Spring Break

This year we took Meili camping for spring break. We hooked up our pop-up and headed to Edisto Island, South Carolina. Meili is a wonderful camper and we had so much fun camping as a family! Here are a few highlights from our trip.

walking to the beach

enjoying the Atlantic Ocean

We spent one of our two cool days in Charleston. This is in the petting zoo area at Magnolia Plantation. This white peacock walked up to Meili and screeched right in front of her. It completely freaked Meili out. Since then, Meili has been telling the story over and over - complete with a reinactment of the peacock's screeching noise. It's hilarious!

relaxing at the campground

cheering for daddy every time he hit the wood with his axe

helping build the fire

Roasted marshmallows were a big hit with Meili!

Happy Easter!

time for pictures...

potty training

if there's something in there, she gets a piece of chocolate!

Look at this HUGE thing we bought... (on clearance of course).
I don't think we would normally buy something so elaborate
but Meili already spent hours with plastic food,
pretending to make us meals,
pack us lunches etc.
She absolutely loves playing in her new kitchen!

Leading a peace march at Daycare...
Meili ran into the room, yelled MAMA and that was pretty much it!
It was very cute and she got a lot of laughs!

First pair of wooden shoes!
Meili loves the noise they make on the wood floor.

Laying in our bed, reading books...
a favorite Saturday morning activity

Off to Oma's house...

a budding artist

The crib is on its way out!

Meili's first night in a big kid bed! She LOVES IT!

ice skating

We took Meili ice skating a few weekends ago.
her skates were too big...
she slid all over the place...
she cried a few times...
we got yelled at for carrying her while we skated..
We still had a lot of fun!

meet Skunk!

Happy New Year!

Friday night we got together with a group of families to celebrate Chinese New Year. We had yummy food, watched a dragon dance, the kids smashed a rat pinata, and then we watched fireworks outside. It was really nice to see all of these kids together. We especially enjoyed spending time with Ava and Hannah and their parents!!! Gung hay fat choy!!!

Meili, Hannah and Ava

Happy New Year!!!

sledding

Last weekend we went to the Eastern Ave church retreat in northern Michigan. It was such a fun weekend. One of the highlights of the weekend was sledding. We spent an hour or two going down the long hill together. Meili enjoyed going down with us and also went alone several times. She's never been sledding before so we didn't know how brave she would be. She was AWESOME! Didn't even cry when she went flying off her sled into the snow. Here are some picts!

GOTCHA!!!

This week we'll be celebrating Meili's Gotcha Day! One year ago, on January 30, we met Meili for the first time and took her home (to our hotel)! Her adoption was finalized the next day but we'll celebrate on the 30th because it's the day we were all finally together. Here are some pictures from Meili's Gotcha Day.

Leaving Beijing for Hangzhou that morning (Jan. 30).

Our hotel room...

The Civil Affairs office where we met Meili.

Holding Meili for the first time.

We just wanted to watch Meili and play with her - get to know her -
but there was a bunch of paperwork that we had to fill out.


In the taxi going back to our hotel...

Meili and her dad!

playing in the snow

It's the coldest weekend of the winter so far and we have a nice amount of snow! Yesterday, Meili and I went out to play in it. I bundled her up in a snowsuit (she reminded me of the kid in "A Christmas Story.") After throwing snow around for a while, I took Meili for rides on the sled. She hasn't figured out how to hold on to the sides of the sled but she didn't seem to mind being dumped in the snow a few times. When it was time to go inside, Meili cried and cried - she did not want to get off the sled!