Our Anhui province adoption group all agreed to reunite in San Diego. Auntie Ellen was our travel coordinator and she found a great hotel in a great location. We rented the breakfast room for our first night to have a party!

Not everyone had arrived yet, but this is a preliminary group shot of the girls: Audrey, Olivia, Sarah J., Isabella, Sarah C. and Aryn.

Auntie Ellen got snacks and dinner for us and even provided arts and crafts for the girls. She thinks of everything! Audrey is Aryn’s jie jie and finishes in a flash.

Ranata helps Olivia out and Alex (Esther’s jie jie) captures the moment.

Bella and Sarah can do it on their own, so they think…

Aryn is the youngest of all the girls and needs a bit of assitance from Auntie Ellen.

Aryn and Bella enjoyed their carrots.

Esther went for the fruit salad.

More girls join the bunch: Esther and Alex. The girls exchanged fabulous gifts. Thank you, everyone, for your thoughtfulness!

Our first excursion was the San Diego Zoo. We took the bus tour first to get an overview of the zoo and got a great view of the animals. It’s lunchtime for the camel.

Ha, ha! Is that a hyena?

Giraffes…one of Bella’s favorites.

I don’t think we have a rhinoceros at our zoo at home.

Butterfly girls! Bella above and Sarah J. and Olivia below.

Billie got right into the petting zoo. Bella prefers to feed from distance.

Sarah J. and Aryn are trying to determine if peacocks like popcorn.

It’s Grandma, Becky and Mark. Did they ditch their kids?

Polar bears in San Diego?

Orangutans, too!

Pretty in pink: Billie, Bella, Audrey, Markie and Sarah C.

Here comes the stroller brigade! That’s Audrey and Markie in the back and Aryn and Bella in the front. I believe this was the only time during the entire trip that Bella was in a stroller - and it a fleeting moment.

We had to stand in line to see the pandas. It moved pretty quickly, though. Then we had to be “vewy vewy quiet” while viewing them.

Billie LOVED sitting in her stroller. What’s your secret, Becky?

We went back for a close-up of the giraffes and elephants. The giraffe at the top is a mommy-to-be!

It was quite a challenge getting all the girls together on the “red couch.”

Here’s the original taken in Guangzhou, China, July 2007. My, how they’ve grown!

A smaller group with Olivia, Bella and Billie was more manageable. Is she eating again? Or still?

The next day, we went to Seaworld…

…and saw Shamu.

Aryn tried to charm her way out of her stroller - who could resist?…

…she even offered to do my hair.

Bella thought this ride looked like a lot of fun. She was sooo disappointed that she was not tall enough to ride - even tried to tip-toe at the measuring sign. Aunties Ellen, Rebecca and the big sisters had a wild ride!

There were all kinds of fish in the aquarium.

We went to the Elmo 3D movie, so the girls got ready with their special glasses on…and off.

We fed the flamingos.

Finally, the girls got to ride the rides. We’re waving from the back (with the pink baseball cap).

Bella was the only one who dared to try the water games - it was getting cold and time to go. Bye-bye, Seaworld, and zai jian, Bella’s sisters…until next time…

On to Carlsbad…It was Bella’s and my first visit to the Four Seasons. They were very kid-friendly and offered her a toy at the front desk. They greeted us with all sorts of goodies in our room! There was a fruit and chesse platter for Sis and me and a cupcake and candy (great!) for Bella.

She also got a froggie, little slippers and little bathrobe!

Her favorite features were the stepstool in the bathroom…

…and a special message on the bathtub!

What’s with the attitude? The Four Seasons not good enough for you?

She blew bubbles on our balcony overlooking Carlsbad.

Since our stay was complimentary, we splurged on the breakfast buffet. Bella liked the rooster, being one (year of the rooster) herself.

They had the perfect 1.5 foot deep pool for her.

I LOVED the little bathrobe…sooo cute!

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 23rd, 2009 at 10:28 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.