we waited for the bus.

We had a wonderful time with the Hameloth’s, but the time went way to quickly!

This was Amelie’s last show with CPAC and she was so cute!

Dani holding my hand during the performance.

The title of each chapter is a saying from her son Mareto who has autism and who looks at the world in such an amazing way. The stories of life from his perspective made me laugh and cry, sometimes in the same chapter. Lauren has learned so many things from her precious boy and she has shared this amazing things with the rest of us in this book. The world would be a better place if more people looked at the world and the people around us like Mareto does.

I was so encouraged by how Lauren brought each of the chapters back to how God sees us, not how the world sees us or how we see ourselves. We are constantly talking about this with our children as we prepare them for their adulthood. This wonderful quote from the book is exactly the kind of thing we are telling our children all the time, “Life with God is better – not easier, not devoid of pain or tragedy or missteps – but it is better.”

She brings home with sweetness and joy that God loves us and is with us even when life doesn’t go the way we expected. She is honest about the very real struggles her and her husband have faced in this life and road to their children. I don’t want to give away too much, but there are so many wonderful, quotable things in this book to encourage you.

www.itsokayaboutit.com

I found this recipe in “The Star Wars Cookbook” that a friend gave us for my daughters birthday. I thought the name was fun and so it was the first recipe that we tried. From the first batch, our family was hooked and I haven’t made another type of chocolate chip cookie since. We have made them for so many events and been repeatedly told that they are the best chocolate chip cookies ever.

Wookiee Cookies

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup milk chocolate chips
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 375.
2. Put the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a mixing bowl. Stir with a wooden spoon until well mixed. Set aside.
3. Put the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar in another mixing bowl. Using the electric mixer set on high speed, beat together until well blended and creamy, about 3 minutes. Beat in the eggs and vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture and stir until blended. Stir in the chocolate chips.
4. Scoop a rounded tablespoon of the dough and drop on a baking sheet. Be sure to leave about 1 inch between the cookies because they spread as they bake.
5. Bake until golden brown, about 10 minutes.
6. Place cookies on cooling racks and let cool completely.
7. Makes approximately 4 dozen cookies.

My personal baking tips for this recipe:

• I use 1.5 teaspoons of cinnamon.
• I use salted butter.
• I bake on parchment paper.
• I use a counter top convection oven – so I drop the temp to 350 and bake for 7 minutes.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=VE9XnX7WRog

Mike and I have been World Vision sponsors for 17 years now. You can make a difference in the life of a child impacted by HIV/AIDS by sponsoring a HOPE child through World Vision. Here is a link to my Child Ambassador page. If you have questions, ask! I love to talk about World Vision.

http://tiny.cc/LouanneMason

Last month Mike and I attended the Texas Scottish Rite Treasure Street Sponsor party. They invite everyone who sponsors at a certain level and up. Then the big fundraising event is later this week.  They did such an amazing job on Amelie’s hand this spring and since the hospital is free for Texas residents we felt we should sponsor and support this wonderful place! We arrived, were given name badges and then were put in tour groups. They took us to the day surgery area where Amelie went and did a presentation about lengthening a young girl’s leg. It was AMAZING! Mike took photos and they are all in the photo album.

Then we heard from some of the doctors that run the neurology department.

From there we saw the motion science department that help children with Cerebral palsy (CP) and other walking issues. They even had a teen in the motion capture gear, which was very cool.

Then they had music and food out in the main atrium.

Such a cool dessert set up and they had a little taco bar and carving station. The people who cook for the hospital cafeteria did all of the catering for the event and it was great!

(this is King Snoopy, just for fun)

This year we hosted the 5 Texas families from our travel group over the weekend of July 22nd. (we invited everyone else, but it didn’t work out. We saw the Hatcher’s in GA on our road trip, so we actually spent time with 6 families this year) That was our 4 year Gotcha Day anniversary and it was a delight to spend it with some of our travel mates. Michael, Lisa and Angelina stayed with us and we all had a great time. They came a day early so we hit the Fort Worth Science and History Museum in the morning. The girls had a blast! Check out the giant light bright.

That night we had everyone over for some pulled pork and other goodness. It was a relaxed time for the girls to play and get to know each other again. Click the photo below to see the album from that day.

The next day we met up at the zoo in the morning. It was BLAZING hot, but we had a great time. It delighted my heart to see the girls playing and having a great time together! Us parents are like the paparazzi with the kiddos. Now on to the photos!

We headed back in the afternoon for naps (or for some – shopping!) In the evening we met at the hotel for a pizza and pool party. The girls had a good time to play and the parents had more time to visit also.

It was a wonderful weekend and such fun to see how big the girls are getting! Thanks for joining us everyone. And to those who missed, we wished you could have been with us too.

This was by far our busiest day on our trip. We got up early and ate breakfast at the Spring House Family restaurant. Then we stopped at Walmart to buy an umbrella stroller and more sunscreen. We also found Batman and Superman shirts for the girls which thrilled Nadia to death! We headed over to Broadway at the beach to go to Ripley’s Aquarium. Nadia was really excited about this and wanted to get in and start looking around. They had a special shark exhibit which was really cool.

This cracked me up!

After the aquarium we walked around the boardwalk to have lunch at Amici’s Italian restaurant. We stopped to feed the fish and Nadia laughed at them jumping on each other to try and get the food.

We made our way to We R Sweets to buy 57 pounds of salt water taffy and then let the girls play outside on the dinosaurs.

We also went in a store called “It’s Sugar” which had the best sign ever!

The girls were asleep before we got out of the parking lot.

We gave them a real nap at the condo and then headed to PF Changs with everyone else for dinner. That is when the call came about water pouring out of our house. Dinner was wonderful as always, but I was busy texting and making calls trying to get things figured out.

Here we are after dinner with no idea what condition our house was in