Two Months Today!

Hi Everyone: we've officially hit the two month mark since we were logged in to the CCAA's database. 60+ days and counting.....

Pictures of our Friends - The Glover Family on Vacation in The Outer Banks!

Things are Moving!

Hi - some families with a 4/19 log in date received their LOAs today! We are LID 4/24 and should be just around the corner!

New Pictures to Share of our Family!

Hi Everyone: here are some new pictures of our recent events! Silly pictures of the girls; Grandma and Grandpa Laughlin and Ericka dancing at her Peter Pan recital. Enjoy!

LOAs for 4/9 LID Families are in!

Hi Everyone:

Good news for families with a 4/9/07 LID - they received their LOAs yesterday! By the timing of things, looks like we may have to wait a couple more weeks before it will be our turn. At least things are rocking and rolling!

Love ya all! Tracie

Eight Weeks and Counting...

Hi Everyone!

Sorry that I still haven't posted up some new pictures. I can't seem to find my camera USB cable - it's around somewhere! We are just one day short of eight weeks since our Log-in date for Abbie. Hard to believe how quickly time has flown by. Should be any day now!

Yesterday, we had our last Chinese School class until September 1st. The kids have learned so much and have really caught on to simple phrases in Mandarin. They are also learning to recognize characters. Yesterday, Lucy learned about the Dragon Boat Festival and it's significance in Chinese culture. She ate a traditional glutinous rice ball with dates, pork and peanuts, steamed in a bamboo leaf (very sticky and required a lot of soy sauce.) Then we went out for lunch at Mi La Cai for Vietnamese and Chinese faire. Lucy chowed down on the ham, rice, "glass" noodles, pot stickers and vegetables. Gracie ate her ham by stabbing it one piece at a time with chopsticks! Both girls were mezmorized by the restaurant's very large fish tank!

Last night, we went to the Utah Chinese Association's Dragon Boat Festival at Sugarhouse Park. We saw many Chinese, and adoptive family and friends, as well as made new friends. The Lion Dance scared Lucy a bit, so it is good that we frequent these events so she will learn to enjoy her cultural heritage. It was 100 degrees out, but we were in the shade and stayed for over four hours sweating it out with 300+ other people - complete with really bad Peking Opera Karaoke! Ha ha!

Happy Father's Day to all our Family and Friends!

Tracie...

I am sooooo Behind!!

Hi Everyone:

I am a really bad blogger! It has been over a week since I last posted! Since then, we had a wonderful visit from Dan's parents, who reside in Virginia. It is always so great to hang out with them and the time goes by so quickly!

At work, we had a Celebration of Many Nations and I represented a booth from China. We were able to raise $120.00 for Love Without Boundaries from selling $1.00 raffle tickets. Not bad!

We are still waiting for Abbie's LOA and hope to hear something SOON!! I will post some new pictures shortly.

Love, Tracie

Coryell/Woods/Yingling South Dakota Vacation! (Or is it the Griswold Family Vacation? Ha ha!)

Hi Everyone:

My folks, sister (Cathy) and her boys (Calvin and Mason) are vacationing in the Black Hills of South Dakota right now. From my dad's email below, sounds like they are having the vacation of a life time. We were supposed to be there, but sold our RV tow vehicle for a Volvo XC90 a while back and seem to have found ourselves with a crazy June schedule! Dad wrote:

"This email is from all of us vacationing in South Dakota. You won't believe all that we have done the last couple of days! WOW...fun! So, before we went on our hot air balloon ride, we had a hearty morning breakfast of all you can eat pancakes, bacon, sausage, juices, coffee (all for only $2.00). Then we drove to Mount Rushmore and were able to scale the side of Washington's face with our rock climbing gear. We joined up with a special helicopter tour and viewed beautiful mountains and areas of South Dakota. Then we rode horses for two hours and explored cool areas of the Blackhills Mountains. OHHH AHHHH...wait til you read this. Then we went gold panning in Hill City and discovered so much gold, we could be rich. The swimming pool and hot tub are huge and certainly lots of hot guys (from Cathy's viewpoint)... Let's see, what else... We also have plans for later this week to ride the 1880 steam train, eat filet mignon, fishing at Horsetheft lake that was freshly stocked with Salmon, visit Crazy Horse, and have the opportunity to chisel away some rock from the Crazy Horse Monument."

Quite the comedian! Too bad they are just kidding! Even though they didn't do all the exciting things above, sounds like they are definitely having a good time in "South Dakoter." Wish we were there!

Tracie

Howdy!

Howdy from very warm Utah!

Not much is new around here. Just lots and lots of training for the upcoming MS 150 bike ride. This weekend, we clocked somewhere between 60 to 70 miles. Poor girls, I am sure they are tired of being cramped up in the bike trailer! Otherwise, we are just getting ready for Kyle and Ericka to be out of school for the summer (our poor house!) :(

Dan's parents arrive for a visit this coming Thursday and we are really looking forward to spending some time with them. Since they live in Virginia, we don't get to see them as often as we would like. Ericka just had her last orchestra concert (Pirates of the Caribbean was the grand finale and was fanstastic!) Her dance recital is also coming up this month, as is the red carpet premier of Gracie and Lucy's second professional DVD called "Critter Friends." Kyle plans to take three on-line high school classes this summer to get ahead of graduation. Smart thinking! We are checking into driving school too. Yikes!

Time for a mid-afternoon nap! :) Enjoy what's left of a beautiful weekend!

Tracie