Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Allyson's Gotcha Day #9 !!!

We celebrated Allyson's 9th "Gotcha Day" (adoption day) over the weekend. Wow...9 years. I still remember seeing Allyson for the first time...sitting on the nanny's lap, holding a rice cake in each hand, her hair still in that little mohawk style like her referral photo. She was a happy baby and didn't cry at all when the nanny handed her to me. Now...9 years later, she is still a happy child, has a winning smile and a caring personality. We love you deeply Ally girl!!!

All five families from our Hubei China travel group met at the Fin and Feather Resort in OK for our reunion this year. Allyson has SO looked forward to this weekend and has constantly talked about wanting to see the other girls. We arrived around 8:45 in the evening, so it was already dark...but that didn't stop the sweet reunion. As soon as the other girls saw us park the car, they ran toward us yelling Allyson's name! :-) The same thing happened when the last family arrived a few minutes later.

The resort had a laid-back, country atmosphere with plenty of space for the kids to play so it was a good place for our reunion. As soon as breakfast was over, the kids begged to go swimming. The pool was a bit chilly, but the kids still had fun.

- - The gang's all here!

Since we were all new to this resort, one of the dads browsed a few pamphlets (for local entertainment) while the kids swam. The parents then decided to drive to Talequah, OK to visit the Cherokee Heritage Museum. Much to the kids delight, we stopped at McD's for lunch on the way. :-) At the museum, we took a walking tour and learned how the Cherokee tribe lived, saw examples of their mud houses, learned how to make an arrowhead...and Claire even tried blowing a "poison" dart. :-)
Then it was back to the resort for another round of swimming, and playing with a stray dog (that the girls quickly named "Buddy"...see update below). Our group had a yummy dinner at the resort's diner (Soda Steve's), and then it was cake and present time!
- -
The five girls decided to open all of their gifts together, so they counted 1..2..3 and made sure they were in sync with each other on every gift. :-)
Here are the girls with the pillows I made for them. I asked Allyson to choose the colors for the pillows...so everyone got pink. ;-) The girls also received a jewelry box (with a traditional Chinese cork carving), a silver necklace (of their Chinese zodiac animal), a Chinese cat penny bank, some neat Chinese snacks and jellies (Ally LOVES those little jelly tubs!), and several other cute items (I can't remember them all, and Ally has already put everything away!).
The 5 Hubei girls
About the stray dog....he looked like a mix between a large dachshund, bull terrier, and something with big ears. :-) He was pretty cute. I joked that Laura's family would be taking him home with them. Before we left on Sunday, they checked to make sure he was a stray, and the dog *DID* indeed go home with them!! LOL

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Very cool!! Are you on my Hubei list too??? If not, shoot me an email and I can add you to that list too. It will be neat for our Hubei daughters to meet some day! Looking at the gotcha day number (9) our daughters are close to the same age too! We just celebrated 8 years this year!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...