Seven Alexanders: July 2010

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Tom and Ty's trip to the White Mountains

As some may know, Tom and Ty love to do some serious hiking. When Ty was 12 they hiked 70 miles of the Appalachian Trail through the Smokey Mountains. They have done some other hikes along the way, but that was the big one.....six days, five nights. This was their second big one. Only this time they headed east to the White Mountains of New Hampshire. I don't know the miles, but the trip was cut short to four days. They camped in some primitive spots and saw a lot a great views. Sadly, due to Tom spraining his ankle, they did not climb Mt. Washington like they had hoped. No regrets though....it was a great time for both of them. I love that Tom and Ty have this sort of time together. It will make for great memories for Ty! Ty talked Tom into driving through New York City on the way home! They didn't even get out of the car, but they saw Lady Liberty, Central Park, Ground Zero the Empire State Building (I think.)

Glad to have my mountain men home!

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Guangdong Reunion

Hannah and Lily

Lily, Hannah and Chloe.....November 2004

Red Couch Photo of 2004

Chloe, Hannah and Lily. There were over 60 cribs in the Yangjiang SWI. Our nine girls were spread throughout that room, but these three were cribmates! Hannah was in the crib between Lily and Chloe. Having been there twice, I'm thinking they probably rolled into each others cribs from time to time!

(See photo above from 2004)

Our lame attempt at re-enacting the red couch photo. Left to right front row: Chloe L, Lilianna, Lily, Jasmine, Joy, Chloe C. Left to right back row: Ruthie, Kendall, Rylie and Hannah

(See Red Couch Photo from 2004 above)

This is a photo of the girls and the siblings that came along for the reunion. Let's see...four siblings from China, one sibling from Ethiopia and four made in the USA.

Slow boat from China!

Lily giving Hannah a hug goodbye...well, it was one of many hugs goodbye!

This is Lily with Hannah and Joy

Every year we have a reunion with the families that travelled to China together to adopt in 2004...Lily's adoption. Twelve families spent over two weeks together touring Beijing prior to travelling to Guangdong Province to recieve our girls. The twelve girls met their families on November 1st, 2004. Nine of the girls were from Yangjiang SWI and the other three were from...oops...can't remember that name. We spent most of our trip at the White Swan on the seventh floor.

It has been exciting to see the girls together! It takes a few minutes for the girls to warm up to each other, but then they act like they have been friends on a daily basis! I am really enjoying seeing these relationships continue. Tom and I enjoy the fellowship with the adults that became friends through this special connection. We share many stories from our travel days.

It is also exciting to see how the families change from year to year! Some continue to add new family members!

Guangdong Families....we love you! See you next year!

Happy Birthday, Sarah!

Sarah turned six on July 7th. We really wanted to avoid any real party so I offered her a day with a few friends. She decided that she wanted to go to the Baltimore Pool. She invited Anagrace and Gwen....of course, Lily gets to go as well as Gwen's sisters Megan and Lyndon. And with Megan, Lyndon and Gwen came Lorissa....my friend. I'll spare the pictures of Lorissa and I! After a day of swimming, I took the girls to McDonald's for dinner.

Tom was out of town on the seventh, so we had her cake the night before. I know....lame cake! She did enjoy the scooter she got from us! And she really enjoyed spending birthday money from Grandma! Happy Birthday, Sarah Jo!