Fun filled weekend

What a beautiful and perfect weekend. This is Jade's last weekend before she is heading back to China. She has a lot of mixed feelings with going back. She is excited to see her mom, dad and her dogs, but doesn't want to give up what she has here. We are all being positive and saying we will see you again in August. This weekend after Jade took her ACT testing, we got together with the FCC group for a picnic, it was a beautiful day in the park, spend some time with old friends and met some new ones. After the picnic we did a campout out in our backyard and for the night Jade was the fire person. She started the bonfire, and she kept the fire going (once in a while Dave or I would put some wood on the fire, but she did it for the most part). We also had fireworks and she lite them all. Once the younger 3 were in bed, Jade, Dave and I sat around the fire talking. Jade this past few weeks have been having some very deep discussions with us. Asking us questions that get you thinking like "How do you know how to love your family. is it nature vs nurture, once one of us answer that question, another question was started from that answer and so forth. It really got you to think about things that you don't think twice about or don't spend a lot of time talking. We even spoke about God, Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden. Jade is very good questionere and debator. Sunday we spent the day at the MN Zoo where everyone (except for me) fed the Giraffes. katie and Monika fed the giraffe so fast that I didn't get a chance to take pictures of it. We then went to Dave's family and had supper there and went to the beach for a little while. Cindy, Dan and Cassie came over to our house for a little bit to say goodbye to Jade and give a memory quilt. Jade wasn't wanting to go to sleep and we stayed up after 1 in the morning before I said I have to go to bed, I have the ones to get up with. Even though I was pretty tired, I couldn't fall asleep for another hour, just thinking about Jade and some of the things she said and questions she had. Jade adding wood to her fire

girls having smores, it was a lot darker out then what the pictures show. The flash lighten it up.

Dave, Monika and Jade putting the tent up. We discovered that we are going to need a bigger tent. This tent we have used for the past 3 years and has worked perfect for the 5 of us. With Jade and the girls getting bigger, it is very crowded now. Jade enjoyed sleeping in the tent and is ready to do our camping trip in August when she returns
Jade feeding the Giraffe, This Giraffe waited no time to try to get the food out of your hands
Dave feeding the giraffe
Jenny feeding the Giraffe