11th Briana Day Anniversary

Eleven years ago today, we met our beautiful, spicy Chongqing girl (Jiang Ai Juan) in person for the very first time. She was hot, tired, hungry, confused, sweaty, terrified and covered in bug bites. Her dress was so big that it had a huge knot tied in the back to keep it on. She cried and cried and cried at that administration office - it was so chaotic and loud in there. A mixture of emotions were felt by both Doug and me in those first few moments - we were ecstatic, disoriented, relieved and overwhelmed all at the very same time...

Once we got Briana away from the hustle and bustle of the administration office and got on the bus to head back to the hotel, she ate, calmed down and took a little nap...

Once she awoke, her personality starting coming through and we got to see some of her first smiles...

There aren't enough words to express how much Briana changed our lives for the better. She is growing up so fast and is transforming into an amazing young lady. She has our hearts now and forever. 

Our daughter, our beauty, our princess, our dream come true...

Happy 11th Briana/Family/Gotcha Day Anniversary to us!

For anyone who has not seen our travel video or for those who would like to see it again, here it is (our gotcha moment starts at 9:10)...

Cooking Camp 2018

The second week of June, Briana attended a cooking camp with her friend Mary. Bri decided that she wanted to only attend one camp this summer - and she chose cooking camp.

She and Mary were excited to go on their first day...

The instructor sent a ton of photos after the camp ended so we could see all the fun the kids had that week. They learned so much...

I love seeing how closely Briana was paying attention in each picture...

The kids even got to pick fresh herbs out of the school garden for their recipes...

Briana brought home a few of her finished products from camp one day (all from scratch - baguette, butter, jam and croutons) and everything was seriously delicious...

The kids also made ravioli, pie pastry, ricotta cheese, chocolate chip cookies and pickles.

Bri's jam ~ blueberry and peach (so yummy)...

Bri's pickles...

Bri had such a great week. She was sad it ended, but now we can make the recipes at home on our own!

Busy "Doing" Summer

We have definitely been making the most out of our summer break! It's been a nice mix of busy and not so busy. Bri only has 2.5 weeks left until school starts back up, so we are going to keep making the most of things. I'm always sad when summer break is over. Bri is definitely my summer girl, and this is always her happiest time of the year.

So what has Bri been up to?

Spending lots of time of friends...

Swimming...

Cooking...

Eating...

Shopping...

 Movie watching...

TV watching...

 Rock climbing...

Vacationing...

 Reading...

Blueberry picking...

Video gaming...

Getting new glasses...

And most importantly, catching up on sleep...

As soon as Miss B goes back to school, I'll go into more detail about our summer adventures. Just wanted to pop in and say hi. Hope you all are having a great summer too. I'll be back soon.

I cannot believe my kid is entering 7th grade! Time is going by too fast!

4th Of July (Early) Photo Shoot

Every year around the 4th of July, my friends Amy, Valerie and I get our families together for a get together and I take pictures of our girls (Imerie, Mary Lin and Briana). This year we all had separate plans for the 4th, so we decided to do our photo shoot early (a month early to be exact!). This was our 5th year having the girls dress alike. (We'll have see if they are on board with it next year - heh.)

Matching shirts, jean shorts and flowing hair ~ they are all so beautiful, aren't they? I love our tradition!

Enjoy the pics!!!

Here are the besties over the years (click to make larger)...