Summer has come (w/ same-day pics!)

Elle with her award for excellence (signed by Barack Obama!) She told me everyone got one of these

Hans and Elle on the Carousel at the Houston Zoo - Hans made a beeline for the snakes

Hans and the crab shell.

Hans, Elle and Patrick at Zoo event

Girl Scouts at Pool Party

Hooray for summer! Elle is now out of school and free as a bird and we already have tan lines! Hans has the best tan, even though I slather all of us in '50', one of the side effects of the Adrenal Insufficiency is that he excretes an excess of melanin, so he has to suffer with being gorgeous all summer long! His blond curls are coming in too, so he is all around just fun to behold these days. He has just started Round 6 of his ABT 751 and we scan in just about 2 weeks. I'm not putting too much energy into being nervous about these scans though. I honestly don't see what good it would do, so I think it's very adaptive of my psyche not to get too freaked out about it.

We have been having mostly good times and just a few quirks. Hans and Elle and I enjoyed an event called Star Night at the Houston Zoo last night. We had a very good time visiting with some TCH friends and having the children's section of the zoo to our selves with free carousel rides and a very cool lady name DJ London laying out dance tracks for us. Meanwhile Kevin was at the Astros for work, and he actually got to enjoy a winning game! Yay! Tonight we all got to enjoy an end of the year girl scouts pool party and Hans got to show off his swimming skills. Our friend Lucia has a tireless swimming and fetching dog, so Hans got to combine two of his loves swimming with dogs:) He was blissed out - but we had to pull him out of the pool to eat. We are still on high alert about making sure he gets enough calories to sustain him through the night. We have realized he won't stop the fun to eat, so at some point, we just have to pull the plug.

The big quirk was not wanting to be there at the big end of the year Glen Loch Awards Ceremony. I think the crowd really stressed him, or maybe it was the fact that he had still been on stress dose steroids, but he really didn't want to stay! Being a with-it, and go-getter student, Elle did have lots of awards bestowed upon her - but my favorite was "Future Environmentalist" as voted by her classmates:-) This fits right in keeping with her current career idea of being a 'green' architect. I got to see her get most of the awards, but eventually gave in to an upset Hans and headed back home. I wish he was a little more adaptable in novel situations. But, I'm very glad that we have chalked up two good nights at pool and zoo parties! Tomorrow he and Kevin get a guy's night in while Elle and I will do a beading workshop with another girl scout troop for lanyards and jewelry to sell at the next bake sale, (which is set for 9/11/09 btw).

I'll try not to slack so much with the posts and keep you updated, esp you, Vickie;) But, typically speaking, no news is good news. Thanks for checking up on us.

Everyday is an adventure. Everyday is a gift.

Lara