LOA LOA LOA (AKA LSC)

Well it seemed like infinity, but after 107 days we finally got the call this afternoon!!! And we can finally post pictures for all to see, isn't he a happy little guy! His name is Dang Dong Dong, his birthday is 6-19-04 and he lives in Anyang SWI, Henan province (one of the ancient capitals of China, 500 miles NW of Shanghai). On Monday we will return our signed LOC and the agency will process the I800 paperwork, current time line is 2-3 months to travel approval. Let's hope things speed up!!!

Max's Red Barn Chairs

From Drop Box

I wish I was typing "WE HAVE LOA!!!!!" But that's not going to happen tonight and I'm not even sure when it will after talking to our agency yesterday. They are now saying 4 mo. That would be 120 days instead of the 90 we were expecting. Nothing we can do but wait. Soooo I thought I would share some of Max's chairs. He is making Adirondack chairs in the barn and hoping to sell them this summer. The first one turned out great and he's got the pieces all cut out for several more (cedar) chairs and a table and then onto some pressure treated.

Max's Car

Well its day 89 and 90 is approaching fast and still no LOA. You know 90 days doesn't sound too long until the days start ticking away and you haven't heard anything about your dossier yet. So the wait still continues. While we wait I thought I'd share some new pictures of Max's car! Enjoy.... He does :o)

Story Land

This year we decided to do Story Land as a day trip. We headed out (in two cars this year because we were one over the van's capacity with Grandma and Grandpa) at 7 am and arrived shortly after it opened. To change things up this year we hit the antique cars first before the long lines formed in the afternoon and then stopped at the photo frame before the clothes were stained with ketchup, ice cream, icee juice, and everyone was totally wiped out. We then started our normal routine of story book characters, then up back to the circus for a noon time show. Afterwards it was onto the World Pavilion for burgers, dogs, and wraps (and heartburn, but hey that's part of the experience). A quick spin though the back of the park and the girls jumped into their suits and onto the water playground. We moved on down to the Bamboo Chutes and Ollie really loved it this year and wanted to go twice! Across the way was Dr.Geyser's raft ride and Grandpa drew the unlucky seat and got drenched. We went to the carousel to dry out a bit and then on the Storyland Queen. While waiting at the dock for the boat to return there were several remarks about how we could tell the script better than most "captains". However, this year the script was a little different when the steering let go and we ran agound twice, getting stuck on the muddy bottom, and needed to be pulled out by maintainance! After that we were a little short on time so we hurried through the gift shop and hopped on the train back to the front of the park. One quick stop with Humpty (since we missed him in the morning) as the park closed and we were on our way home. The GPS lead us to Littleton for dinner at a pizza place but the diner looked better, so we ordered. While waiting for the drinks we noticed they did not take plastic so we pooled our cash and made it with only a few bucks to spare, but the food was worth it!

Luau

OH MY!! The weather was WONDERFUL today! Now if you live in New England then you know why this was such a great day. Today we had Lilly's Birthday party, a Luau. Her B day is in January but who wants to have your party right after Christmas during Hockey Season! We had so much fun. Pinata, limbo, swimming, more swimming, and of course cake and ice cream. And you have got to love the photo ops! One of the girls told me it was the best Birthday party she has ever gone to! Yes they are all 8 years old :) Max was a great help and Ken came home early from work so I had lots of help. Lets hope tomorrow is another nice day (I don't think we have had two in a row since May) because we are off to Story Land! One of my favorite places on earth!
Carrie

4th of July Weekend

Here in Lyme NH we had our 4Th on the 5Th. Which was probably a good thing because of the weather we've been having. So after spending all day Friday in the Van getting Max his car we spent all Saturday (which has been the norm around here) inside because of the rainy weather. Sunday turned out to be a nice day and we got to go strawberry picking and then Ken took the girls in the pool (I don't get in the pool unless the pool temp hits 80!) Then it was off to the parade. The Lyme parade consist of 2 fire trucks, the town band, 1 antique car, a John Dear "float", some truck with advertisements on it, AND lots of kids on bikes and other things with wheels. Lilly just loves it and if it wasn't for the looks on her and Ollie's faces when they gather up candy that the parade participant's throw it would be a waste of an hour. We then had a cookout and then off to the fireworks. This year Megan joined us which was nice and Lilly sat on her lap the whole time. Max and her are so good to the girls! Ollie fell asleep as soon as the first one went off. She is still so afraid of things that are new or she doesn't understand. Sleeping is one of her defense mechanisms when she shuts down. Oh and I forgot to mention Max and Megan took the girls to the parade in his car! We could have all fit in the van but I knew Max wanted to take his car. The girls wanted to go with him and Megan so they put the car seats in the back (not an easy task in a coupe) and off they went. Max's comment ,"Bet you didn't know this was a family car." He's such a good big brother. I cant wait til he has a little brother to teach stuff to! The fireworks in Lyme are opposite the parade they are WONDERFUL! With the mountains and an almost full moon in the background they were beautiful.

Car shopping...

Well after exhausting most of the possibilities in the Upper Valley, Max searched out cars in NH, focusing on Mustangs and Celicas. He found a handful of dealerships in coastal NH with a decent selection of cars in our price range (most of them at the top end of the range of course...). So we loaded up the van, grabbed some DVDs for the girls and headed down I-89 to make our way over to the coast. Traffic was fine but it was still about 2 hours (or three videos) to make it to the first dealership that had the Celica Max liked the most on the web site. As could be expected the exterior was not as nice as the pictures, the interior smelled like smoke, the brakes were metal on metal, and the clutch slipped. The salsesman said he woudl fix the clutch and brakes, which seemed fair, but we wanted to look some more. So we were off to dealership number two to look at Max's 3rd favorite (a Mustang) just down the road. But being the 3rd of July on Rt 1 in southern NH it took qutie a while because of traffic. The dealership had quite few cars, we checked out the Mustang and took it out for a drive. After finally making it though a lot of traffic, we were able to really drive it. While the outside was clean, the interior was a little rough, there was a rubbing noise coming from the right side, and the radio didn't work. The shop takes in damaged and repo'd vechiles, fixes them, paints them, and sells them. They seemed to do a decent job, but the car didn't feel real "tight". So we were off to dealership #3, it was well into the afternoon, everyone was hungry, and we didn't have time to stop for lunch in case we had to get back to the first dealership which was closing at 3. After 30 miles, we finally pulled into the dealership. The Celica was a lot cleaner than the first one, so we took it out. This time Carrie and the girls wanted to come (especially Ollie but that will be another post) so we spooned them into the small back seat, and took off. It drove really well, didn't smell, had no rust, sounded smooth, and felt "tight". Max really felt it was the one, so we went back, made an offer, they took it, and Max did his happy dance. A little paperwork, a visit to the insurance web site, and we were on our way to EAT!!! After that Carrie rode with Max up 89 as they were passed by old ladies in minivans because there were a lot of troopers on 89 looking for teenagers driving sporty little red cars ;^).