ADOPTION REUNION 2010 - ST. LOUIS

FAMILY NIGHT - FRIDAY EVENING

Welcome to the crazy chaos that is our adoption travel group! This is the scene we created the first night in the hotel hallway as we waited for the first event of our adoption agency reunion to get started. This particular reunion included more than just our travel group - it included all the families who have adopted from Children's Hope International (CHI). This scene, however, was mainly our travel group.

Only eight of the 21 families from our travel group were able to make this trip. We had such a great time (but greatly missed the other families).

As we waited in the hallway we tried to take a picture of all our little munchkins. However, they were rather wound up. They were all cooperative - just not at the same time. Here's our mini photo shoot:

Eventually we were all corralled into a large room to play games and just hang out - in a more confined space for the little ones.


PHOTO SHOOT - SATURDAY MORNING

Saturday morning first thing, we had a photo session scheduled for all the kids at a place called Portrait Innovations. I've never heard of it, but one of the other families uses it a lot. Apparently it's a chain and found in several states. The girls all wore their pillow case dresses from last year and Truman (the lone boy) wore black and white to match. Here is Malia in hers. It looks a few inches shorter than it did last year!

We arrived at the photo shoot in plenty of time. In fact, the store wasn't open yet! Since it was located in a quaint little area, we just wandered the streets a little and took advantage of the opportunity to take some of our own pictures. Here are Malia and Rick with a very large horse.


In this next picture Lilli joined Malia. They look so cute!


Still waiting for the store to open, we found a pretty flower pot, which made for a nice backdrop.

Finally, time for the photo shoot!

Getting eight rambunctious two and three year olds to sit still for photos is a rather funny sight (as long as it's not your child causing issues, right?) Malia did fairly well, but she definitely wasn't acting herself. By the end of the shoot she was fighting back tears. Here is the picture we decided on as a group. Not too shabby!

The photographer was going for the train look, but since this picture was towards the end of the shoot, Malia was more than ready to get up. I think it looks like she's posing, but trust me when I say she was ready to high tail it off of the backdrop!


CHI REUNION - SATURDAY AFTERNOON

After the photo shoot, it was time to head to the reunion lunch.

(We snapped this picture as we were riding in the van - that's why it's cut off.)

The room used for the reunion was huge and filled with families that included precious children from all over the world.

Malia had no interest in eating lunch since she snacked on apple slices on the way there. She arrived ready to play! After getting temporarily stuck under the big parachute (which did not make her happy) she asked for a hula hoop. She was so funny to watch! She would grab hold of the hula hoop and spin it one way while she quickly spun the other way.

"Mommy, I did it!!!" she screamed as she ran towards me. Look at this proud (albeit blurry) face!

As is her usual self, Malia wanted to wander back and forth on the bleachers that overlooked the large room. This girl loves stairs (or anything worth climbing on). Rick was a good sport and dutifully followed her ... and her hula hoop.

As we wandered around the pavilion we found the craft area and decided to give it a go. There were foam stickers and markers and paper sacks and lots of other crafty stuff just waiting to be made into masterpieces.

Rick, being the creative man that he is, got carried away with the foam letters. Somehow they found their way onto his name tag and renamed him. Meet Jose ...

Jose then decided to rename the rest of his family.

Meet Carmela ...

And Guido ...

And our sweet Malia Juanita ...

After crafts we headed out to the playground. We couldn't pass up letting the kids play on this amazing playground! (Although, we weren't quite sure how much longer Malia was going to be able to stay awake - she was moving rather slow.)

Malia was so worn out after playing that she fell asleep on the way back to the hotel. She didn't even wake up as I carried her onto the elevator and up to our room.


ELEPHANT BAR RESTAURANT - SATURDAY EVENING

Our last group event was having dinner together at a restaurant. We've never eaten at an Elephant Bar Restaurant - it has a fun atmosphere. Rather ritzy in appearance, but caters well to children and has reasonable prices.

While we were waiting outside, the kids had fun playing in the rocks and running around.

Little Lilly was anxious to have her picture taken with Spencer - he's definitely her buddy. Here are the four of us shortly before heading inside.

Just inside the door in the waiting area we found this big elephant waiting to be seated.

After eating, we headed back outside and let the children run rampant. They are all so energetic! Since this was the last moment all of us would be together for the weekend, we made one last attempt at taking a group picture. Here is the best picture I got.

The kids started getting restless rather quickly and wanted to be done with pictures, until ...... Katie's Mommy asked her if she could show people her silly face.

And the other kids quickly rejoined her for more pictures! What a blessing to see the joy in all their faces as they each made their own silly face.

And, how cool that this fun moment was our last as a group ... for this year. (We had to head out very early Sunday morning to head back home for Rick's Mom's surprise 60th birthday party.)

These couple of days went by way too quickly! It goes without saying that we are very anxious for our 2011 reunion!