A Little Las Vegas Getaway!!

So, when I thought of a fun, relaxing atmosphere, perfect for a little mommy-daughter time away, Las Vegas wasn't really the first place that popped into my mind! Yet somehow that's where we ended up! Minus all the casinos and partying and other nonsense that is "Sin City", it was actually a very fun and adventurous place to go - I couldn't believe all the stuff there was for children to do! And of course grown ups, too! It's even more fun in the summer time I'm sure when the pools are open and it's warmer out!

Rea and I left on Wednesday evening for a quick 1 1/2 hour flight to Las Vegas, and might I just add that Virgin America is the best airline EVER!! The planes are all new, every passenger has their own tv on the back of the seat in front of them, and you just can't beat a $39 one-way ticket!

My amazing husband, who labored long and hard to arrange the perfect trip for us, was intent on giving me three wonderful days of R&R, and planned everything, almost down to the detail! Dinner reservations and a show for two of the nights, a little trip to the spa, and lots of fun and shoppng! We saw Lion King on Thursday night, and Rea was literally on the edge of her seat every second! How silly was I to think she might be bored with a broadway musical! What do I know?!?!? And Friday night we saw "O", one of the many Cirque du Soleil shows, lots of tricks, acrobats, diving, and funny stuff too!

We saw the Shark Aquarium at Mandalay Bay, saw the dolphins and tigers at the Secret Garden at the Mirage, and saw all kinds of stuff at Caesar's Palace. We stayed at Treasure Island, which had a cool pirate ship out front, and the list goes on and on!

But the most precious thing of all.... getting to know my little Rea Sunshine some more. Yes, we all think we know our children pretty well, but take a few days to be with just them, away from everything else that distracts us from them on a day to day basis, and you'd be amazed at what happens! At least I was! I got to see how her mind works a little more.... The questions, they just kept coming and coming! It was like she had stored up all these things in her mind just waiting for the perfect opportunity to ask them! Some very deep, great conversation starters.... "Mommy, who made California? Who built the city? Where did we get the buildings? Who put all those leaves on the trees? Our bus driver looks like Martin Luther King. Where is he now? Where's heaven? What's hell? What are those blue lines on your legs? What does varicose mean? You had me in your TUMMY????? How long did I have to live there?" And all that was just on the bus ride to the airport!!!

I hope Rea got to know me a little more too.... That she came away from this trip knowing how much I deeply love her, how much I delight in spending time with her, and how I love to answer all her questions, even if I don't know all the answers. That I cherish memories of times like this with all of my little ones, how they're all so unique and perfectly special to me, and that I would give anything and everything to ensure they're safety and happiness, but mostly their eternal lives.

Here are the Top 5 Things I learned on our little trip:

5. Always go to the bathroom when you have an opportunity. Even if you think you don't really have to go....

4. If the words "apple" and "soup" appear together on the same menu item, you really don't want to try it, even if it is a nice restaurant and you're feeling a little adventurous. Really.

3. The next time you buy tights/leggings for your 5 year old daughter, make sure that the fabric is at least 85% durable steel or kryptonite or something equally indestructable, because they likely won't make it through a cab ride, let alone an entire evening out.... You'll understand when you see the pictures.

2. "I don't care if it IS pretty and pink and SPARKLY, Rea!! $174.99 is too much for a hoodie!! Now let's go find an Old Navy!"

1. Rea is awesome. She made sure we didn't miss our flight when they were boarding and I was engrossed in a book. She'll try almost anything, except for petting a stingray. She's an excellent photographer. She always cleans her plate. She can take her own shower. She smells really good most of the time b/c she likes cotton candy perfume. She likes to hold my hand more than she doesn't. And when she is really happy and feeling content inside, she looks at me and smiles and says, "Mommy, I love you!" several times a day. (sigh) My cup is full....

So hopefully this is the start of something fun, a new Smith tradition, little one on one trips for everyone with Mommy or Daddy here and there. Ma-lak got to hang in San Diego with Daddy, Ya'shar got to venture to Ohio with Mommy, Ni'ke is next!! Where oh where will we go? Nowhere for awhile, but it'll be fun to plan and look forward to!

I'll only post a few pictures on here and the rest I'll post to facebook. There are just too many!!! And yes, if I'm in a picture, then Rea took it!

Trip to San Diego!

No, I didn't get to go on this trip!! (boo hoo!) Next time!! But I'm hoping my husband will come back with some REAL photos of San Diego (these are copied from websites!!) after spending a weekend there with David. Ma-lak was so excited that he got to tag along, too! They're making sure David's all settled before starting classes there on Wednesday, grocery shopping, cruising around and exploring the city, eating some great food, and of course catching some football playoffs at some point!

Funny story....

Daryle and Ma-lak were at the San Francisco airport, waiting at their gate to board, and Ma-lak said he was thirsty. So they ventured over to a little cafe/shop near their gate to get a sandwich and something to drink. The lady behind the counter pointed to the row of fountain drinks and said, "What would you like to drink, young man?" Ma-lak carefully examined all of his options before confidently announcing his final choice. "I'll have a Bud Light, please!" (insert picture of dad's frantic protest here.) I suppose it just looked like another choice of soft drink like Dr. Pepper, right?! (sigh) On the up-side, he has proficient read skills....

The Biggest Loser

Ok, so I really like to watch this show, and have been a fan for a couple of years! I guess I just find it inspiring - all that hard work for results that are NOT instantaneous, good lessons to learn there! And despite the obvious exploitation of people's pain and suffering all for the sake of good ratings and a great show, I remind myself that they willingly exploit themselves in order to improve their lives.

So having said all that....

Interestingly enough, 4 degrees of separation exist between me and two of the contestants! (Everybody knows somebody who knows somebody, right?!) The gray team, Sam and Koli, happen to be from my neck of the woods! They went to high school in Rohnert Park, CA (the next town south of us here in Santa Rosa) and one of them is a football coach in Windsor, the next town north. (Think Archbold, then Pettisville, then Wauseon, for all you Ohio-ans!!) A friend of mine at work is a friend of their cousin, and they all attended the same high shcool. Always a small world!

They've been doing alot of filming in Rohnert Park, but no Bob and Jillian sitings so far that I've heard of! Will be fun to see how far they get in the competition, and yes, I will probably continue to eat Ben and Jerry's while watching the show.

Adoption Fundraiser for the Rycheners!

The following is a copy and paste from the blog of some dear friends of ours, Josh and Janelle Rychener. There's also a link for them on my blog if you look directly to your left! They are hosting a fund raiser for their little boy, soon to be joining them from Ethiopia! See below for details, or click on their site to follow their journey start to finish.

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We are on a journey to adopt a little boy from Ethiopia. Wanna help? As you know, I'm a little gun-shy about fundraisers, but it looks like we found something that will work for us! Hooray! Minimal stress, no baking and zero trips to Vegas. Thank you, Lord. In short, we are partnering with a ministry called 147 Million Orphans, which was started by two moms who met while adopting their own children. They are doing all kinds of awesome things to stand up for the fatherless, including helping adoptive families raise money for adoption. Standing ovation, please!!!


So, here is the deal:
1. Check out their website at www.147millionorphans.com
2. Click on 147 Gear.
3. Check out the t-shirts! Very cool!
4. If you want to purchase a t-shirt (women's, men's, youth), e-mail or call us (janellerychener@yahoo.com or 907.347.9767) and let us know name of the shirt/size/your address.
5. We will place the order for you and we'll receive $10-$12 for our adoption for every t-shirt sold. (We can place an order once we have 20 items to order. Just so you know you won't get it tomorrow. Sorry. :o))
6. Send a check to us for the t-shirt/shipping and we'll get the shirt to you.
7. Please Note: prices range from $19.95 to $39.95. There are other cool items on the website also, but only the t-shirts are available for fundraising purposes. We have to order for you so that they know it is part of the adoption fundraising. Right now it only specifies one t-shirt as being available for fundraising, but really all the t-shirts are available.
8. Feel free to re-post this on your blog. Facebook it. Twitter it. Put it in your church bulletin. Tell your friends. Tell your relatives. Even the ones you don't like could surely use a new t-shirt! :o) THANK YOU!!!!


We are in the midst of a mass of paperwork for our home study. We are hoping to have the first payment and contract sent in to AGCI soon. Our goal is to have the dossier and home study completed by the end of March. Please, please pray for us. Thanks so much!!


Lots of love,
Janelle and family

The Portraits!

If you read one of my earlier posts, you know how excited I was to get some beautiful pictures of all five of the children! I don't have a scanner, so I did the next best thing and took a picture of the pictures... Yeah, it didn't turn out so good, but it gives you a pretty good idea of what they looked like! When Rea saw the pictures when we picked them up, she GASPED really loudly and said, "My big brother David is sooooo kind, and Ma-lak looks like Grandpa without his teeth in!" Nice review. :)

Back to School Day!

How can 2 1/2 weeks have gone by so fast?!?!?! It was so relaxing having time to sleep in a little more in the mornings, not as much rushing around here and there... (big breath!!) But here we go again! It was a little hectic this morning getting everyone rallied around and back to school, so I didn't take any pictures, but I will certainly try when they get home from school this afternoon. Rea had it in her head this morning that she had already discussed with me last night that she wanted TWO braids this morning, not one, but TWO. Well, apparently there was a miscommunication b/c I started with ONE braid, and here came the start of the water works!! We managed to get around that one, and she got her two braids, but in the mean time, Ma-lak was having a small crisis of his own...

On the last day of school before the break, he and Rea went to class with their very carefully wrapped presents for their teachers whom they adore. They picked out their gifts for them very thoughtfully, and Ma-lak had chosen a watch for his teacher. (He has excellent taste by the way.) Well, I guess Ms. McDaniel was sick or not there that last day, so he didn't give her the present (I found it in his back pack two weeks later!) and so today I remeinded him to give his present to his teacher. And he started crying. "What's wrong?!?!" I exclaimed. "I ruined her present." he said. ?!?!HUH?!?!?

So after some investigating, he told me that he had written on the enclosed card, "Dear Ms. McDaniel, I got you a watch. Love, Ma-lak." He was so worried that she would read the card FIRST, and that would ruin the surprise of the watch!! He thought he had totally ruined the whole gift, and was so upset! (Aaaahhh, my tender-hearted little boy...) So, we made a new card, crisis averted!!

Can't wait to hear how their first day back to school went! Never a dull moment around here, that's for sure!!

Holiday Humor!!

Nothing makes for better comical relief if you HAVE to work New Year's Eve than working with your most funniest and coolest co-worker, who decided to dye her hair Crayola Red!! So what if most of our patients woke up after surgery thinking they'd mistakenly been placed on the Psych Unit.... :) Just kidding! We love you, Mary Lou!!! Thanks for a fun and festive night, ALL of my awesome co-workers and friends! Great potluck!!! What's the next holiday and potluck excuse? Martin Luther King Day?!

Ice Cream Stop

Last week we got family portraits done of all five of the "Little Smiths", some not so little! While we were waiting to pick up our photos, we wandered around the mall and got some ice cream. I was cracking up at Ya'shar, who managed to eat an ENTIRE hot fudge sundae, all by himself!! For the rest of the day he was singing the Barney song, Icie Creamie Ice Cream, Cold and Sweet.... Yes, groan along with me, all you parents of toddlers.