Adoption Hearing Complete!

On August 29th, we will be heading down to the court house followed by family and friends to finalize Steven's adoption of Ashton! It has been a long process. We want to thank all of you who wrote recommendation letters and all of you willing to come and show the Judge your support.

Ashton and Steven are excited about finalizing the adoption. Ashton has been practicing how to write Lawrence.

We are having a party that evening to celebrate at our home. So for those of you not leaving town for the holiday come on by and celebrate with us!

Update...

This morning Judge Irby granted the adoption of Ashton by Steven. We were quite happy as you can see from our photos. It was a fairly quick process with brief testimony given by Steven and myself. I want to thank Shannon for coming and showing her support. She was kind enough to take pictures for us. Looking forward to seeing our friends and loved ones this evening!


We had a nice gathering of friends and family at our house to celebrate our family. Thank you to everyone for coming, those both pictured and not, you are so wonderful and we love you very much!

John Hill and John Dillman came by for a bite and some soccer fun with the boys.


Both of my brothers made an appearance, which was very nice, so I had to get a picture. Having them both in the same room doesn't happen very often.

Shannon and Scott came and I think I finally got a picture for that empty frame in their hallway!

My Grandma Bea came from Ontario and spent the night. So the boys were excited about a sleep over with Grandma.

The night ended with lots of Daddy tourture as only two little boys can do!


Thank you very much Steven for having such a big heart! We love you!

Weekend Happenings

Super Silly Fun Time!

Scott invited all of us to his annual company party. It was a lot of fun seeing the kids do all the activities. They had lazer tag, water slides, a trampoline, rock wall, boxing ring, and much more.

We want to thank both Scott and Shannon for having us. We really enjoyed seeing them both. It had been too long! Here are the highlights....

The boys got to ride over in the convertible! They were so excited. You can see the tops of their heads in the back.


Once we got there and found a nice shady spot the activities began. The boys were not shy about trying just about everything, with or without Mom and Dad's permission! They started off with lazer tag. You can see that Thad is all business when it comes to lazer tag!


Next was the sack race. There were some really athletic children there. I swear one had a six pack and was only 10 or so! You can see our boys may not be the most competitive bunch, but they gave a good effort.


They also had a water slide. The boys really enjoyed this and spent most of the time there.


Our favorite was the boxing ring. The giant gloves were just too funny! I boxed Ashton and Steven. Steven really let me have it, but was pooped by the end!




Thank you again for inviting us. It was a super silly fun time!

Vacation!

Can we just say, WOW! We had THE best time with Mom & Dad. It may have been short but it sure was sweet. Here are the highlights....

Friday Night

Steven picked Mom & Dad up at the airport and brought them to our house where we gave them the full tour. We were also joined by the Scofields. We had vegetarian lasagna. It took forever to make but got better each day. Surrounded with great company and 4 kids it was not only rowdy but lots of fun. We followed dinner with a nice walk around the neighborhood. Thad and Ashton took turns pushing Jack in his stroller. Thank you Scofields for coming by and joining the fun!

Saturday

Busy, busy, busy were we! Cruise director Jen made sure to pack in tons o' fun. We started with homemade muffins and coffee/tea for breakfast followed by a train ride from Horseshoe Bend to Banks. We traveled in an open car and really got a eye full of the Payette River. I can't tell you much about the history of this area due to the train's whistle blowing at each announcement.

"As you look to your right you will see....
Toot, Toot....something you will never see again. AHHHHH!"

This made the train ride both funny and annoying!

The two and half hour ride probably could have been cut in half and suited everyone just fine in the the warming temperature of the afternoon. The boys seemed to enjoy the ride and there was not motion sickness for any of us.

Next we hit the Boise Theater scene! We visited the Boise Little Theater and watched their performance of The Pirates of Penzance Junior. Some Junior high thespians put on the production. It was quite funny and well done. Here are the boys on set with the pirate ship. The pirates in the play were not your run of the mill thieves, but were rather easily swayed to let their captures go especially if they were orphans. You should have seen Thad's face when they started singing! We came home with a few pirate stow aways as you see pictured!

We had a nice dinner at home. Steven and I showed Mom how to make Chapatis, an Indian puffed bread. One of our favorites!







Sunday

We started at the Idaho Botanical Gardens to show Mom and Dad where we were married. It was a beautiful sunny morning. With lots of shade at the gardens we stayed pretty comfortable in the afternoon heat. The boys favorite part were the tad poles that were swimming in one of the ponds. They kept trying to touch them! They were totally fascinated.

Next we were off to the bowling alley, where Grandma & Grandpa could show us a thing or two about being a bowler or a pin knocker! Ha! Grandma is all business when it comes to bowling, and Grandpa keeps her on her toes with his competitive nature! We had such a fun time. Thad ended up bowling 4 games to our two due Ashton being more excited about taking pictures than actually bowling. Man was he pooped after all that!

That evening we headed over to Hawks stadium to see the Boise Hawks beat the Everette Aquasocks. We had great seats right behind home plate. It was a pretty exciting game. Ashton really got into it this year, as for Thad, he did not. Hopefully playing next year will increase his attention span for the game. As you can see Mom was begging for more pictures! Sorry Mom!











There was a crazy heckler at the game. It didn't matter who was pitching he would let them have it. I think the Aquasocks went through 3 or 4 pitchers! I guess the guy was effective!

I think the highlight of the evening is when Ashton decided it would be funny to touch Grandpa's hair! Oh my gosh I don't think I have ever laughed so hard. As you can see that is a big, No No!

The boys got to finally meet Humphrey the Hawk! They were pretty excited and both got big hugs!

Monday

We started our last day together with a nice relaxing breakfast followed by a tour of the Boise Hare Krishna and Vedic Cultural Center where we worship. It was nice to share this aspect of our life with Mom and Dad. Our good friend Dr. Ravi Gupta gave the tour of the building and explained how the building was built and the types of instruments that are played.

Later that afternoon we went on a nice bike ride down to the Train Depot and then on to the green belt. We rented a tandem bike for Mom and Dad to use. Talk about team work! They blew us away! They really could "Move it, Move it!"

The kids gave Grandpa and Grandpa a tour of the Train Depot. They are like Monkeys when we go there, so I think it made Grandma a bit nervous. They just climb all over the place. We also got to take a tour of the bell tower and inside the Depot.

We had a wonderful vacation with Mom and Dad and can't wait to see them again soon! Thank you both so much for spending time with us. We really enjoyed being with you both! Love you and miss you so much!

Welcome Lawrence Folk!

Do you ever feel like you never have enough time to stay in touch with family? We do, especially when we live so far away!

Keep in touch with our happenings, comment, and add as you like.

~The Lawrences