First Snow - Sledding

We woke up this morning to about 2 inches of snow. This afternoon we hit the drainage ditch in front of our house and had a great time sledding.  Enjoy!!!

Sunday in Atlanta - CNN and MARTA

We slept in a bit on Sunday, checked out of our hotel and went to the CNN Center. We had Dunkin Donuts and a egg nog latte from Starbucks (Jackson thinks we should have lattes all the time now!). After our Inside CNN tour, we did a bit of shopping and then decided to take a ride on the MARTA. We went a few stops, got off and then got back on and went back to CNN Center.

After spending a few more minutes in Centennial Olympic Park, we loaded up the rental car and headed back to the airport, where we flew to Chicago and then on to Wichita, where Dana and Gracie were waiting for us. We got back home at 1:30 Monday morning!!

 

Atlanta - Georgia Aquarium

We’ve made to Atlanta and spent the day at the Georgia Aquarium and Centennial Olympic Park (right next to our hotel).

The pic of Jackson on the car - we just had to take! This is our rental car - a bright red Ford Mustang. We’ve made it back to the hotel room for some rest and then we’ll get something to eat this evening. Tomorrow morning we’ll hit CNN and take a ride on MARTA - Atlanta’s rapid transit subway system.

Fort Benning Graduation

We had a really good day today. Graduation at Ft. Benning was at 10 a.m., then we got to visit with Jake for about 15 minutes. He then had to go to Airborne processing. We then went to the Riverwalk on the Chattahoochie river and then to the Peachtree mall. We picked Jake up at about 6 p.m. and this evening Jake, Zane, Kate, Francie and Jackson are all out on the town with Matt. Leah, Ken and I are relaxing in the hotel.

Jake has to be on base at 10 p.m. and then he has a PT (physical training test) at 4:30 a.m. tomorrow. He’s a bit nervous, as they will cut 40 guys from the Airborne Infantry Training class tomorrow morning - say a prayer for him!!! (UPDATE: Jake passed the PT test this morning and is officially in the Airborne school!!!!)

Matt and Zane will head back tonight after they drop Jake off at the base. Ken & Leah and the girls will head back in the morning and Jackson and I will head back to Atlanta tomorrow. We’re planning on visiting the Georgia Aquarium tomorrow and then CNN on Sunday. We fly back to Wichita on Sunday late afternoon.

Our little soldier boy

Well, we’ve made it to Georgia to watch my nephew Jake graduate from Fort Benning. Jackson and I flew from Wichita to Denver to Atlanta today and then drove to Columbus, Georgia for tomorrow’s big event. Here are a few photos of him and his little/big brother Zane and one with Jackson.

Baa Baa Black Sheep

Here’s a nursery rhyme from Grace.

Happy Halloween!!!

We had a good time trick or treating in Hays on Halloween. Jackson went as Elvis, Gracie as “White Snow” and Dana as the evil Queen. I was the driver and could have fit in as Elvis’ manager.

Pumpkin Patch with the Chinese students

Today we took three of our Chinese “kids” to the pumpkin patch just west of Ellis, Kansas. Peter, Sophia and Jessica joined Dana, Jackson, Grace and me for an afternoon of crop mazes, hay tunnels, rides on the trailer to the pumpkin patch, feeding the goats and overall fall farm fun!

Andy, Jessica, Sophia and Peter on the hay rack, riding to the pumpkin patch!

The kids on the top of the haystack

.

Jackson the fashion model.

Gracie and her boyfriend, Peter.

Hilton Head - will we ever get there?

Well, our day didn’t start out so well, and it hasn’t gotten any better as the hours tick by……

We were getting ready to leave the hotel this morning at about 8:30 a.m. when I decided to check on our flight status. Due to rain/thunder in Chicago, our flight to Chicago was delayed to 1:30. I called United to reschedule our flight to Savannah and we were set.

We got to Chicago at 3 p.m., with plenty of time for our 7 p.m. flight to Savannah. We walked over to the Hilton at the airport for a nice mid-afternoon lunch and then walked back to the concourse for our flight. We checked the screens and saw that they had moved our gate AND our departure time - to 8:15.

A few minutes ago I checked the departure time and now it has been bumped back to 9:15. We’re hoping that we do get to fly out of Chicago tonight and go to Savannah. One bit of good news, our home study is on its way to Hilton Head. Our social worker FedExed the home study this afternoon. Maybe it will get there before we do…….. hmmmm. Will FedEx ship a family of five?????

Andy

Hengshan Girls - Two years later

Here’s a slideshow I’ve put together featuring the nine little girls who were adopted from the Hengshan County Welfare Institute on March 15, 2005. We’re getting ready for our second reunion in just a couple of weeks.

I did the slide layout in Apple’s Keynote (similar to PowerPoint, but much cooler!), added music (China Roses by Enya) and then exported the slideshow to a Quicktime movie. Uploaded the movie to YouTube and there you have it.

If anyone is interested in a custom DVD, my wife Dana and I have a communications consulting business we do “on the side” of our regular jobs and would be happy to do a DVD for anyone (as we are raising money for our adoption of Dang Hui - a little boy in the Shaanxi province).