tennesse:day 5-starfish reunion, day 2

we woke up bright and early at our normal time of 10 am. :) we left to get breakfast at 11 and found amanda lounging by the pool so she joined us for breakfast. we found this place that had great reviews but the wait was a little long for amanda's fragile state and i felt bad. but she was a good sport and seemed to enjoy her breakfast. it lived up to it's reviews and they were so gracious with amanda!
she is a beauty and i love that she appears to look straight through you!
the girls and i shared this smiley face plate.
finally we made it to the reunion a bit later than expected.
river kept trying to share her blanket with audrey. she doesn't let anyone touch her blanket, but she was forcing it on audrey. that says a lot about how river felt about her. in fact, at one point she put it around audrey's shoulders and walked off! it wasn't more than a few seconds and she went back for it but i have never seen her do that before. it was such a tender moment for river.



amanda gave a very heart warming speech. made everyone a bit weepy.

they had all the starfish on stage and gave out prizes for various things. flower got one for being the oldest. she was also tied with rebecca for being the tallest. it was so fun to see all the kids up there together.






best buddies. they really have a special bond.





it was somewhere around this point in the day that rebecca's mom, carolin, said good-bye to amanda. she gave me a hug as well and i burst into tears which is so unlike me. i could barley speak. i can usually hold it in until i'm alone but not this time! it was a representation for the good-bye i was going to face in a few more days. i also really liked carolin and felt a strange sort of connection with her that i don't often feel with people i've just met. i typically guard my heart better than that so i was taken by surprise. it was tough.
soon enough the professional started taking photos of the families with amanda. i snapped this one at the same time and i'm so bummed that river had her eyes closed! i should know to always rapid fire a few shots! i'm not so patiently waiting for the professional photog's pictures because the girls want this one big on their wall.
***
here are more photos from others.

a room full of wonderful people whose lives were touched by one incredible person. amazing.
***
that evening everyone met at a chinese restaurant for dinner.
this darling boy had a little crush on flower. it was so cute! his sister is starfish nava.


and then more swimming! helena hadn't been swimming in a while and was quite nervous. but we lent her river's suit and she clung to kg until she built up some confidence.


beautiful amanda, watching her babies swim.

again, river sweet talked her way into lots of things to play with at the pool. we brought nothing with us but somehow managed to take things home due to her charm.
flower got frustrated because she didn't have anything but she was to afraid to ask for what she wanted. pretty typical. she now gets river to do that for her where ever we go! when flower started fighting with river and throwing a fit i finally had to tell flower that if she wants something, she needs to be brave enough to ask, not just take things that were given to river, leaving river with nothing. that's usually how it goes though.

all that swimming made the girls goofy.



if any of these goggles or tubes the girls are wearing were yours, i'm sorry! they didn't make it back to the rightful owner before everyone started leaving for the night. and river had no clue who they belonged to. but they definitely came in handy for the remainder of our trip so thank you!