Sandbanks Reunion

 

This weekend we went to Sandbanks for the annual reunion held by our adoption agency.  Sandbanks is a wonderful spot, with shallow water and a beautiful sandy beach.  It is such a treat to see the children and how they have grown and catch up with the parents.  They all seem to be doing so well! Here are a few photos from the day...

 

 There were a number of boys who spent many hours busily collecting seaweed

Here it is!

 

They liked to feel it and throw it too!

 

It was great to see Brendan and Sharon

 And lovely to see Dorinda

Harper was busy building a waterfall in the sand

Here he is posing for his "official" photo

 

 Maya by the water

 The beautiful twins in their matching bathing suits

 Alexander's friend, Daniel, having a snack

 Olivia and Trinh were soooo excited to see each other!

 See what I mean?!!!!

 

 There were many volcanoes, waterfalls and general construction projects happening!

 Lots of kids were in the water, even though it was freeeezing!

 Maya with her new Frozen pail

Big brother Aidan enjoying himself

 Another construction project in process

Exciting News!

I have been looking for a way to give back to Vietnam for a few years now.  I have been following a Canadian charity called the Vietnamese Education Society for some time now and recently decided to make a major donation to one of their school building projects!  The charity is led by a professor who has been running the organization in her spare time for the past ten years. She also has an adopted daughter from Vietnam.   She typically builds one school per year, generally a kindergarten or primary school in a rural area where the need is greatest.  All donated funds go to the project and she is very good about posting photos to show that the schools actually get built.  She is also soliciting funds for scholarships for girls living in the border regions who are at risk of trafficking.  If you are looking for a worthwhile cause to support, I encourage you to check out the Vietnamese Education Society! Here is another link to a description of the kindergarten I'm helping to build and a description of the scholarship program.  Also, check out this video.

Maya Turns 6!

On April 16, Maya turned six years old.  She has now been in our family for five years.  The time has flown!  We had a birthday dinner for her on her actual birthday and then a gymnastics party with her classmates.  She could hardly wait for her party!

 

 

 

 Here she is with the cupcakes she helped make.  She is dressed in her party dress (aka the princess dress).  I think she looks so cute here!

 She was excited to get a Frozen lego kit.  I later found out she had no trouble putting it together because she had already watched YouTube videos on it!

She got one of her (and our) favourite books... Ivy and Bean!

Thanks for the Clementine books, Julia!  I love to read!

 Maya's big gift was a pink scooter

 Here she is trying it out

 She had a gymnastics birthday party and many of her classmates attended

 Here is Maya, with good friend Gracie and her sister Olivia.  Do you get the feeling they get up to a bit of mischief?

 The gym had a climbing wall that all enjoyed

 Here's Maya near the top

 Cheers!

 Maya in front of her "My Little Pony" cake

 

 

 Maya with all her friends

Aidan Turns 12!

It seems like only yesterday that Aidan turned 11, but six weeks ago he turned 12.  We had a small dinner for him on his actual birthday and then a laser tag party for him and his classmates in April.  Here are a few photos from his festivities:

 

 

 

 

A delicious homemade orange vegan cake with chocolate icing

 

Aidan opening his cards

Thanks for the books, Julia!  You always pick one I like!

 

He got a gigantic water gun (I ordered it on-line and had no idea how huge it was!)

His big gift was a new bike

At laser quest with his friends (I think this will be his last big party, of course we said this two years ago also )

Enjoying pizza with his friends and cousins

 

 

Maui - Wow-i!

I just noticed that it's been 6 months since my last post.  All has been well here.   The winter was busy with skiing every Sunday. It was also very, very cold; so not that comfortable for skiing.  We were so looking forward to our trip to Hawaii.  And it did not disappoint!  We rented a lovely condo in the south Kihei area of Maui.  We enjoyed the beautiful beach, a luau, snorkeling the Molokini crater (an underwater volcano), visiting the aquarium, whale watching, visiting the magnificent Haleakala volcano and the drive to Hana through the rainforest (one of my favourites).  Here are some photos from our trip.....

The view from the lanai of our condo

 The pool, which Maya enjoyed

One of many gorgeous sunsets

Aidan turned 12 on our first full day there. Mike made him swordfish for dinner.

Feeding of the stingrays at the aquarium

Getting ready to go whale watching

A whale breaching.  We could also see whales and sea turtles from our condo balcony.

 

Aidan sitting on volcanic rock on the beach

 

My favourite shot of Maya

Aidan enjoyed the boogie board

 

 Here we are at the top of Haleakala, the inactive volcano

 A family shot.  The drive to the top was somewhat scary - lots of switchbacks and no guardrails.

 

We stayed for sunset and then did the scary drive down in the dark without streetlights!

 

We also drove the Road to Hana, which was much less scary and very lush.  On this side of the island there is more rain and there is rainforest.

The family in front of Twin Falls

 Here you get a sense of the lush vegetation.

We did a brief hike in the bamboo forest

A typical view of the ocean from the roadway

We also toured a lava tube - a hollow cave formed by lava

Here we are inside the lave tube

 Our last stop was the black sand beach

Maya, Mike, and Aidan wading in

 

 

We also did some snorkeling near a reef off the beach where we were staying

And Aidan and I did a boat trip to the sunken volcano of Molokini to snorkel the crater.  We also went snorkeling with some very large green sea turtles. 

Another neat trip we did was to go canoeing in a traditional Hawaiian outrigger canoe

We learned some Hawaiian paddling chants but Maya was not impressed!

The family in front of the outrigger canoe.

 

One of the fun things we did was attend a luau

Here is Maya with her lei

Unearthing of a pig for dinner

The lively dancers

 They even got the kids on stage to do the hula.  Aidan really worked it!