Cruisin'

This is where Hope and I will be July 2013 for a Russian Adoption Reunion! The Disney Dream will be cruising to the Bahamas for 4 days. We are excited to meet up with fellow bloggers and with their Russian sweeties. Hope and I will be in an adjoining room with our sweet buddies from Texas, Amy and Caroline. We opted to make this a 'Russians Only' trip and leave our other kids and husbands at home. hee hee hee...the fact that Amy and I really just want a girls trip and highly plan on using the Disney Club for our little Russians hasn't been discovered is just fine with us! I am so excited to meet other families that I have gotten to know online and feel so close to! Look out Mickey Mouse, The Russians Are Coming!

Amy and I will get a preview of Disney with our princesses next month. Our families will be meeting at Disney World in 27 DAYS! We can't wait to show our favorite family around one of our favorite places. Since we moved in September, we haven't seen our friends. It stinks living so far away! We will get to spend a week together in the Happiest Place on Earth hanging with the Princesses and The Mouse. So much fun will be had by all, even the husbands!

So, as I resume my blogging-self I will try to come up with a post to catch everyone up on the past...well, the past FOREVER since I last logged in. I think the best way to do this would be to attach our Christmas letter we sent out this year. It pretty much sums up all things Walden until Christmas. So, if you got a Christmas card from us, feel free to skip ahead.

Greetings from New England! Yep, you read that right, the Waldens are on the move again. We moved to Connecticut in August, right smack in the middle of a hurricane. We are an adventurous bunch. So, as you can imagine, it has been a wild and crazy year in “Wally World”.

Vince was relocated to the New York office. While we didn’t want to leave Texas (kicking and screaming) we made the leap of faith and moved up to Connecticut. Life in the Northeast sure ‘ain’t’ Texas, but we are adjusting well. We are in a quaint little town and have lots of property for the kids to play and explore. They are happy to have space enough for a trampoline and have broken it in well.

Connor turned 12 in April and is in the 7th grade. He is growing into such a great young man. He has a heart for the Lord and is just an all around great kid. He is making straight A’s again and seems to like his new school.

Parker turned 10 in September and is in the 4th grade. He was so happy to reach “double digits”. He has the most sparkling personality and loves to make people laugh. He seems to really like his new school and is making new friends. His grades are fantastic and he likes keeping up with his brother’s straight A’s. Parker has mastered the front flip on the trampoline as has already injured himself on it! Yes, a Walden Kid got a cast...surprised?

Hopecontinues to grow and blossom into quite the Walden Princess. Before moving, Hope was riding horses weekly, and even competed in a horse show! She loved doing tricks on horseback and was actually able to stand on the horse’s back while she walked around! She has mastered swimming and is able to dive to the bottom of the pool to get toys. She recently became the proud owner of a pair of purple glasses! She loves being able to see clearly and has really progressed so much in the past few weeks with them on.

The Waldens enjoyed a few great vacations this year and made some amazing memories. We spent Spring Break in Houston, and visited the Houston Space Center, you know, “Houston, we have a problem!” Hope and Kellie went on a “Girls Only” trip to

California in the spring. Hope enjoyed having her mommy all to herself while the boys and dad went to Six Flags. In July we embarked on a marathon 2 1/2 week vacation to Florida. We drove from Texas and spent time by the beach then met up with Vince’s dad and Sandee and took Disney by storm! After enjoying ‘all things Disney’ we needed to relax, so heading back to the beach was must! This time, we were lucky to have Kellie’s cousin and family join us. The kids loved digging in the sand and body surfing the waves. Great fun was had by all. Once we arrived home from vacation, it was time to move!

Moving brought challenges of it’s own. Coordinating selling a house, finding a house, movers, car transporters, dog transporters, finding schools and saying “Good-Bye” to our best friends was challenging at best. We are thankful that it all went fairly smooth, that is until we moved, literally into a hurricane! Hurricane Irene reared her ugly head the day we got keys to our house. How’s that for timing? We all took it in a stride and stayed in a hotel (all 5 of us and 2 very large dogs) until the power was restored about 4 days later. Family bonding at it’s best. The first day at our new house, the kids and dogs ran and played so hard it was great. All that bent up energy was busting loose.

We had all of about a week to settle in when Kellie’s mom and step-dad came in. They were kind enough to stay in the house (only 1/4 unpacked) with the kids while we went to London and Prague! Yep, they got the kids, we got vacation. We celebrated our 15 year wedding anniversary and Vince’s Conference in Prague. What an amazing trip!

The first week of October our sweet Golden Retriever, Nala, had to have knee surgery. We never knew a dog could tear their ACL, but Nala showed us it was possible. It was a tough few weeks, but she is doing great now.

The family flew to California for Vince’s 20 year high school reunion. Man, we are getting old if we are celebrating 20 years since graduation! It was great to see friends and family that we hadn’t seen in years. The kids really enjoyed their cousins and loved spending time with their grandparents.

Halloween brought us a freak snow storm that brought over 8 inches of snow, and wide spread power outages! It was beautiful, but oh so cold. The kids enjoyed

sledding, making snow balls and snow men. Their favorite part was ambushing their dad with snow balls while he wasn’t looking. We are thankful we have friends who were kind enough to take all of us in while our power was out. A broken generator and a freak snow storm are not a great mix!

Fall has been beautiful in the Northeast. We are seeing colors of leaves we have never seen. The birds, squirrels, chipmunks, wild turkeys, beavers, foxes, owls and deer all come to our yard to eat. It is a wondrous sight, but drives the dogs batty. Oh how they love to chase squirrels! We are not sure what the turkeys would do if we let the dogs out. They have sharp beaks and we have a doggy that doesn’t move so fast, so no chasing turkeys in the Walden house.

So, that's a quick 'nutshell' update of the Waldens. I will try to regularly log in and blog again. It is so fun to look back and read from a few years ago. Next up, The Walden Christmas post...in a few days. For now, I will leave you with a picture of the Princess in her purple glasses!

~~Kellie