First batch of Holidays

We survived the first batch of the holidays. That is more of an accomplishment than you think. Our Thanksgiving weekend started on Wednesday Night. We met all of Kirsten's side of the family for our traditional Chinese Food Dinner. We meet at a fairly central location, so each family only has to drive about 30 minutes or so. I am not sure exactly how this got started three years ago, but everyone really enjoys it, so it will probably continue for the next several years, at least. Which, I have to admit, please us very much.

We spent Thursday at Kirsten's parents house with her parents and my parents. That was very enjoyable also. Lots of good conversation and everyone was nice and relaxed. The food was excellent. Everyone had a really good time. Kaitlyn was really tired, so I put her down for a nap. She was kind of nervous, so I layed there with her and ended up sleeping for an hour myself.

On Saturday we spent the day at my parents place with all of my family. We showed up a little early, but since it was sunny, we just took a half-hour walk around their neighborhood. The food was pretty good and later we had some cake. We were celebrating my dad's 65th birthday and my nephew's first birthday. All of the kids really enjoyed playing outside on my father's electric ride-on toys. He has a firetruck, tractor and hummer. Kaitlyn and Emily seemed to be doing fine, so we didn't put them down for naps. That turned out to be a fiasco. Emily actually did just fine, but little Kaitlyn was an absolute terror from about 4:00 PM on. She actually took a little nap from 5:00 to 5:30, but that seemed to only make things worse.

Here are a few pictures from the day:

Gaoyou Mini Reunion

In November of 2003 our adoption agency (ASIA) sent a travel group of 14 families to China. 11 of those families (including us) adopted from Gaoyou SWI, but only four of these families are local. Yesterday these four local families had a small get together.

It was very good to catch up with everyone.

Any, here are a couple of pictures. I think that I have all of the names correct. If not, please leave me a comment.



From left to right: Katie, Mei lin, Tian, Bing, Emily and Tori



From left to right: Katie, Bing, Mei lin, Tian, Emily and Tori

Silly Kids

Well, nothing truly unusual has happened in our household recently. It is winter, so the kids have had colds, but nothing too unusual. Of course, kids being kids, every day is an adventure in general.

Recently all of the kids decided to wear their pants on their head. I am not exactly sure why, but they found it to be a hilarious activity. Hey, at least they were entertaining themselves. Kirsten got a couple of cute pictures. Here is one of them.




Here is another cute picture. The girls were watching a movie on TV.




Well, that is all for now. Not much to write about. We are starting to gear up for the holidays. There should be all kinds of fodder for the blog from that!

Hunting

Patrick and I went hunting with my father over several days last weekend (I took some time off). We were hunting deer, but didn't see anything that was legal, so we came home empty handed. Of course, actually bringing home the meat is secondary. Mostly, it is a male bonding thing for us.

We hunted every morning and then went out to dinner or saw a movie in the evening. All of us are avid readers, so one night we read for four or five hours. During the hunts, we took time out to do some shooting. We shot the .22 rifle, Winchester 30-30, Remington 7mm, 410 shotgun, 357 Magnum revolver and the 44 Magnum revolver. It was Patrick's first time with most of those firearms.

We saw several sunrises, hiked through a lot of brush and ate a lot of junk food. Also, Patrick (who is 12) got to drive. We let him get behind the wheel and drive for three or four miles. He never got the truck over 15 miles per hour, but he had a real good time and learned a few things.

It was a lot of fun and real good for all of us.