Fingerprints and Camping

I meant to post this yesterday, but we didn't get home until after 10pm.  We had our fingerprint appts. at 1 and 2pm.  I went first and Brian was able to come right after me.  Even the girls came up.  It all took less than 15 min.  It really is great that we are fingerprinted electronically so we know right away if the prints are good.  When we got home, I shot off a letter to USCIS to have them forward our prints to the US Visa Center and the US Consulate in Guangzhou ASAP. 

I have to work the entire holiday weekend, so Brian decided to take the girls camping at Turtle River State park about 20 miles from home.  This is his first camping trip with just the girls.  I did come out for about 3 hrs. after work.  They were coming home tomorrow.  The biggest part of the adventure is that it's currently raining (10pm).  Hope the tent is waterproof.

LID partners

We met our first family from CCAI that has the same LID as we do. Their names are Tiffany and Michael. They are from Salt Lake City, this is their first child, and they are both RNs. I can’t imagine waiting more than 4 ½ yrs. for your first child. When we signed up for the LID release last month, I was disappointed to learn that the list of people was for the whole month and the LID wasn’t specified. After that I figured that I’d just wait until we were matched to meet others.  It's nice to meet someone ahead of time. 

North Shore Backpacking Trip

Brian and a friend went on a backpacking trip to an area on the Superior Hiking Trail along the north shore near Silver Bay, MN.  He spent two days backpacking about 10 miles the end of April.  They spent one night at a campsite near an inland Bear Lake that is only accessible from the trail.  The trip was filled with beautiful views and was different with no leaves on the trees yet.  Only saw a few hikers on the trail and only one other backpacker made it a very peaceful trip.  We climbed Mt. Trudee, crossed Palisade Creet, and visited Baptism River/Falls.  Attached pictures of this adventure.

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Trail Map 11x17.pdf (907 KB)

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Air Show

We spent most of the day at the Grand Forks Air Force base air show.  The big attraction was the Thunderbirds.  The last air show was 4 yrs. ago and it was very hot.  It was supposed to be warm today, but we got some rain overnight, so that cooled it down.  It was also very windy.  We decided not to go as early to the show as we did last time since we have seen it before.  That was probably a mistake.  It took about 2 hrs. to get from the highway to the actual air show area.  Thankfully we could see alot of the air show while we were driving and waiting in line for the bus.  The air show itself was fun.  Wish the weather wasn't so windy.  After the show was over, we walked to the tahoe (over a mile) and then waited.  And waited, and waited, and waited some more.  We actually didn't move from our parking space for almost an hour.  It was the worst parking mess I have ever been in.  It took over 2 hrs. to leave the base from the time we left the air show area.  Thankfully Mikayla had a book and the rest of us had a Brian's cell phone with a game on it.  Definitely needed some better planning.  Guess we had some good family in the tahoe bonding time.

Fingerprints

I received a call today from CCAI about our fingerprints.  They were just checking to see if we were getting them redone.  They expire on July 16 and 17.  We have an appt. to be refingerprinted next Friday 4/28.  Hopefully everything will be sent to the proper places by the time we travel so nothing is delayed in China.

Planting

Brian is in Montana and I haven't worked all week.  It was pretty lonely around the house.  I had a nice long phone chat with Mindy this AM.  I was so anxious for the girls to come home for school and hoping they didn't have any homework.  When the girls did get home, we headed out to get flowers to plant around the trees in the berm.  I also picked up some corabells to replace the ones that died last year.  I don't remember the cora bells being so expense ($12.98 a plant).  We got the flowers planted by the trees, but the cora bells will have to wait until the weekend.  I also noticed that it looks like one of my hostas has died. 

Evian Song Zimmerman

Today was “Gotcha Day” for Russ and Di. So exciting! It was emotional even for me. Knowing someone who is personally going through this so close to us makes it feel so much more real. Evian is from Guangzhou, so they didn’t have to travel to a different province.  You can follow their blog at http://www.eviansongz.blogspot.com/.

The weather is Grand Forks was beautiful today...upper 70s.  I washed bedding and hung it on the line.  It's supposed to be nice all week.