For the past few days, we’ve been in West Virginia for this year’s installment of Chinapalooza. In case you don’t know what that is, it is an annual get together with all of the folks we traveled to China with to adopt. This year’s event was hosted by Julie and Kevin Kler and they did a great job putting together a fun weekend.
I’ve mentioned before that we are very fortunate to have a close group of friends we traveled with that are from the Chicago area. We are equally blessed to have traveled with some great people from across North America as well. People traveled from Canada, North Carolina, Virginia, and Florida and convened at the Kler’s house in Washington PA and at Oglebay Resort just outside of Wheeling for the festivities.
The children are getting more and more familiar with one another and play together very well. Sunday is always a let down, particularly for the girls that pout about not wanting to leave their friends. It is great that they are forming bonds like this but bittersweet that we all live so far apart.
Some of the highlights from this year were attacking the piñata, time at the huge pool at the resort and dancing to the fountain and light show at Oglebay.
While the children play, the fathers convene the "circle of men". Much important business was discussed and wisdom passed on.
The waters sprayed, the 50's music blared, and the children danced like crazy.
We ended our time there by meeting up with Ileana’s brother and his family on the final day and enjoyed a great Italian dinner in Wheeling with them and the Lahsins. A walk across the suspension bridge capped off the entire stay.
Sophie had a great day, posing for pics with Southpaw, the White Sox mascot. She was smiling and giggling the entire time we were with him. She even tried on the lion dance costume and led a small parade with the other girls. 
This is our paddling team, psyched up before our first race. We were all excited to have, for the first year, one of our daughters in the boat. Lucy was our flag catcher and did a fantastic job at the front of the boat. Like last year, someone from each of the Chicago families in our travel group paddled in the boat. 
We were also better prepared with food and "campsite" for our supporters. We got a great turn-out and the event is turning into a great annual party.
After the races, several of the families celebrated together in Chinatown. We sat with the Tollmans and opted for some dim sum.
The Lahsins and Martens had something a little "grander" in mind.
Sophie is turning into quite the photographer. Here are a few of her shots from the day:
Sophie chose the decor for the back yard windows this year. She did a good job and her writing letters backwards came in handy.
This was a weekend of firsts. It was the first weekend we spent the night in a house that I helped design, it was the first weekend that Sophie spent 24 hours with a puppy (named Bernie), and it was the first weekend that Sophie tried her hand at fishing.
We spent the night with our friends at their beautiful (if I do say so myself) cottage at Lake Wisconsin. 
