Happy Easter

Hppy Birthday Caroline!

Happy Birthday Caroline We just returned from Gymnastic World where Caroline celebrated her 2nd birthday with family and friends. We are all tired. I will post pictures soon.

Caroline Day

One Year ago today Rick and I became parents in a hotel lobby in Nanchang, China. In some ways in seams like we have always had Caroline and in other ways I question where the year went. A year ago Caroline slept in her stroller and watched TV all night. That was after she cried for two hours. It became clear that she loved the stroller and the stroller became our friend. One year later she still loves the stroller and she loves to go but can I count the ways our girl has grown. She loves to laugh, play and talk. She loves her mom and dad and big sister and brother. Tonight we will celebrate Caroline Day with green and pink butterfly cupcakes. I will end tonight the same way I ended a year ago. I will thank God for our answered prayers and I will pray for the mother that left her so she could be ours.

Our Backyard.

Rick and I love to travel and we have found it a little difficult with Caroline being so young. So until she gets a little older we have been trying to enjoy our backyard
We are currently on Spring Break but have really enjoyed the last few weeks. Rick and I have made a real effort to enjoy the local area around us. Both of us grew up in the area but we have discovered lately that our little local area has a lot of fun.
We loved to go and stay on Fifth Avenue in Naples or just go and have lunch. Fifth Avenue has a lot of unique shops. It is within walking distance of the beach. We often go and have lunch and then we walk to the beach.
We are also on a big exercise commitment so we try to at least to incorporate long walks into what we do. So two weeks ago we joined the Naples Botanical Garden. Every week we try to go and enjoy the natural beauty while we walk a few miles. Caroline loves it.

Although we look forward to the day when we can pull our passport back out and travel to someone else’s backyard for now we are enjoying ours.
So here are a few of the spots we have been to lately:

Naples Beach Hotel

http://www.naplesbeachhotel.com/

This is an older hotel in Naples. You can have dinner right on the beach. The sunset is great

http://www.naplesgarden.org/

This where we love to enjoy the gardens and walk

The Inn on Fifth is in a great location to enjoy downtown Naples

We enjoy the beach but really do not go as much as we should.

Fifth Ave is in downtown Naples and is a tourist area. It has lots of great shops and restaurants.

The Asian Garden is one of our favorite stops along our walk.

On Sunday Rick, Caroline and I all went to the Naples Botanical Garden
The Naples Botanical Garden is local tropical gardens with beautifully restored natural habitats. So last week we went to the Corkscrew Swamp and this week we went to the gardens. We are not trying to be tourist in our own town. Although we do live in a tourist town. Rick and I have started the Couch to 5K program So we run every other day on the days that we do not run we try to walk a few miles. So on Sundays we try to take Caroline to interesting places where we can incorporate a long walk and then we go out to a lazy lunch.

http://www.naplesgarden.org/Visiting_the_Garden.aspx

Corkscrew Sanctuary

Some of the Friends we saw a long the way

Hanging with dad

Rick along the way

Helping Nara with Homework

Rick Caroline and I had a great time at Corkscrew Sanctuary http://corkscrew.audubon.org/
Rick and I have started running again so we run every other day. The day we do not run we try to walk a couple of miles. So Sunday we took Caroline and walked all over Corkscrew Sanctuary. It was about three miles. It was fun for all of us.

Catching Up

She loves the park

Nara and her friends

Another great day playing outside.

I have not blogged in a very long time. It has been a busy year for our family. The month of January was full of illness. I think everyone in the family got sick at some point in January.
February has been a nice month. We celebrated Chinese New Year by having dinner at a local restaurant and celebrating with cupcakes when we returned home. Nara turned 12 on February 6th and then Valentine’s Day was here.
Caroline is growing everyday. She learns a new word daily. I love hearing her talk. She has a very sweet voice.
I will try to post more in the next few weeks.