Our Journey To Caitlin

We are adopting, again, from China!

I've created additional pages on a website to document our trip to China, while we are travelling. In the case that we cannot access that site while we are in China, the blog, will be "the backup plan" for posting updates. The new pages for our current adoption can be found here:

http://home.windstream.net/ba_joker/cindex.html

Swon Brothers Concert

We went to see the Swon Brothers perform tonight in Wagoner at the Community Center. Colton Swan made the top 50 in a recent season of American Idol. Zach Swon competed in KOTV's "Gimme the Mike!" show (our local station's version of American Idol) and was beaten in the finals. (undeservingly in my opinion) They have performed together, locally around Muskogee and Wagoner for several years. Each year they put on a Christmas show in Wagoner, and this is the show we went to. Here's a picture of them performing on stage.



Alyssa has always loved music, and seems to enjoy it even more when it's live, much like me. She did lots of clapping and dancing to the music. Here's a picture of her sitting with her cousin and clapping.



Alyssa was wearing her Christmas dress tonight and looking absolutely adorable, as usual. Then they asked if there were any kids in the audience who would like to come on stage and sing. After getting a volunteer, they noticed Alyssa standing up in her dress and said she should come on stage too. The backup singer picked her up and took her on stage with her. We were surprised that she wasn't frightened by this. But, I think she liked the music and being so close to it that she enjoyed it. Here's a picture of her on stage. It was hard to get a good picture with all the mic stands and being behind the sax player, but this one was not too bad.



The concert lasted about 2 1/2 hours and was really good, and for $2 a ticket, there were no complaints.

Pumpkin Patch

On Sunday, we took Alyssa to the pumpkin patch in Bixby. We got several good pictures and she got to see lots of animals, ride a pony, and found a tiny pumpkin she really likes. She wouldn't quite get close enough to feed the goats, but she liked seeing them.

The Last of Our Vacation Pictures, Finally

It's only taken 2 1/2 weeks, but here's the last of the vacation photos.







This pigeon hung around us on the boat during our harbor cruise we took. Alyssa had a good time feeding it some pretzels we had with us.









This ship sailed past us, during our harbor cruise. It was returning to port from a long deployment.



This statue is titled "Unconditional Surrender" and shows a sailor kissing a nurse.



This is a picture of Alyssa riding the merry-go-round at Seaport Village.

Calendar Giveaway

For anyone iterested in winning a cool China calendar, visit Sea Glass & Jade to enter.

Sea World Pictures

Here's a few of our pictures from our visit to Sea World on October 2nd.

San Diego Harbor & Ferry Boat Ride to Coronado

These pictures were from October 1st, when we went down to the harbor and took the ferry boat to Coronado.

San Diego Zoo

It may take me a few days to get all our vacation photos posted that I'm going to post. But, I'll get to them when I can. Here's some pictures from the San Diego Zoo.

More Vacation Pics

Today we went to Los Angeles to see Chinatown. We ate lunch there and did lots of shopping. Here's a few pictures in China town.







Then we went to Hollywood to check out the Walk of Fame.

San Diego Vacation Pictures

Here's a picture shot from the top of the cliff between the ocean and the Solana Beach and Tennis Club. We stayed in a rental in this complex during our vacation.



Here's a picture of Alyssa playing in the ocean.



This is the Point Loma Lighthouse:



Here's downtown San Diego, shot from across the harbor.



Here's some pictures from our visit with Dan, Shannon, & Landree:

A Few More Pictures

In my previous post, I forgot to mention her most often used word that she speaks, uh-oh. She doesn't realize this is only for accidents because she'll use it after throwing something on the ground, on purpose. There's also another word she uses, that were not too crazy about, especially when she's playing with her cousins. MINE

Here's a few more pictures I wanted to post, but didn't have at the time of my last post.



The next 3 pictures were taken around Easter. The first of these 3 is with Natalie, who is also from China. Her parents live in Owasso and travelled right after we did. You can find there blog here.













The last picture is of Alyssa feeding the ducks.