WE ARE EXPERIENCING TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES .....

I've had a couple people mention recently that our blog hasn't been updated lately. Our computer is so crammed full of pictures that there is no longer room for more. I've been slowly working on copying pics to back-up CD's so I can delete them from the computer and add new ones for blog posts. And then ........

I know you can't see me right now, but I'm typing this post from my in-law's laptop. Why? Because ours CRASHED today! Yep, we are one of the many computer owners who have experienced the dreaded blue screen. We're working on getting it fixed and for now say a HUGE thank you to Tom & Cindy for allowing us to use their laptop in the meantime. Now, please join us in praying that all that "stuff" on our computer isn't lost into the cyber abyss forever. Amen!

20 MONTHS TODAY!

CAR SHOW DIVA

We decided to head into town today for a car show. It was HOT! But we were all troopers. Rick and Spencer really enjoyed looking at the cars - they're big into that type of thing. Malia and I, on the other hand, were just along for the ride ... no pun intended.

Anyway, Malia was sporting a hat and had fun wearing it ... inside out.

I do believe she will forever set her own fashion trends.

Spencer's first day of HIGH SCHOOL!

So, today was not only the first day of school, but the first day of HIGH SCHOOL for Spencer! Unbelievable that my "baby" is old enough to be a freshman in high school. Seriously ... where has the time gone?!?!

I'm so proud of my son. He's such a good kid with a great sense of humor. He loves to joke around and have fun. He's a great artist and his talent is improving as can be seen in his drawings. I continue to pray God's will for his life, and look forward to seeing him continue to grow into a godly man.

Usually on the first day of school Spencer will call his Dad at work so Rick can wish him well. Today, however, was Grandma Chig's funeral, so Rick was home and they got to talk in person.

Here is Rick wishing Spencer well on his first day of school (all staged, of course, because the two cannot be serious sometimes)...

We love you Spence ... and pray the year is filled with wonderful memories!

CHI TRAVEL GROUP REUNION WEEKEND

WE MADE IT TO ST. LOUIS!
Friday

We've been looking forward to this weekend ever since we arrived home from China last November. There were 21 families from our agency that traveled to China at the same time - the largest group they've ever had! Seventeen families spent the entire two weeks together. The other four families were adopting children from other areas of China, so we were only able to spend the first day and the last week together. Fifteen families were able to make it to our first reunion. The other six families were dearly missed.

Here we are in the parking lot of the hotel.


The kids were feeling a little stir-crazy after the long road trip.

Why St. Louis as our meeting spot? Because that is where a few of the families are from and also where our agency's main office is located. The rest of us are from all over the United States ... from Florida to Washington State!

PIZZA PARTY
Friday

Our first official reunion activity! More importantly, our first chance to get to see everyone! But first, there was pizza to eat!

With tummies now full it was time to mingle and catch up with the families. To help everyone remember names, we all wore name tags. Malia loved pulling them off, sticking them back on, pulling them off, sticking them back on ... and so on and so on until each of ours were demolished. Here she is working on Mama Peg's.

One highlight for this evening was watching a special video about the city of Yifeng and the orphanage. Here are Malia and Katie discussing what they see.

One of our hosts, Terri (aka Katie's Mommy), put together a gift bucket for each of the girls that included brochures about St. Louis, the zoo we will be visiting tomorrow, the red reunion t-shirts for the girls, and other goodies.

It was such a great evening. Being able to see all our travel companions was such a blessings. I can only describe our relationships as being similar to an old friend you don't see often, but when you do you're able to catch up and take off where you left off last. Our lives were each changed forever through this amazing journey and we shared that experience together. These families will forever be dear to our hearts.

ST. LOUIS ZOO
Saturday

Saturday's big outing was to the St. Louis Zoo. This is one of the nicest zoos we've been to. It's even free to get in! It was a HOT morning, but that didn't hinder any of us from having a great time.

One of our first attractions was the penguins. Malia had fun watching them swim around.

The really "cool" part of this attraction was the inside area where the temperature was quite lower than the outside temperature. We were hoping to make it back to this area every hour just to cool off, but that didn't happen.

Who doesn't love to watch monkeys?! Spencer, that's who. Why? Because several years ago when visiting the Phoenix Zoo he was harassed by a baboon that literally attacked the glass wall that separated them. We're not exactly sure what Spencer did to bring the whole thing on (except for wearing an all orange outfit), but we were very thankful for the wall! Here he is braving a quick visit by another glass wall. This chimp didn't even seem to notice he was there.


This zoo not only had great attractions, but beautiful landscaping!


We tried to get some practice at taking a group picture (we had a photo shoot scheduled for later this afternoon). Here are most of the kids in their strollers, some smiling, some crying, most tired and hot!


Malia was ready to move along, but was fairly cooperative with her smiles.


These girls - and one guy - are so beautiful! It was fun seeing them all wearing their red reunion shirts.

Below is Spencer hanging out in the desert with the zebras and camels.


Malia loved riding on Daddy's shoulders as he hopped down a hill.


Gotta love watching the sea lions!


Malia decided to climb through the big log tunnel ... several times!


Spencer ... our little charmer.


Not really sure what the big deal is about standing by this cliff. It's not like there's a big lizard that would attack us or anything! Good grief, people, calm down!


No luck seeing the Asian elephants today, but the waterfall at their attraction was beautiful.

Despite the heat, we had a fantastic visit. If we have the chance we will definitely visit again. Especially to visit the children's zoo area that we missed due to lack of time.

THE INFAMOUS GROUP PICTURE
Saturday

This is something I've been looking forward to for a long time ... our first group photo. In China, we didn't stay at the White Swan Hotel, which is home to the red couches famous in the world of China adoptions. Most travel groups have a group picture of the kids on one of the red couches. Our group missed this opportunity. So we planned to have a group picture taken at our reunion with all the girls wearing the same black and white pillow case dresses and our lone boy, Truman, dressed in the same colors.

Here is Miss Malia all dressed up and ready to go.

Looks good right? Well on the way to the photo shoot at a nearby park she decided to untie her ribbons and pull one of them out! So here I am in the back seat of the van trying with all my frazzled might to figure out how to re-string the ribbon. Why was I frazzled? Because one of our families needed to leave right after the photo shoot to catch a plane! Leave it to us to be the ones to hold things up. Fortunately for us, we had plenty of time for Rick to save the day and re-string the ribbon by tying it to a pen and pushing it through the hem. My hero!

On a grassy knoll we placed all our children in a group to be photographed. I'm not sure who started crying first, but many others followed suit. The moms would try to set their child on the ground and quickly run away so as to not be in the picture. But humorously enough, one would always escape before a good picture could be taken. Here are a couple attempts from our camera ...

After a few minutes we decided for all the moms to hold their child and get a more organized picture taken that way.

One of the dads in our group is apparently a whiz with photo shopping and will soon be working on an edited group photo for us. Can't wait to see it!

Since Malia was all dressed up and we had the perfect setting we took a few snapshots of her before leaving the park.

DINNER AT BANDANAS BBQ
Saturday

Tonight we had a group dinner at Bandanas BBQ. We had yummy barbeque food and feasted on a cake that was so impressively decorated I hated to see it cut up! How cool is this???

After dinner we attempted some group pictures again. Not sure what possessed us except that the kids are so darn cute! Here's attempt number one ...

And attempt number two ...

Oh well, we'll keep trying.

Here is Malia talking with Lia. Oh how I wish we could have known what all these girls were saying and thinking!

GRANT'S FARM
Sunday

Our last big hoorah was a trip to Grant's Farm, which is named after Ulysses S. Grant who once owned and farmed part of the 281 acres. It is now owned by the Busch family and is home to several spectacular Clydesdales.

Our trip began with a tram ride, on which Malia had a tantrum because we wouldn't allow her to sit in the area immediately in front of us which was clearly stated to be for personal belongings only. I have a picture as proof, but to spare her embarrassment in the years ahead I'll be keeping that photo for the scrapbook only. In her defense it was a very HOT day and we forgot to bring water (although we weren't supposed to enter the farm with any food or drink items anyway) and I do believe she was very thirsty. Once we departed the tram and made our way to the goats, she calmed down. Her she is giving a goat a good pet on the head. Shortly after this photo we headed straight for a concession stand for water!

Here we are in front of some beautiful birds, although they can barely be seen.

This pond was home to several different types of bird species, including white and black swans, flamingos, cranes and ducks.

In my opinion, Grant's farm can be compared to a zoo. They have many big and small animals alike, which included camels. And since there were these little machines in their proximity that contained pebbles of food, we just had to share some with them.

After seeing giant tortoises, elephants, donkeys, and several other animals, it was time for the horses! We entered a stable area which was home to several different horses. This tiny little black horse caught Malia's attention and she ran straight to him and shimmied her way to the front of the small crowd of children who were admiring him. At one point I heard her infamous "nooo!" but did not see who it was directed at. Needless to say, the small crowd dispersed leaving Malia alone to pet the horse ... which nipped her arm.

Afterwards, we headed back to the tram station to make our trek back to the entrance. We left the farm area and headed straight for the stables to see the Clydesdales. What beautiful, magnificent ... and BIG ... creatures!

The very last thing we did was get a family picture taken with a Clydesdale named Scott. Since our scanner isn't hooked up, I don't have the picture to share here. But, if you ever come over to my house, I'd be happy to show you our scrapbook that will include it!

I would also like to include in this post that in the parking lot on our way to see the Clydesdales, we saw a Hawaii license plate. Why is this of any importance? Because we are avid players of the license plate game and this is the first time we've ever been on a trip and seen this particular state license plate ... with the exception of our trip to Hawaii a few years ago. On this trip we found 40 different states, including Hawaii and Alaska! So far our record is 48 states in one trip (to Pennsylvania).

THANK YOU!!
We would like to send a quick thank-you shout-out to Dana and Terri for planning and organizing our weekend! You each did a great job and we got to enjoy a very special weekend with dear friends. We are so looking forward to our next reunion!

A NEW MILESTONE: THE TODDLER BED

Yes, I know Malia is a mere 19 months of age. But, here was my dilema: The girl's a climber! And after playing in the pack-n-play on vacation last week where she had "fun" climbing in and out of it, she figured "Why not do the same thing with my own crib when I get home? It's not that much bigger." And that's exactly what happened. She began climbing out of her crib in the middle of the night. So, what's a mother to do to keep her child safe?

So, Rick and I decided it was time to take off the front of the crib and use the second stage of the bed ... the toddler bed. And Malia, of course, had to oversee the project.

"Look, Mommy! I'm a really good supervisor, just like Great-Grandma Wagoner and Grandma Cindy!"

Here's the toddler bed, minus the matching side rail, which costs over $200! (What a serious rip off!) So, we opted for a cheaper railing, even though it doesn't really go with this type of bed.

But, the girl needs something to "catch" her when she's flopping around in her sleep. That's right. The girl's even active while sleeping. No rest for the weary, isn't that how the saying goes?

She loves it! She had so much fun climbing in and out, it was hard to settle her down to go to bed!

SPORTIN' THE BLING!

Dear Alora,

I just want to give a little thank you shout-out for the awesome shirt you got me on your trip to New York. Mommy told me you had a really fun time and I'm glad.

I really, really like my shirt. When Mommy put it on me this morning, I had fun touching the sparkles and saying "wow!" over and over (I really did say that).

Mommy also wants me to mention to you that she and Daddy will miss you lots and lots when you go off to college in a few weeks. You are a very special person!

Thanks again!
Malia


Yep, I'm all that!