It is hard to believe 10 years have gone by
since we started doing this.
Once a year we drive 2 1/2 hours north
stay at a warkpark hotel for the weekend
with some of Monika's travel group.
This year it was 5 out of 8 families
The Spicy SARS Hunan Girls (age 10)
These 5 girls plus one more are from the same orphanage,
Monika calls them her sorority sisters.
There is also two other kids that were adopted from a different orphanage
and were part of our travel group.
The Moms to the spicy girls
I am so grateful for the relationship I have with them
We have shared so much together
One of the tradition is dipping dots at poolside
This year one of the moms (not me)
was so kind and brought all the girls (including siblings)
dipping dots. What a wonderful treat
Lazy river time.
The girl in front in orange is part
of Katie and Jenny's adoption group.
It was so nice to be able to travel with that family 2 times.
The two oldest girls in the Spicy girls.
they are 2 1/2 months older then the rest of the girls
The train is getting bigger
Monika is front
One of the dads started pulling the girls, He started out with 6 kids, then the other girls discovered it, they joined. Once I took a bunch of pictures, I went down the slide with 2 other moms and we joined in train, I help pull the train. As we continued around the lazy river, some teenagers that we don't know, asked if they could join on. Once everyone was together, the count was between 19-20 people. I ended up with skinned knees as there is a part that gets shallow fast.
Tom and I sure got a workout doing this.
Sorority sisters
The girls lined up, The one in yellow is the oldest of these girls
her sister in the black is the youngest of the spicy girls. The sisters (yellow and black are two years apart)
Katie is the third tallest.
Monika (green) and Sara (bikini) the oldest of the spicy girls have been going back and forth on who is the tallest. It has always been very close. This year, Monika is a tad taller.
It was so nice to have Jade up there, she spend a lot of time in the hot tub doing her extra credit homework reading. She also got into a lot of action.
The girls did rounds and rounds of chicken fight
It was a lot of fun to watch them do this.
This is Monika on top of Katie and Jenny onto of Anna
If two teams not enough
we need to add another team
Erin even got into the fun. She really enjoys the pool vs the waterpark
and with chicken fights, she can feel included with the kids
and 3 teams still not enough, so we added 2 more teams and
a mom joined in too.
Hanging out in the hot tub.
Family picture
A couple of years ago, we started to do a potluck dinner in our room Saturday night. It saves a lot of money on food, it allows us to socialize more and the kids don't have to sit and wait in the restaurant for everyone to finish eating.
Our room has a little nook that the girls like to gather and eat,
it is so nice they all get along so well.
Last year I brought the Wii up and the Just dance games. We have a blast. Both kids and parents play this. Even with just 4 remote, many times there will be more then 4 people dancing to it. Lots of great laughter happens. I am the one in the purple and black.
The girls getting ready to their dance
It is also something that Erin really enjoys doing and she is good at it.
She gets a lot of compliments and the other parents have learned some of the basic signs.
Some of the other girls are also in gymnastics, so it was handstand contest going.
Playing card games
One of the mom introduced an comedian, the girls
enjoy watching it.
I thank the Lord for such an awesome travel group. We are all within 1/2 hour or so from one another except one family who is 3 1/2 hours away. We do the hotel weekend and meet in the middle with the family that lives away from the rest of us.
The girls are shy around each other for about 5 minutes and then it is like they have never been apart. The parents really bond also and there is not awkwardness among us.
Thank you everyone for such a great weekend.
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