Celebrating our Trip

We had a whole day of celebration yesterday for our trip to Russia to meet our kids. One of my closest girlfriends, Cheryl, came home from upstate New York where she is working this summer, for the weekend. That was awesome that she was in town to share in the celebrating. We started the day with a boat ride, which was much fun. One of my other closest girlfriends, Shannon, and her husband Russ, as well as Pete (of course), Kristi, her husband Drew and their little boy Ben came too! Shannon is planning my shower, and her son Bladen is my Godson. I think everyone had a really good time, and the weather was absolutely fabulous for an afternoon on the boat.

We came home a little late to find the rest of our celebration guests waiting for us. Oops! My other closest girlfriend, Yvie and her husband Bob, their little guy Findlay, Jen, Jess and John were all waiting for us. We had a great time. Pete brought out all of his motorized toys- the mini-bikes and the go-ped and people were playing on those. It was a wonderful way to celebrate. By the time everyone left, around 10:30pm, I was pretty tired.

I hiked Friday with my friend Dora, 9.5 miles. We try to do this hike every month. Its a good way for us to catch up and we both really enjoy hiking. We always conclude our hike with a nice big breakfast, even though its 1pm or so when we finish. We both had forgotten it was July 4th, and were a bit confused when a biker rode by and said "Happy 4th!" It took us about 20 seconds to register.

All in all, its been a good weekend. I'm off to do some shopping for gifts for trip 2, and then I'll spend the rest of the day studying Russian, and preparing for our trip.

Happy 4th of July all!