Vacation.....

Ahhhhh......relaxation, blissfulness, no scary E.R trips. How much better can it get? Yes, vacation is prime time. We had a great time on our little trip this year. Even though some of us (smile) didn't get much sleep! We had a great time just kicking back with no agenda, swimming, tubing, skiing the list just goes on and on. Giggles did great too, she had lots of cousins to play with! We also found a stray cat at the resort this year, Erna and her cousin Claira named it Sallie Jo! But to their dismay it wasn't actually a stray cat, it was the neighbors missing cat. bummer. Oggie and I both got up on skis this year and had a blast knee boarding! Bear, Dash, and Erna loved tubing. Erna, cousin Claira and I had a girls night, we watched a movie, made a tent, and had popcorn! Cousin Natalie brought her friend and she loved our crazy family.( I think) Our cousins the Taylors, Aunt Jaimee, and grandma and grandpa, and our family all went out to eat one night at a restaurant called, The Logging Camp. They serve the food family style on tin plates and you drink out of tin cups! It's almost like living on the prairie! Here are some pictures...

Erna in her purple car!

are you talking to me?

what's better than homemade doughnuts?!

All the cousins watchin' a movie

pics from chicago trip

Here's some pics from our weekend trek (as promised). The shady ones are from a downtown park with fountains in Chicago. The boys met up with the girls right after they finished their shopping at American Girl. Needless to say, they were a bit delayed after getting an "unplanned" bus tour of the city :)
We ate a lunch (that the MEN packed and brought) The girls were way hungry. We then proceeded to the Taste of Chicago (big waste of time, don't do it with kids, especially on a 90 degree day, 100%humidity) The best part was Isaac coming out of the spot a pot screaming "DAD, you gotta see those things!! they have their own washing system for your hands where you pump with your feet and the water trickles out!!) Levi was baffled by the BLUE water in the bottom and why we couldn't flush away the big piles! We spent $22 on some tickets for 3.5 oz of frozen gelatin/yogurt. Oh, did we mention we didn't bring enough water for eleven people and a baby. The $5 water bottle was rationed very sparingly!! We ended our city time by walking another 12 blocks back to the train station. The lines for the busses were INSANE and getting all of us on one bus with our ginormous strollers was too much to ask. We needed our OWN bus!

The picture in the racecar was from the Downer's Grove Heritage Festival on Sun. This was a homerun! It even rained, but the kids didn't care!

Where ever we go, we seem to be a bit of a conversation piece. It is fun though, because we get to talk about Christ and the reasons behind our family. For example, at McDonalds on Sat., a woman asked us if we had a daycare! The conversation started there but continued towards adoption and why we adopted from Ethiopia. What a blessing our kids are!! What a testament of Gods grace and the joy He brings!

Windy City

We have been on a vacation to visit family near Chicago. We have had a great time!!
Just spending time with cousins is so fun for the kids.
Sat. we went into the city. The girls all went to the American Girl doll store. The boys came a little later. We all met at Taste of Chicago. It was a huge event, thousands upon thousands of people, and with 8 kids it was an experience to remember. Very hot outside! We stayed just a little while, and didn't taste much of the food.
We were well equipped, 2 strollers that hold three kids, bus passes and water.
I think the highlight for the kids was riding the train.
Sunday we went to Downer's Grove to the Heritage Festival. The kids really loved this. We managed to get free food at a church and they let the kids play in these big blow up jumper things in their parking lot. Then, we went into the festival and rode the kiddie rides. It was much cooler, even rained a little, but the kids didn't mind at all. They had soooo much fun.
I'll put some pictures up later.
Layne

Our Minnesota Bliss!

We returned from our annual family vacation to Park Rapids, MN Wed. night. We cut it short because Layne had to go back to work, but it was still VERY good and relaxing, even if just for a few days. There were 14 people in our 3 bedroom cabin, 7 adults, 7 kids. Anything else would've been boring! The kids had a blast in the water, on the beach and on the boat (thank you Tom and Wally for the boat rides!) Everybody else from the Matney clan comes home tomorrow.
It has been awesome to see how God has provided time for us to spend getting to know Levi and Jesse and for the kids to all get more and more acquainted without tons of distractions.