WACAP picnic and dinner with the WRC

Saturday was our adoption agency's annual family day picnic. This is something I have wanted to attend for 8 years and this year when the opportunity arose I knew we were going. We were able to meet up with other members of Lily's travel group there plus people from our agency so it was really extra special.

John, Nancy and Karen with Ariana, Karens youngest daughter

The lady on the left is Elizabeth Rose. She made our referral call with Lily and recognised my voice before I had a chance to speak to her directly. That call was nearly 8 years ago!!! I love our agency. We are not just people to them we are families and they care.
Lunch

After lunch we headed to the centre of Seattle to spend the afternoon. We trolled through a crazy and fun joke store called Archie McPhee's. Honest to goodness I have never in my life seen such weird stuff. They had such a strange assortment of emergency undies and undies in a can that had I known what Sunday had in store for me I would have bought some! Once we left there we went to a park and walked around a bore witness to one of the most peculiar weddings I think I will ever see. It included swords and shields and lots of men in kilts. Nancy thought the groom was the father of the bride cos he was so old. Love is very odd you know. We went to the waters edge and gazed at the Space Needle and all the busy things that happen at a sea port. The girls played and played.

See, we really were in Seattle, that's the Space Needle

The growing group


We had dinner reservations at 5 at Noble Court, a Chinese restaurant of course and were meeting more of our travel group. Driving from the park to restaurant involved passing Bill Gates house. Did you know that when he built his house there was a large Cedar tree in the way and he had it moved 18 inches? No I didn't either. I also didn't know that it took him 5 years to build his amazing house and as a thank you to his neighbours for putting up with all the noise and mess, he paid off their mortgages. I know this now cos John and Nancy are amazing tour guides and they don't miss a fact! I also now know all about Katabatic winds (...LOL that one was for you Maddy!)
We arrived at the restaurant first and met up with more of our fabulous travel group. Now there were 6 kiddies and they were in heaven. They had their own table, all apart from Rosie who got hit by a shy spell. Seeing these girls together again after so many years was priceless. They are so big and so beautiful I haven't seen Laura Li since the day we left China. I've seen loads of photos but not seen her in person. I had never met any of the younger siblings and they had never met Rosie. Lots of catching up to be done and lots of fun to be had. We talked about what we remembered of each other in China and oddly enough everyone remembered me as the nervous one...bwa ha ha. They pegged me right. Some families couldn't make it and we missed them. Karen's oldest daughter, June, the one from our trip, was sick so she missed it all too which was a shame but Rosie and her little sis Ariana became fast friends.

can you tell how much fun they were having?

This one sadly came out blurry but I love it anyway. I call it, 6 kid pile up.

Maddy and her party piece...the skinned chicken. Makes me giggle to just look at it. She taught Lily how to do it too.

5 of the 6, having just a tiny bit of fun!
party hats or princess crowns?
The last time we were together none of us were this relaxed. We were all first time Mummy's
Some of the WRC.

After dinner we noticed a park right behind the restaurant so we let the kids run about for awhile so that we could chat some more. As all good things do, our time together had to come to an end and we said our good byes. We all drove away promising to see each other in China in 2013. I have suggested we all take the same flights, I think it would be brilliant but probably not at all feasible. Wouldn't the kids love it? The other passengers, well not so much.
When we got back to the house I had to pack and bath the kids. I had to leave the house at 3.30am. It was all over so very fast but worth it.

Thank you John, Nancy, Maddy and Sonja for having us. We enjoyed ourselves so much. I hope the cats have come out of hiding. Let us know when you are back this way, our door is always open.