Hunan Girls Reunion

I am way behind in updating this blog, so I will ad a few entries and post pictures later (I promise!).

Just a little over a year and a half after we met 11 of the greatest families - and lifelong friends - of the beautiful daughters from our Hunan, China travel group, we got to reunite in Orlando for several days of a wonderful reunion. We were so fortunate with the group of families we spent 2 weeks in China with as we each experienced the most important day of our lives. We all felt the same way that the connection between these families was unique and should be nurtured throughout the years to provide our girls a close connection with their sisters who could understand each other as they mature in the way their peers could not.

We all met in Orlando and stayed at the Nickelodeon Hotel (which is great for kids, but not a place where you would stay for a quiet getaway with your significant other). We tried to mix fun with relaxation so we'd all have time to catch up without getting to caught up in the chaos of a busy vacation. Here's an overview of how we spent our days:

Day 1 (July 25) - Families arrive from different parts of the country for the first official day of the reunion. We get to relax by the pool for leisure and dinner to have time for much needed catching up. Amelie gets to wow everyone with her amazing swimming prowess.

Day 2 (July 26) - Families take bus from hotel to the Magic Kingdom and arrive before park is officially open. This provides us ample opportunity to go through the park without standing in lines too long for the rides. The families separate into smaller groups and we get to hang out most of the day with Nana and Papa and the Curtis'. Amelie and Abby had a good time together and each had fun on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, although Amelie did not like the initial darkness (I don't blame her there).

Later that day, we all met for dinner at Outback. The real action was after dinner when all of the girls got to run around together on the lawn on the restaurant's property. The girls were all racing (although I'm not sure any of us were clear on the boundaries of the track) and Zoe (Davey's older sister who is also from China) was great in spearheading the track and field events. This was the best time since it was purely spontaneous and the first time the girls really got to be themselves together.

Day 3 (July 27) - The families rent a cabana by the pool and spend the day at the hotel since there is plenty to do there during the day without having to rush around again. We planned it this way so we'd have plenty of time to really talk and catch up. I had borrowed a red sheet from my good friend Amy so we could try to recreate the red couch picture. Ken and Katrina Nielson (Stephanie's parents) were very generous in making reunion T-shirst for the girls. We dressed the girls up and tried to get the shot. The photo shoot was very similar to the one in China since the girls were crying and generally not wanting to cooperate in getting their pictures taken. The only problem is, this time, they are much more mobile and can run away. We ended up with some red couch 'modified' pictures by getting most of the moms in the shot to anchor their kids.

Later, we rented a conference room at the hotel so we could all have time together to visit without being interrupted by the rest of the tourists. We had brought our own dinners in and had a great time. The girls, once again, had another chance to really let loose and boy did they!! Tim, Sara Grace's father, had made a video of Sara Grace's first year which he set beautifully to very well selected music. We all got to watch on the big screen. The girls loved the soundtrack and were all dancing queens for the show. Allen brought the video he made for Amelie to show and impressed audience as well.

It was a bittersweet event as many of us had to say our goodbyes as most of the families were leaving early the next morning. As is to be expected, we had a wonderful time that went by way too fast.

Green Meadows Farm

Last summer, we went to Green Meadows Farm in Kissimee with Amy, Kevin, Abby, Malia and Amanda and Emerson. The girls had a great time at this petting zoo as they were given a chance to really interact with the animals.

When you get there, you are lead on a 2 hr. tour going to each of the animal pens and can milk the cow, hold baby ducks and chickens, pet filthy goats, chase and catch geese and ducks and ride the horses, go on a hayride and train ride. It really is a great place, although you should definitely wear closed-toed shoes if you're thinking of heading over there.

Amelie wasn't too interested in holding the animals or milking the cow this time, but she did like to pet them. When asked if she wanted to milk the cow, "No, I'll just pet him to make him happy". I couldn't argue with that.

2 hrs. is a bit much for her age group, so after a while, she was more interested in pulling the wagons. She never did want to sit in one until the very end of the day. I knew she must have been whooped then.

Camping trip

We took our 2nd camping trip in our new camper this 4th of July weekend and had another fabulous time at another beautiful park. We went to Kelly Park in Apopka, home of Rock Springs. Aside from the raisin eating raccoon (as I mentioned in the previous post), we had a wonderful time.

This park has plenty to see in the way of wild life. We saw plenty of deer, some turtles, beautiful birds, black bear tracks and, yes, plenty of raccoons. We ventured over to the springs during the hot days to enjoy the 68 degree water. The 1 1/2 mile stretch of spring-fed river through the park is shallow enough to walk through the whole way. At the deepest point it was chest deep, but it usually only got as high as our waists.

Many people rent tubes and float down the river. However, as we learned from the lazy rivers at Cypress Gardens and Blizzard Beach, Amelie has no concept of the word "lazy" and would not rest easy in one of these tubes for a relaxing ride. She'd rather swim past all the lazy riders and swim like a dolphin, whale or mermaid. As, at Cypress Gardens, we were lapping most of the people who did get the point of the "lazy" part (Amelie renamed it the Crazy river which seemed more apt) we decided to save the $10 per day to rent the tubes.

Throughout the weekend, we went on hikes, rode bikes, looked at wildlife and took walks down the nice cool river. The beginning of the river was a beautiful setting of crystal blue water that started from some small caves. It was a busy weekend being the 4th of July and Amelie wasn't always thrilled with the large crowds (she would say she wanted to go home when things got hectic), but seemed fine once we got into a calmer part of the river or park.

She did enjoy helping with as much of the setup as she could. She particularly enjoyed helping Baba pump up the air in his bicycle tires. We had a pump that did not work (we borrowed one from another camper), but she loved it and kept "helping" pump air into just about anything around the campsite. Whenever one of us said we had to do something Amelie jumped right in with an enthusiastic "Can I help?" Except for lighting the fuel lanterns, we pretty much let her help.

She mostly enjoyed getting to use her flashlight which she seems to associate with the utmost camping tool. Each night we roasted marshmallows for s'mores (a favorite of Mama's and Amelie's).

One night, Allen heard what he throught was a bear huffing through our campsite. The next morning we saw bear tracks near our car. On our hikes we saw plenty of deer tracks (and lots of deer) and some more bear tracks. As we were walking through a part of the woods where a lot of deer lingered, I told Amelie (who was chatting away quite happily) that we had to be very quiet so we wouldn't scare the deer. She then yelled to Baba, "Be quiet Baba, we don't want to scare the deer!"

We even went on a night mission on our bikes one night to see if we could find the otters playing in the water, but didn't have any luck on that front.

The park had a very nice playground that we went to one evening and Amelie had a great time having the whole place to herself.

We left for the weekend in time to head back to Lakeland and see Poppy who had been visiting for the long weekend from PA. Amelie really looked forward to seeing him and talked all the way home about the things they could do together. She really wanted Poppy to read to her and see some of her new things. The two got to spend some good quality time together before he flew back. We'll be happy to see him again very soon!

By the way, Allen wanted me to point out that the last picture is a bear track 25 feet away from our camper.

Sanibel

Two weekends ago we got to go to Sanibel again with our good friends Amy, Kevin, Abby and Malia. Amy's cousin has a nice little cabin on the island and is very generous with letting friends and family stay there.

We got to spend a long weekend and Amelie tried her first shot at kayaking. Allen and I paddled while Amelie sat on the floor in the middle and helped Allen paddle the boat and then dragged her hands in the water the rest of the time. We were out for about 45 minutes and she was quite a trooper but the mosquitoes were getting to be a bit too much for her. I'm pretty impressed with her adventurous spirit - we're able to do a lot with her because she has such a good attitude about trying new things.

We spent the rest of the weekend hanging out at the beach digging elaborate rivers and tunnels with the girls, playing games and watching movies at the cabin and going out to eat at our must stop Cheeburger Cheeburger restaurant. We all had bikes that we could ride from the cabin to the beach which made it nice to really enjoy the island life of not jumping in a car all the time.

Amelie was so excited to be there with her friends and always wanted to be around Abby and Malia.

Visit with Friends

This posting is about a month old, but better late than never! We got to visit again with the Suitt's and Curtis' to get the girls together and catch up with our China travel friends. We are so lucky to live so close to get to see these families with whom we shared the most important time of our lives.

As we've been home longer, it's fun to see the changes in the girls. Not only are they getting taller, more filled out, longer hair and just plain more beautiful, but their little personalities are blossoming. They are all at such a fun age where they are exploring language and imagination and interacting with each other more and more. When we first started the get togethers, they mostly played independently of each other. Now, Amelie looks forward to seeing Abby and "Toria".

When we saw Abby and Victoria, it was pretty typical of 2 1/2 yr. olds playing together. There was a lot of interacting, sharing, giggling, imitating, wanting to do what the other was doing and, yes, arguing. At one point, we could hear a rising kerfuffle coming from Abby's room where one of the girls adamantly yelled "Share!" as two of them were grappling for the ever popular baby stroller.

At one point, Amelie bumped her head on something so we gave her some ice wrapped in a paper towel to nurse her wound. Once that happened, each of the girls had a boo boo that needed to be nursed and required ice. So, the 3 girls sat on the bench in Abby's room nursing their wounds, but really just eating the ice.

After dinner, each of the girls got a yummy cupcake with plenty of icing. Each of the girls shares a love of icing. There was a Seinfeld episode where Elaine proposed selling only muffin tops since no one seemed as interested when they got to the main body of the muffin. This sentiment seems to be shared by the girls when it comes to the icing. As far as they're concerned, you may as well just sell the icing. When Abby was finished, she asked to be excused and said she was all done. She then went to the bathroom to get cleaned up and go play. Amelie saw that there was still a lot of icing on her cupcake. This seemed too good to be true. Abby clearly indicated she was all done to the point of even cleaning up afterwards. But, Amelie still thought this could be a trap, so she wanted there to be no doubt as to the availability of the icing that remained. She looked at the grownups "Abby all done?" "Yes" we replied, "She's all done". "Her cleaned up?" "Yes" we replied, "she cleaned up". "Her going to play now?" "Yes" we replied once again. "I can eat icing?" "Sure" we replied. She still very slowly picked up the cupcake with the precious icing looking at us the whole time to make sure she wasn't going to get in trouble. After her first lick, she felt safe and cleaned it up for Abby. Allen and I were very impressed with her reasoning.

Other stuff:

This weekend we're going to see a Chinese acrobatic show in Sarasota with some friends. I've been telling Amelie about it to get her excited. She told someone the other day that we have to go to China this weekend.

This past weekend we went camping at Kelly Park. Upon arriving, we realized quickly that raccoons are no longer nocturnal animals as I had set a bag of snacks on the picnic table as we were unloading the car. A raccoon quickly came and knocked over the bag and got into Amelie's canister of raisins. "Oh no!" Amelie yelled, "that raccoon is eating my raisins!" The park ranger came by later in the weekend to make sure we were having a good time. Amelie quickly piped in with "A raccoon ate my raisins". I guess assuming this was the guy she needed to file her complaints with thinking maybe he could do something about the little thief.

Amelie is always thinking and is quite the negotiator. When I tell her that she can't have any more of a certain snack, she'll ask me if I want some. I know this trick though, as soon as I get one, she'll just "borrow" some of mine. So, now I tell her that I'm on to her.

I usually bring Amelie to Ging's house on Tuesdays so I can get yard and house work done. In the morning before we leave, she'll tell Allen "We're going to your Mom's house".