6th Annual China Girl Reunion (+The 3 China Boys)

This weekend was our 6th annual reunion with our friends (now family) that we met while in China in 2003 during Lin-Ley's adoption. It was another love fest. We all see each other once a year and can always pick up right where we left off the previous visit.

It was to be a weekend of photos. I had extra camera batteries and the girls were more than happy (or perhaps simply accustomed to it) to pose for the many cameras. I managed to snap 206 photos in the span of 34 hours. The China Girl Paparazzi (CGP) was ready.

It was almost time to meet the first of our friends down in the hotel lobby.
Lin-Ley starts the day long photo shoot with a close-up.









Tru's close-up. Looks like someone just finished another cup of chocolate milk.




Before leaving for dinner the kids gathered at the hotel pose for the first group photo.

Tru, Mackenzie, Quinn, Lin-Ley, May and Claire





The China Girl Paparazzi has expanded. Julia takes a photo of me while I take her photo.









Dinner was fun and loud. The other restaurant patrons had surprise entertainment with their meals.


The Carbonis (with Lin-Ley) could not join us for the picnic on Saturday but they were kind enough to drive two hours (each way) to have dinner with us Friday night.








Quinn, May, Claire, Julia, Lana, Maria, Mia S., Lin-Ley, Mackenzie, and Tru.



The Spanos, also unable to make the picnic, joined us for dinner as well. Thanks to Nina for arranging dinner.











Saturday morning. Time for the picnic!

Unfortunately only six families made it this year. We are still trying to get all fourteen families together at one time. Maybe next year.


Tru, Lucy, Drew and Mackenzie

Thanks to everyone (especially the Greens and Wileys) who brought along activities for the kids.

The volleyball court and its sand pit are always a big hit.










May and Quinn were busy writing stories. Maybe they will someday write "Spicy Hunan Girls - The Movie".








"Look at me!"







Lin-Ley takes on Mr. Dean in a game of hockey. Knowing nothing about hockey she attempted to make up the rules as they went along.










It was time for the hula hoop contest:


Go May!

Go Drew!

Go Sara!

Go Lin-Ley!

Go Dallas??

All of the children in attendance (and all adopted from China - but not all at the same time):

Sara, Lucy, Drew, Claire, May, Quinn, Mackenzie, Lin-Ley and Tru.

The Spicy Hunan Girls. These are six of our fourteen girls adopted during our 2003 travel to China.

Sara, Drew, May, Quinn, Mackenzie and Lin-Ley.

Lined up by height.

We always have a birthday cake at the picnics to celebrate the girls' collective birthdays from the past year.

Lin-Ley happens to be the youngest of all of the girls. She turned 7 on June 23rd.

Happy 7th Birthday to our Spicy Hunan Girls!

Time to hit the beach. I took many photos at the beach but will only post a few. Most of the photos of the girls playing in the water also include the backsides of many parents. I did not think they would appreciate photos of their hineys on our blog.


Lin-Ley, Sara and Tru.

Hmmm... What did they tell us about Tru's knee and playing in the sand?













Oh yeah! Now I remember. "Try not to let the sand get into Tru's knee."

Oops!






Our Little Mermaid.





Time to get dressed again. The CGP will soon be in full force!



Tru, Mackenzie, Lucy, Drew, Lin-Ley and Sara make a Wiggle Rider Train.



The Moms.





The Dads.








Get those cameras ready. It is time for the family photos.



The Wileys (minus one).

We missed you Colleen.












The Braatens.














The Roarkes.










The Herpins.





The Greens.










The Taylors.














Right after the family photo shoot Tru was stung by a wasp. By that time it was around 6PM and he was exhausted. The wasp sting put him right over the edge and we had to call it a night and head back to the hotel.


Tru did not even make it out of the parking lot before he passed out (from exhaustion - not the sting). I had to pry open his mouth to insert a Benadryl for the wasp sting.

Lin-Ley only lasted about six more minutes.

After a 35 minute nap they were asking to go swimming in the hotel pool. And that's exactly what we did. We managed to squeeze in one more meal with families staying at our hotel.



We had an extra treat Sunday. For the first time in two years we saw Kari and Christopher. We met them in China on Tru's adoption trip. Our family was alone for the whole trip there and we finally met up with Kari and Chris in Guanzhou. We (the adults) were so happy to have each other there and quickly bonded. Kari had traveled alone because her husband, Ken, had stayed behind in the U.S. with their son Ben who had also recently been adopted from China.
Fortunatley they also live in New York so they agreed to drive almost 2 hours (each way) to meet us for a visit at our hotel and then lunch.


The China Boys!

Tru, Ben and Chris












Within a few minutes we caught Chris and Tru holding hands and checking out the electric door at the hotel entrace.
Ben and Lin-Ley seemed to hit it off right away and began reading the comics together.


It was time to check out of our hotel so we all headed up to our room with a luggage cart and four stow-aways.







One last photo before we have lunch and hit the road.

Tru, Lin-Ley, Ben and Chris.







What a whirlwind weekend! Can't wait to do it again next year!!!

Quote Of The Weekend

"Can we see the China Girls again?"

By: Tru (on our way home)