6 Months as a Family

We were handed a scared Xiao Ran six months ago today. But how quickly he learned to trust. Today our days are full of hugs and smiles. We love you Wade Michael. 

Busy Week

Mike and I slipped away to Morganton last Tuesday night and caught the Blues Brothers revue. A fun night of music even though the audience must have averaged about 70 years old. I got us there a little early but what a nice surprise....there was a quilt show going on in the performing arts building. I thought their yo yo clothespin was a neat way to attach the information card. They were celebrating a 25th anniversary. 

Saturday it was Carrowinds and Treehouse winery then Sunday we helped celebrate a friend's 60th birthday with an afternoon cruise on the Catawba Queen. Wade had fun and became quick friends with Lynn (it didn't hurt that he let him eat his entire piece of birthday cake)

Wades gets an Eye Spy!

All of Wade's quilting Aunts surprised him yesterday with a quilt they had been working on since before we travelled to China. Mrs Goodneedle took a video and I am sure she won't mind if I share. 

http://youtu.be/do5RISsGJ2E

It is so special, has all the peanuts characters...and his name. Quilters are the best....and he will treasure this I know. 

Two cultures....two Holidays

Today was the Chinese holiday of the Harvest Festival where families share "moon cakes". They are pastry with a bean curd filling sometimes also including a hard boiled duck egg to represent the moon. Needless to say our friend Sam had a hard time finding these here...so the boys shared a Moon Pie instead. 

It was also "talk like a pirate" day and if you dress like a pirate at Krispy Kreme you got a free dozen glazed doughnuts   Aaarrrgghhh

As much as I would like to share some Chinese culture with Wade we may have to wait until he is old enough to help us research where/what he wants to learn about. In the mean time he will learn all about what it means to grow up in America...with all our silly materialistic celebrations that are often fueled by lots of sugar.  Pirate Day complete next up....Halloween followed by birthday cake on Nov 1st. 

Joe is home!

Wade got to meet his oldest cousin finally. Joe has been serving a tour in Afghanistan and we are so happy he is back at Ft Bliss now. He will get to move to Va in February so he and Wade will have more chances to get to know each other.  We will try to overlook that he is a Texas Longhorn fan in light of his service to our country!

Wades first non family babysitter

We were more concerned about Caroline than we were Wade!  The two hit it off and we will call her again. Mike and I were able to attend a very nice fundraiser at Sanders Ridge to raise money for a scholarship fund for Meme Brown. 

Camping!

The new pop camper did great. We got rain both nights and we all stayed nice and dry. Wade slept great but he also ran hard all day having cousins to chase him around. We went out on a pontoon boat Sunday afternoon and he enjoyed watching others tube but was scared when I took him on a slow ride. We had fun swimming in the lake but had to make a quick return trip to the marina when a shower set in. 

I only biked about half of the right loop (4.5 miles) at Tsali on Sunday morning. I hadn't been in the woods since March and that along with a doughnut about every day contributed to my poor fitness level. But for just a few moments on the downhills ....my inner she beast came out and reminded me how much fun it is on these trails. They are just very unforgiving. You alternate between climbing from the lakes edge up the banks then to long rolling descents back towards Fontana lake. 

Monday we drove back through Cherokee since I had never been there and picnicked with some Bojangles along a river. We stopped for some caffeine about an hour from home and I got Wade his first Starbucks albeit a kids hot chocolate.