Great Wolf Lodge

After Andrew passed away, a few of Eric's teammates from the WSU track team (the same one's who sold bracelets to help pay Eric's medical bills) gave us a gift certificate to the Great Wolf Lodge.  With Eric finishing the boards last Friday, we scheduled it for the Monday after.  We spent three days and two nights and the kids have been asking daily to go back.  

Trav rocking out in the arcade.

Inside the lodge they had a huge water park with an awesome wave pool, toddler pools, five water slides and another pool to swim and play basketball in.  

Tanner and Aubs could've lived at the pool.

In the hotel part they had a magic quest thing where you followed clues and used a wand to go on different adventures.  It kept us busy when we weren't swimming.

Aubree was excited to get a picture with Violet the wolf.  When she saw this picture, she said we needed to frame it.

Jared didn't spend as much time at the pool, but when he was there he had fun crawling around and splashing.  It was awesome to have Eric all to ourselves for a few days. 

We had someone take a picture of us as we left.  We are very grateful for the kindness we have been shown.  Thank you to our friends who made this possible for us.  This was a perfect family vacation that we want to make a tradition of.  We thought and talked about Andrew a lot while we were there.  He would of had so much fun!

The kids were so tired.  Travis hasn't taken his hat off very much since we've been home.

Wilson Family Reunion

 Back in the middle of August the kids and I headed to Mack's Inn, Idaho for a Wilson Family Reunion. Eric had to stay home and study for his National Board Test (which he took one week ago!).  All of my siblings were able to come except for my oldest brother, Tom and his family.  

It is a tradition for the babies to take baths in the cabin sink.  We have pictures of each one of our kids and my parents have them of each of us growing up.  Jared barely fit...

 Travis fell off the big swing and landed on his cheek/eye.  He had a good black eye the rest of the week.

 Jared loving the hot tub with Sara.

 Aubree and her buds.  I never see much of Aubree when she is with her cousins.  

Trav trying to catch some minnows. 

 Tanner LOVED playing in the dirt.  He and Taylor made a lot of mud soup.  Tanner was especially in heaven at the cabin.

 Travis seems to be pretty happy with his baseball sized marshmallows.

The kids swam in the hot tub a couple times a day. 

 We visited Big Springs and the kids were all looking at the huge fish that live there under the bridge.

Pictures with cousins at Johnny Sack's Cabin. 

 We love Leah and Claire!

 Playing Little Old Lady with the Stick and the Staff outside the cabin.

We floated the river a few times.  By the time we made it to our dock, the blue boat I was in, was almost completely flat and I ended up sitting in water up to my chest.

 Tanner leading the boys on their "rocket ships."

 Big family picture (without Eric, my brother Tom and his family, and Amy's husband Kirk)

 Wilson Family (Steve did that in every picture)

 My parent's with 14 of their 17 grandkids.  We told our family on this vacation that we would be adding number 18.

Cousins/friends

 My Dad took all the kids fishing and I only got pictures of Aubs.  She is showing me how many fish she'd caught (four).

Claire and Aubree with their catches.

We had a lot of fun making memories and spending time with our family.  I am grateful for the time and money my parents spent, so we could have such a great time.

#6

We have been traveling for a family reunion/vacation, so I have a lot to post but I wanted to share our exciting news first.  We are super excited and feel very blessed!

White Coat Ceremony

 Yesterday was Eric's White Coat Ceremony.  At the University of Washington their first two years are primarily spent doing course work, while the last two years are spent doing more clinically based dentistry.  As the students transition into working in the clinic, they go through the white coat ceremony. This ceremony is seen as the passageway to being able to work on living patients.  I don't know about other schools, but it is a big deal at the University of Washington.  

Eric gave us the tour of the lab and clinic.

 68 White Coats

 My sister, Sara didn't have to work, so we were able to only bring Aubs and Tann.

 I am so proud of Eric.  He is has worked SO hard and has done so well and he even loves what he is doing.  We are so grateful for his hard work for our family.

 My parents were so nice and took the trip over from Spokane to support Eric.  

Eric's parents are out of town and weren't able to make it, so I wanted to get the best part on video for them.  

Summer

 We have really enjoyed the nice weather.

 Eric had a dental school party at a professor's house.  The kid's loved it.

  Jared hung out while the kids swam.

 This girl is growin' up too fast.

 We got out Aubree's old face/body paints and had some fun.

Jared wouldn't sit still for his... 

 Tiger Brothers

 Pantless Trav pulling Aubs and Jared in the wagon.

Love this boy.

This guy is standing up on everything. 

 Our first attempt at Trav's tiger.

The first track meet a month ago.  My favorite video of the boys race.  There are tags pinned on the kids shoulders that have removable stickers.  As the kids cross the finish line they remove the stickers.  I love how he is holding his arm and as says, "Go Sara."

 This is what happened when we got back from a quick trip to Costco to buy eggs.

 Nygard cousins ran in the last track meet with our kids and they're waiting here for the long jump.

 Tanner and Travis in their 100m dash.

Love the look on Aubs face.

Andrew Memory:  It is hard for me to really realize that we won't be making any new memories with Andrew here on earth.  The memories we have been adding to end of the posts for last 8 months, is what we have and I am so grateful for those.  I'm grateful we have written so many down, because I have already forgotten so many of them.  Today was thinking about how special Andrew is.  Eric and I had always said that about him.  We knew there was just something different.  I starting thinking about the very first time I saw our Andrew and held him.  I was in Wenatchee spending time with Eric's family (his little brother had just returned home from serving a mission).  Eric was back in Spokane, busy with his first year of dental school.  I hadn't heard from our case worker in a few weeks and I thought everything with the adoption had fallen through.  I had just laid the kids down for naps and I got a call from our case worker telling me our Birth Mom was at the hospital getting ready to push.  Eric and I were both two and a half hours away, but we both left as soon as we could.  I got to the hospital 1 hour after Andrew was been born.  When I walked onto the floor I could see a nurse holding a dark haired newborn boy.  As soon as I got closer and saw his face, I knew I was looking at our perfect little boy.  It is the same for me when I first look at each one of our kids, regardless of if they are adopted or biological.  There is just an instant connection.  This angel baby was someone we knew was meant for our family and we had prayed and hoped for.  The nurse handed him to me and I didn't put him down again until Eric got there a little while later.  He melted my heart the first time I saw him; he melted my heart every day of his mortal life; he continues to melt my heart and make me a better person, every day.